HOW IT ALL BEGAN

Originally posted 5th Feb 2008

Around about September 2007, I heard the story of a Wellington bomber that crashed just outside the village where I was born. Having a love for local history, I thought it would be a nice little project to occupy my time, soI started investigating. It was incredibly difficult to find any really concrete information on either the crash or the crew.During the course of my research, I made contact with a man who was doing precisely the same and who was having the same sort of trouble.By an incredible coincidence I was looking for an aircraft that crashed in County Durham and he was looking for one that crashed near his home village in West Yorkshire. Both crews survived, both crashes were accidents rather than being caused by enemy action and both aircraft belonged to 304 Squadron and were crewed by Silesian Poles. Both aircraft were Mk 1c Vickers Wellington Bombers They were R1268 NZ-T which crashed near West Edmondsley Farm, 5 miles north west of Durham and R1413 NZ-? which crashed at Micklefield near Leeds. More detailed information will appear in subsequent postings.We have both had considerable help from various experts and we have both been stonewalled by so called experts who had no knowledge of the incidents. Between us, the two talented amateurs have outdone those experts and found out a great deal! We are continuing to build on our knowledge and anyone with any information can post a message here or e-mail me