The Lancaster crash at Thurnby Lodge.

    In 1944/5 although I was a pupil at the City Boy’s I had joined the Wyggeston Boys branch of the ATC (Air Training Cadets) with two of my friends Peter Ball and Mich Cockcroft.

    On the 8th April 1945 we were taken up in a Dakota aircraft. This was a plane for dropping parachutists and the large door at the side was missing. I can remember well keeping clear of the hole!!

    I cannot remember where we flew from but it must have been Stoughton as we had gone there on our bicycles. When we were returning to land the pilot saw that a Lancaster bomber had crashed below us and flew over for us to see. We identified where it was and on landing we jumped on our bikes and raced to the crash. When we got there armed RAF personnel were guarding the site, but because we were in uniform and told them that we had seen the crash from the air they let us look round the scattered crash site.

    Looking back it was a bit morbid


By Geoff Phillips
Seamer, Middlesbrough