To the rescue

It was three weeks ago when we first marked the 60th anniversary of the Halifax aircraft from RAF Linton-on-Ouse plunging into Nunthorpe Grove on March 5, 1945. Since then, several readers who witnessed the disaster, or whose family were involved, have come forward.

Last week we told three of their stories. Today's memories begin with those of June Tait, whose father, Richard Hardcastle, was in the thick of things.

Mrs Tait was eight years old and lived in Clement Street, close to Nunthorpe Grove when the plane came down.

"I remember things falling out of the sky, but we didn't know where our father was."

Her dad, known as "plumber Dick", was employed by Shouksmith's on Micklegate.

He was working on Southlands Methodist Church roof when the bomber, weighed down by ice, plunged into South Bank.

"He went to see if he could help," says Mrs Tait. Only one member of the crew survived, after the blast from the crash forced open his parachute, Pilot Officer John Low. Mrs Tait's father found him hanging from a shed by his chute.

"He realised they would have to get someone to help lift him off the roof. He went to find an ambulance.

"There was an explosion, because there were bombs on board, and fuel in the street ignited. And a manhole cover took my father's leg off."

Mr Hardcastle spent a long time recovering in the York County Hospital, alongside the surviving 426 Squadron crewman Mr Low, who had multiple injuries.

Mrs Tait's father talked little about the accident. But the family kept in touch with Mr Low. He fell in love with the hospital nurse who treated him, who was from Bridlington, and they married in York. Eventually they returned to his native Canada.

Between leaving York hospital and leaving the country he convalesced at Mrs Tait's grandmother Lily Hardcastle's home in Bishopthorpe Road. Mr Low's mother wrote to her in April 1945 to thank her for looking after him.

In 1992, a year after her father's death, Mrs Tait, who lives in Copmanthorpe, planned a holiday in the United States and contacted Mr Low to let him know. He made a special journey to meet her at her Florida hotel.

"We had a lovely two or three hours together. He had wonderful stories, and although he couldn't move around very much, he said he was lucky to be alive and carried on with life."

He died in 1995, 50 years after the crash.

Bob Morley was a Scarcroft School pupil of ten years old when the bomber came down. He lived in East Mount Road.

"We were playing in the back garden. We heard the bomber and looked up - they were painted black underneath because they were night bombers," he recalls.

"As it flew over, the tail fell off. There was a bit of a thud. We knew it had crashed."

Servicemen were billeted in various hotels in the area and rushed to help.

"It was like a river of khaki running along the road," Mr Morley says. He went too, with his sister, and saw the bomber burning furiously.

Then there was an explosion: not a bomb going off, he says, but the fuel catching light.

"We were that close to it, we never heard the bang. The explosion was vivid. The whole world lit up - it was like a sunset, this huge orange ball.

"A serviceman threw himself across us and held us down.

"When we sat up, the serviceman said 'I think you two had better go home now."

On leave from active service with the Reconnaissance Corps in Italy, Patrick McGrath, now 82, was on the scene quickly.

With another soldier, he helped remove a sideboard from a house that was on fire at the request of the woman who lived there.

"As we came through the front door, a bomb went off and peppered the sideboard - and the soldier on the other end."

A military policeman then took Mr McGrath, now living in Staithes, to task for being improperly dressed, because his beret had been blown off in the blast.

"I said, 'it's down there. Are you going to fetch it?'"

Because the beret was next to an unexploded bomb, the officer declined his invitation.

"My memories of the crash was that it happened around teatime," writes reader Gerald Curry.

"We were playing football on the grammar school fields behind Nunthorpe Grove and had to abandon the game.

"The house hit was that of the Bycroft family. Neville, now 70-plus, was out delivering papers, but he now trains racehorses at Brawsby."

Ken Wright also witnessed the accident. "Being a 16-year-old apprentice, I was working outside at York Carriageworks," he writes from Sherwood Grove, Acomb.

"Suddenly the engine note of this plane changed. Looking up, I saw the aircraft dropping in height, then the wing fell off. The plane dived then came the explosion. I later found the site of the crash just as depicted in the Evening Press photograph."

Our picture last week showing a view of Linton airbase from a Lancaster aircraft set Peter Pink, of Bootham Crescent, investigating.

"It is interesting to note that the Lancaster shown had 'radial engines' and not the usual 'in line' engines on normal Lancasters," writes Mr Pink.

"Rolls Royce Merlins were being produced in the USA at that time and there was a fear that they wouldn't be available in the quantities required.

"It was decided to put Bristol Hercules VI or XVI radial engines on Lancasters although these proved to be not as successful as the Merlins.

"The Lancaster shown in your article was probably a Mark II belonging to a 426 Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force based at Linton-on-Ouse."

Do you remember VE Day?

A HAPPIER 60th anniversary is coming up. On May 8 Britain will celebrate six decades since VE Day.

We are planning a supplement to mark the occasion, and want to fill it full of local memories of the event. Where were you when peace was declared? How did you celebrate?

There were street parties, games, souvenirs, church services, and school events. We want to hear about the lot.

We are also looking for photographs of the big day.

If you can help, please write to Chris Titley at The Evening Press, 76-86 Walmgate, York YO1 9YN, email chris.titley@ycp.co.uk or telephone (01904) 653051 ext 337.

Updated: 09:11 Monday, March 14, 2005