Wellington Mk.IC W5719

Crew / Passengers	Rank - if applicable	Position e.g. Pilot	Status
Percival Harold Charles Parrot	Sergeant	Pilot	Killed
Joseph Arthur Haswell	Sergeant	2nd Pilot	Killed
Jack Douglas Evelle	Sergeant RCAF	Observer	Killed
Frederick Kenneth Webber	Sergeant	Wireless Operator	Killed
Dennis Aloysius Monk	Sergeant	Air Gunner	Killed
Earl Tilley	Sergeant RCAF	Air Gunner	Injured

No.150 Squadron, which in the summer of 1941 had recently moved to RAF Snaith in Yorkshire, was ordered to provide 8 Wellington aircraft for a planned raid against the German city of Koln (Cologne) for the night of the 30th / 31st July. The weather in the UK on the night of the 30th July 1941 was poor with Snaith reporting low cloud and rain until about 22:30 allowing the first of their aircraft, W5719, to take off at 23.25. The last of the flight took off a little over 40 minutes later.

The target area was also covered by cloud and two elected to bomb secondary targets, one bombing the docks at Dunkirk and the other an airfield at Wevelgam near Kortrijk in north western Belguim. Five other crews bombed the Koln area where the glow of a large fire was visible through the clouds, they used this as their target point.

The crew of W5719 were returning to Snaith having dropped their bombs when at 04:05 the aircraft struck Upper Tor and was completely destroyed. Sgt Tilley, occupying the rear turret survived when his turret was flung clear of the wreck though he was hospitalised suffering from the effects of shock and concussion.

The two aircraft whose crews reported bombing targets near to the Channel returned to Snaith around 03:30 with the aircraft which bombed Koln returning 3 hours later, this possibly suggests that the crew of W5719 had also bombed an alternative target deeper into the European mainland..

A photo of the site from 2009, most of the remaining parts have now been gathered up into a small pile on the edge of the scar.

Looking up hill from just below where the previous photograph was taken, on the rock face behind is a small memorial plaque.

This photograph shows the crash site of W5719 from the opposite side of the valley.

Peak District Air Accident Research

Wellington Mk.IC W5719 / JN-S of No.150 Squadron RAF crashed 31st July 1941 below Upper Tor, near Edale whilst returning to Snaith in Yorkshire from a raid on Koln.