A B-17G of the same bomb group as the one on Great
Whernside.
B-17G 44-8683 Great Whernside 18th May 1945
This aircraft was on a routine training flight from Knettishall,Suffolk,when in dense cloud & off course it crashed into Great Whernside nr Kettlewell,West Yorkshire on 17th May 1945 killing all 5 crew on board.
Pilot: 1/Lt Harry Cole. Co-Pilot: 2/Lt Vince Fergusson. Navigator:2/Lt James Young. Engineer: Sgt Hoyt Dixon. Radio Op:S/Sgt Dario Battista.
A more detailed story on this B-17 can be found in Vol 1 of `Hell On High Ground` (See books page for details)
B-17 44-8683 Great Whernside 49 years on.
Jim Chatterton at the B-17 Crash site in 1994,Where
only a few sparse remains of 44-8683 lay on the surface
of this relatively isolated West Yorkshire hillside.
Crash Site Revisited
A second visit was made to the crash site in 1998,where a survey found the scene pretty much the same as four years ago, with a small area of scattered alloy, and one of the undercarriage retractor arms.
Lt Harry Cole`s headstone,Cambridge.
Cambridge American Military Cemetery,The final resting
B-17 44-8683 Yorks
