This is the story of four RAF crew members who all survived after crashing four miles South of Kendal in 1942 during the Second World War.

(The information provided has come from the account of the event written by Eric Farrington Birchall, former Headmaster of Forton County Primary School).

The Westmorland Gazette:

Vin Wood, pilot of the Bristol Beaufort Torpedo Bomber L9874 and his crew, Norman Sparks, Navigator, Charlie Bladen and Birchall - both wireless operators/air gunners departed from Leuchars, Fife, Scotland at 15:20 PM on December 29 1941.

They were tasked with a routine patrol off the Norwegian Coast in what was their first ever night operation.

In his account, Birchall described how the take-off was uneventful, but that the weather conditions were ‘quite dismal’.

The crew completed their patrol and set course back to Scotland – bombs still hanging where they were put by the Leuchars armourers.

As the crew started beginning to anticipate the aroma of their traditional end of operation bacon and eggs, without warning they lost all power.

Despite the complete electrical failure, they flew on. Wood decided the best course of action would be to climb to 6,000 feet above the clouds against the strong Northerly wind fore to get into a clear patch.

By now, the Beaufort L9874 was becoming perilously close to the end of its fuel with being in the air for five and a half hours.

Wood asked if they would like to bail out, but that would have left the problem of where the plane would finally come to earth – complete with bombs. They had to be jettisoned and were eventually dumped into a large reservoir.

A decision then had to be made quickly on where to make the forced landing. Wood spotted an empty, narrow walled road and made the approach at 21:15 PM to what was the A684 Kendal to Sedburgh and Hawes Main Highway, just yards from a cottage on the opposite side.

Birchall describes how the crew braced themselves, but nothing could have prepared him for the impact. With a deafening sound, the aircraft spun, bounded, crashed and roared endlessly. Dust, stores and bits of metal flew around like hail and then there was silence.

Suddenly a voice was heard: ‘Is everyone alright?’ The crew then miraculously clambered out and surveyed the debris. The port wing and engine had gone, the starboard wing pointed to the sky and the tail unit had been torn off.

The crash had caused the air-raid sirens to be sounded and the four were hustled off to a prisoner of war camp before they realised they too were R.A.F. Soon after, they were hailed and treated like heroes.

The crew never found out what caused the Beaufort L9874 electrical failure.

Eric Farrington Birchall born in Leigh, Lancaster in 1921 passed away in 2015.