More information : [Armstrong Whitworth Whitley Mk V standard heavy night bomber; 1 of a batch of 150 delivered between August and December 1940 to Contract No. 38599/39]. Ditched short of fuel and with radio u/s 8 miles E of North Shields, Northumberland, 6.11.1940 on return from Turin. (1)
`Wednesday 6th November 1940, 0800hrs. Whitley ditched at 1910 hours the previous evening. P/O H H Miller in Whitley Mk I [sic] T4151 KN-N, together with 7 other aircraft of 77 Sqn had taken off from RAF Newmarket to attack the Fiat Motor Works at Turin, Italy. All aircraft encountered severe icing conditions, 7 returning to base with their bombs intact as they found it impossible to gain enough height to cross the Alps. P/O Miller and his crew reached the target with great difficulty and bombed the factory...
`On the return journey after almost 13 hours in the air, they were short of fuel, their wireless was unserviceable, and they were uncertain of their position. Thinking they had missed the English coastline and were flying out into the open sea, they decided to ditch near a ship which they had sighted near a gap in the clouds. It was when they were picked up by the crew of a local steamer and brought to safety, that they realised the aircraft had ditched just 8 miles east of North Shields.
`Crew: P/O H H Miller, pilot; Sgt Gilbert, 2nd pilot; Sgt Thorpe, Ops; Sgt Rurlston, W/Op - A/G; Sgt Bingham, W/Op - A/G. All the crew were uninjured.
`Note: The author has two crankshafts and prop hubs, believed to be from this aircraft, that were recovered by a fishing boat. One is now on show in the Bamburgh Castle Aviation Artefacts Museum.' (2)
NB: This craft appears more likely to have been a Mk V rather than a Mk I; the Mk I was largely obsolete by 1939, while the Mk V was produced from 1939 to 1943. (3)
Builder: Armstrong Whitworth (1)
Where Built: Baginton (1)
Delivered: 1940 (1)
Propulsion: 2 x Rolls-Royce Merlin X inline piston engines (3)
HP: each engine 1145hp (3)
Armament: 0.303in (7.7mm) gun in nose and tail turret; maximum bomb load 7000lb, normally comprising 14 x 500lb bombs (3)
Crew: 5 (2)
Unit: 58/77 (1)(2)
Date of Loss Qualifier: A
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