I've not got an exact location for the crash of the Wellington bomber at Tickhill, but here are the details that I have found out.
The aircraft belonged to 25 Operational Training Unit (OTU). This unit was formed on the 1st of March 1941 at Finningley and flew Handley Page Hampden aircraft. A satellite airfield for 25 OTU came into use at Balderton on the 11th of June 1941. The satellite airfield changed from Balderton to Bircotes on the 14th of November 1941. From April 1942 the unit started to convert to Vickers' Wellington aircraft. At around this, same time Vickers-Armstrong’s Chester aircraft factory had started to build a batch of six hundred Wellington Mk III. A total of thirty six of these new aircraft arrived at Finningley over the next few months. Several of these aircraft were lost while serving with the unit before 25 OTU was disbanded on the 1st of February 1943. The remaining aircraft were transferred to other OTUs.
The aircraft involved in the Tickhill crash was one of the new Wellington Mkllls, number BJ976 (Code letter either "PP-G" or "ZP-G") and it looks as though it was the sixteenth of the batch of thirty six to arrive at Finningley.
BJ976 took off from Bircotes at 00:40 on the 18th of September 1942 for night time bombing
practice. The four crew members who flew in it that night were:
The Pilot, 22 year old, Sergeant 1165282 George Nicol, of Holton Heath, Dorset.
The Navigator, 31 year old, Sergeant 1381154 Wilfred Bakes, of Middleton, Ilkley, Yorkshire
The Air Bomber, 23 year old, Sergeant 1383216 John Charles Dalton, of Lambeth
The Wireless Operator/ Air-Gunner. 32 year old Sergeant Percy Benjamin-Elliott Woodham,
of Deal, Kent.
A little confusion then arises as to what happened next. One source I have looked at shows the aircraft as overshooting at Bircotes and crashing. Another report reads as follows: At around 01:30, reportedly having just taken off from Bircotes, it climbed to between 200 and 300 feet. The aircraft flew over the small spur of North Nottinghamshire and crashed just inside the county of Yorkshire at Tickhill.
My assumption is that reading between the lines it seems as though BJ976 was coming in to land at Bircotes at 01:30 and for whatever reason had to pull up at the last the last moment. It managed to climb between two and three hundred feet, before crashing at Tickhill.
All the aircrew were killed.
George Nicol is buried in Wareham cemetery, Dorset. Wilfred Bakes is buried in Shipley (Nab Wood) Cemetery. John Dalton is buried in Lambeth Cemetery, London. Percy Woodham is buried in the Extension to Finningley St. Oswald Churchyard.
I know the crash details are a bit vague, but I hope it helps a bit.
