Ex-paratrooper in charity walk to WW2 bomber crash site

An ex-paratrooper with blood cancer is doing a charity walk to the site where a Halifax bomber crashed in World War Two.

Jeffrey Long will trek 11 miles (17km) from RAF Linton-on-Ouse to the street in York where the aircraft crashed in 1945, killing 11 people.

It is part of a challenge he has set to walk 100 miles to raise funds for the RNLI and the RAF Benevolent Fund.

The 88-year-old said he wanted to give something back to the RAF.

Mr Long, from Bingley, who injured in his back in a parachute jump in 1954, will lay a wooden cross at the site in Nunthorpe Grove where the Halifax crashed.

The war veteran will be joined at the site by Lord Mayor of York, councillor Janet Looker.

He said: "As a paratrooper I was always thankful to the RAF for providing decent aircraft for us to jump out of.

"This is my way of giving something back."

The aircraft was among a group of bombers from RAF Linton-on-Ouse which took off on a mission to raid the German city of Chemnitz.

But the aircraft were covered in ice and three crashed soon after take-off, including the one that came down in Nunthorpe Grove.

Mr Long began fundraising 11 years ago and has previously walked 650 miles from London to Lausanne in Switzerland wearing a 30kg backpack, as well as completing the Three Peaks Challenge.

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