A researcher into wartime air crashes is investigating an alleged incident on Stanbury Moor nearly 60 years ago.

Jeffrey Lord believes a German bomber came down around 1942 after becoming lost or crippled following a raid on Liverpool.

Extensive inquiries have so far drawn a blank and now Mr Lord - who lives at Todmorden - hopes Keighley News readers may be able to help.

He remembers as a young boy seeing the stricken Heinkel pass low over the roof of his childhood home at Cliviger, Lancashire.

"It was so low I could clearly see the face of the nose gunner who looked straight into my eyes," says Mr Lord, now 66.

"It was an eerie feeling, but as you can imagine it was an exciting experience for a young boy.

"The plane eventually came down on Stanbury Moor and the crew was involved in an armed stand-off with local police before surrendering.

"I have been trying to get more information about the incident but without success."

Local historian and Keighley News columnist Ian Dewhirst says he has no knowledge of the crash, but he adds that details could have been concealed due to strict wartime censorship.

He has written at least three articles for the KN on the subject of Second World War plane crashes.

Mr Dewhirst says: "All the local aircraft crashes I have come across were British, albeit some with Polish or Canadian crews.

"The only German crash I know of was a bomber which crashed at Idle, Bradford, on the night of May 4/May 5 1941. It seems a string of incendiaries was dropped on Haworth Moor on 21 December 1940.

"All the same, the censorship of wartime events means that much could have happened without being generally known about."

Anyone able to help Mr Lord is asked to write to him at Vale House, 35 Wellington Road, Todmorden OL14 5HN.

Converted for the new archive on 30 June 2000. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.