He and his wife were quick to arrive at the site when they heard the explosion, with the pilot Lieutenant Kurt Hanning dying in the arms of Mrs Miller, after all three others of the four-man crew had been killed in the crash.

[5] However, the discovery of a fifth body five days later by Mr Miller spawned several local conspiracy theories, including that of a top secret spy mission, and that the pilot had given his girlfriend a joy ride over England.

In reality, it was discovered that a ground crewman, E H Reidel, took an illegal joy ride when he was reported AWOL from his base the next day.

As part of Operation Gisela, a force of 200 Ju 88s of the Luftwaffe Night Fighter Destroyer Group flew at wave top height, making landfall at around midnight between the Thames estuary and North Yorkshire, undetected by radar.

[5][6] This Ju 88, piloted by 25-year-old Sgt Heinrich Conze, started the night well by intercepting a Lancaster over Langworth and shooting it down.

Not realising that there were telegraph poles and wires at the side of the road, the plane hit them and then collided with the car, throwing it two fields over.

[8][9] As with the rest of the British Isles, Scampton has a temperate oceanic climate (Köppen: Cfb) with cool summers and mild winters.

The nearest official Met Office weather station for which online records are available is at RAF Scampton, less than 5 km (3 mi) to the south of the town centre.

The absolute minimum temperature of −15.6 °C (3.9 °F) was recorded on 7 December 2010 at RAF Scampton, during the record-breaking winter of 2010–11 in Great Britain and Ireland.

Daylight saving time (DST) is observed in Scampton, starting in the spring, lasting about 7 months, and ending in the autumn.