Halifax LL505 came to grief on Great Carrs in the Lake District on the night of 22nd October 1944 whilst on a night navigation exercise from Topcliffe in Yorkshire.
Its crew; seven Canadians and one Scot, encountered very thick cloud whilst over the north-west of England, they circled the aircraft hoping the cloud would clear but this
made them even more lost. The pilot then descended so the navigator could get a visual fix on the ground but by this stage it was flying too low in the heart of the Lakes.
In a few seconds the aircraft hit the top of Great Carrs and crashed killing all on board. The wreckage partly caught fire but was almost intact when found by rescuers.
As the RAF crash team could not remove it from the site because of its size and location it was broken into movable sized peices and, because if left where it was then
other aircraft flying overhead would report it, it was pushed off the side of the mountain into Broad Slack, where much of it remains today.
Pilot - F/O John A Johnston RCAF (C/29783), aged 27, of Carp, Ontario, Canada. Buried Blacon Cemetery, Chester.
Navigator - F/O Francis A Bell RCAF (J/39888), aged 33, of Hampton, New Brunswick, Canada. Buried Blacon Cemetery, Chester.
Bomb Aimer - P/O Robert N Whitley RCAF (J/38243), aged 20, of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Buried Blacon Cemetery, Chester.
Flight Engineer - Sgt Harvey E Pyche RCAF (R/225354), aged 21, of New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, Canada. Buried Blacon Cemetery,Chester.
Flight Engineer - Sgt William B Ferguson RAFVR (1826294), aged 19, of Caldercruix. Buried New Monkland Cemetery, Lanarkshire, Scotland.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Calvin G Whittingstall RCAF (R/198207), aged 20, of Mount Dennis, Ontario, Canada. Buried Blacon Cemetery, Chester.
Air Gunner - Sgt Donald F Titt RCAF (R/271259), aged 19, of Rockwood, Ontario, Canada. Buried Blacon Cemetery, Chester.
Air Gunner - Sgt George Riddoch RCAF (R/259938), aged 20, of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada. Buried Blacon Cemetery, Chester.
Many of the Canadian members of this crew, not present is the Scot, Sgt Ferguson, but he may well have not been a regular member of the crew.
Photograph found outside the Ruskin Museum in Coniston.
Headstones of five of the crew at Chester's Blacon Cemetery. Thanks to air historian Mr Alan Clark for these photos.
Robert Whitley was born on 19th July 1924 in Regina and enlisted there on 13th October 1942. He was a graduate of Connaught
school and Central collegiate and was working as a clerk for Imperial Oil when he enlisted. His brother John also served in the RCAF.
Sgt Ferguson's Grave at New Monklands Cemetery, Airdrie. He is buried with his brother. My thanks to the cemetery staff for their help in locating his grave.
This crash site is possibly the most visited site in Britain due to the amount of wreckage there. I visited Broad Slack, where the wreckage
was pushed into, in June 2002 with school friend Mr Ben Thompson. The two large wing/main spar sections were still on the scree slopes along
with part of the fuselage and other large peices then and further broken and smaller sections of the aircraft were to be found in the scree.
We found wreckage scattered down the hillside for a good half a mile. A Rolls Royce Merlin engine lies in a stream with two of the aircraft's
four propeller bosses nearby. As Ben had visited the cairn and the memorial at the top of Great Carrs a few years previous we didn't go to
the top of the scree to pay our respects that day and I waited for another visit to the area for this. Will Lund and myself, and what became
my wife Caroline (on her first outing) visited the memorial at the top of Great Carrs in May 2003 and we then revisted the remains in Broad
Slack and photographed them using Will's first digital camera. The photographs in the higher section of this webpage show wreckage in the
1970s and 1980s prior to the removal of the engines and fuselage. The lower ones show the site as it was in the mid 2000's.
Two of the Merlin's were removed from the site afew years ago by an Odiham-based Chinnock helicopter to be placed in museums, one is at the
Ruskin Museum in nearby Coniston along with another propeller boss and gear. The other engine is believed to be at a museum in the south of
England; Newark is suggested though this would hardly be in the South! I am told that the Yorkshire Air Museum has one of the engines
(but almost certainly not on display due to their apparent no-crash-relics display policy). One of the engines recovered initially
resided in Coniston Church Yard, though I think this to be the one now at the Ruskin Museum in the village.
Some more of Halifax LL505 was removed from the site to enable the Yorkshire Air Museum to construct the only 'complete' Halifax
in existance. Newark Air Museum has a sizeable peice of its fuselage around the mid upper turret. Other parts have no doubt found
there way into peoples sheds, garages and homes never to be seen again. Millom Museum may have been a receipient of some of the aircraft
but since its closure in 2011 the where-abouts is unknown. It may have been scrapped if so.
Two of the Merlin engines which were present at the site in 1984, the one nearest the camera being the one now at the Ruskin Museum (photo Mr Jim Andrew).
One of the aircraft's undercarriage legs and the newly created memorial as it was in 1984 (Photo Mr Jim Andrew).
The wing sections as they were in 1984 (photo Mr Jim Andrew).
The recovery operation by a Chinook from Odiham.
The engine still at the crash site in 2002.
Another engine from Halifax LL505 at the Ruskin Museum, Coniston.
A large wing section still at the crash site but in poor condition after 65 years of winters bringing scree down onto it.
