Lancaster DS832 near Danby Beacon.

On the night of 16th / 17th December 1943 the crew of this aircraft were tasked with an operational flight to bomb Berlin, on board was a crew of eight which included a second pilot who was flying with a more experienced crew for operational experience on a flight known as a "Dickie" flight before begining operational flying with his own crew. The aircraft took off from East Moor airfield at 16.57hrs and all appears to have gone well over the target area. On their return to England bad weather was present over much of the high ground areas of Yorkshire and part of the Vale of York. The crew had become lost in the poor visibility on their return to Yorkshire. They, like others crews were diverted north from their base at East Moor and were ordered to land further north at Leeming where conditions were almost certainly better. This crew were unable to locate Leeming and after running out of fuel they baled out. The crew landed safely around the Danby Beacon area. The aircraft came down close to a peat bog to the north of Danby just after midnight, in the early hours of 17th December 1943. This was one of a number of aircraft that were written off as a result of the poor weather on their return to the UK, the night became known as "Black Night" because of the high number of fatalities.

The majority of the wreckage of the Lancaster was removed in the days after the crash by 60 MU who recorded in their record book that they had to use sleds to drag it off the moor because of the conditions underfoot; the aircraft had crashed at the wrong side of peat bog to the access road.

Lancaster DS832 was built to contract AC239 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and delivered to the RAF in September 1943. It was issued to 432 Squadron based at East Moor in October 1943 when the unit converted from Wellingtons to the Lancaster B.II model. It was destroyed in the incident detailed above with Cat.E2/FB(Burnt) damage being recorded.

Pilot - F/O H B Hatfield RCAF (J/20156). Uninjured.

Second Pilot - F/Lt John Allardyce Allen RCAF (J/6643), of Black's Harbor, New Brunswick. Canada. Uninjured.

Flight Engineer - Sgt A Phillips RAF. Uninjured.

Navigator - F/O Joseph Higgs RCAF, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Uninjured.

Bomb Aimer - F/O G J Smith RCAF. Uninjured.

Wireless Operator - Sgt W H Poole RAF. Broken arm.

Mid Upper Gunner - Sgt Robert Anthony Hutchinson RAFVR (1533378), of Croxley Green, Rickmansworth, Hertfordshire. Uninjured.

Rear Gunner - F/Sgt Alexander Morvan McGregor RCAF (J/19304), of Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada. Uninjured.

This was one of the first crash sites I had ever attempted to locate many years ago, the first hunt which bore small results was in August 2002 after I covered a wide area of the moorland finding only one fragment of metal. Some years later and some failed trips later I was now armed with fresh information as to the exact crash location. This came from Mr Andy Hunter, without which I could have been still looking for the crash site. John Skinn and I finally located the site in December 2004 and a large but shallow depression in the ground was clearly visible and a small scattering of the usual style of wreckage present at the site. Many reports stating the site is "cleared" is not exactly correct, there are still afew tiny peices at the site to be seen.

A number of small peices found at the impact site, located in December 2004.

Not alot is currently know about the crew of Lancaster DS832 on 16th/17th December 1943, patchy information regarding the pilot has been found. F/O Hatfield had bombed Hannover in Wellington HE800 on 8th October 1943, he and his crew were then posted to 1679 HCU in early October 1943 for conversion to fly Lancasters, after this conversion training was complete they returned to the squadron and on 26th November 1943 he and crew flying in Lancaster DS832, accompanied by F/S Demaria as a second pilot, were tasked with bombing Berlin. F/O Hatfield and crew bombed Berlin again on 2nd December 1943 without incident and no second pilot this time. F/O Hatfield survived the War but nothing more of his flying is known after this incident at Danby.

John Allen (pictured above) was born on 28th December 1921 in Weyburn, Saskatchewan, his father was a doctor and his family moved to Toronto when John was young. After attending school and college he worked as a junior clerk for the Empire Hanna Coal Company before enlisting into the RCAF soon after. He was made Sgt on 9th August 1941 and was commissioned while training in Canada before arriving in the UK in August 1942, he almost certainly rose to F/O around the same time he arrived in the UK. He served with 107 Squadron in 1942 and early 1943 and rose to the rank of F/Lt on 28th August 1943. While in the UK he married to Honor Mary Allen (who is recorded as being of Paddington, London) prior to a posting to 432 Squadron. After the Danby Beacon incident he resumed operational flying but was sadly killed over Germany on 3rd January 1944 with 432 Squadron in Lancaster DS739 on his eighth operational flight of his second Tour. He was still only twenty three years old and is buried in Berlin War Cemetery.

Sgt Robert Hutchinson was still with 432 Squadron on 14th January 1944 when he was killed in Lancaster DS850. He was still only twenty years old and is buried in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, Germany.

F/Sgt Alexander McGregor was killed on 19th April 1944, again he was still serving with 432 Squadron and lost his life as a result of Halifax LW643 crashing in France. He was twenty nine years old and is buried in Clichy Northern Cemetery, France. He was born on 9th May 1915 in Regina and enlisted there on 7th May 1942. His parents had emigrated from Wick, Caithness, Scotland prior to his and his brother David McGregor's births. Alexander McGregor was working as a clerk for a mill in Moose Jaw when he enlisted. His brother David was killed on 8th June 1942 flying with 415 Squadron in an accident near Abbotsinch.

It is probable that a F/Lt George John Smith RCAF (J/21564) who later served with 405 Squadron (Pathfinders) was the same man as involved in the Danby Beacon incident. F/Lt Smith was in Lancaster JA976 which was shot down by a night-fighter on 27th/28th April 1944 and died afew days later on 1st May 1944. He is buried in Webbekom Churchyard, Belgium. William Chorley's Bomber Command losses book lists him as being a DFC holder however, Hugh Halliday's research into RCAF awards has no such name listed so with graceful respect would suggest the losses book has an error. Smith was however awarded the Belgian Croix de Guerre 1940 with Palm after his death, notification appeared in the Canadian Gazette in July 1948. He was born in Verwood, Saskatchewan on 22nd June 1918 and was living in Moose Jaw when he enlisted in Regina in July 1941. The Smith Lake in Saskatchewan is named in his honour.

It is also possible that a Sgt Alfred Arthur Phillips RAFVR (1583796) who served with 626 Squadron in early 1944 is the same man as involved in the Danby Beacon incident. On 15th February 1944 he was flying in Lancaster JB595 which was shot down by a Ju88 on Ops to Berlin. All the crew on this aircraft were captured, and at least three sustained injuries. Sadly Sgt Phillips died in a German hospital on 15th May 1944. He was twenty one years old and from of Rugeley, Staffordshire. He is buried Berlin War Cemetery, Germany. Two others also on this aircraft were repatriated in February 1945.
The "Sgt W H Poole" listed above could infact have been one Sgt William Harry Pool RCAF (J/89375), and if so then he was later posted to 622 Squadron, on 21st July 1944 he was flying in Lancaster LM595 on Ops to Hamurg when he and his then crew failed to return. He was twenty years old and is buried in Bergen Op Zoom War Cemetery, Netherlands.