Halifax EB181 near Kepwick Bank / Arden Hall, Hawnby.

On the 27th of September 1943 the crew of this aircraft took off for a night cross-country training exercise from Croft. Three and half hours into the flight and whilst returning to base the aircraft flew into high ground on the North Yorkshire Moors at 1200 feet at 00.07hrs on the 28th of September. The aircraft reportedly did not catch fire on impact. Visability was described as being "bad" at the time of the crash.

RAF Hospital Northallerton's ORB states that "one survivor had multiple fractures and was severely shocked and lay all night in the rain in damp heather. Nobody knew about the accident until the next morning when the survivors were found by some soldiers. The mobile surgical unit took two ambulances and three medical officers to the scene of the accident, the first RAF vehicle to reach it, and successfully resuscitated and brought down the two survivors. To have moved the man with multiple fractures without resuscitation would certainly have killed him". Croft's ORB states the wreckage was not located until 14.30hrs the afternoon after the crash, so undoubtedly the crash and survivors lay undiscovered for some hours. Five airmen were killed instantly, and although two others were to survive the crash one later died of his injuries. The remaining survivor later stated that he thought the reason for the crash was that they were simply flying too low at the time, nothing else appeared to him to be out of the ordinary. It was the Units second loss, they lost a pilot to a crash near Stillington at the start of the month.

Halifax EB181 was built to contract ACFT/637/C4/C by Rootes Securities Ltd at Speke and delivered as new to 1664 HCU at Croft on or shortly after the 10th of May 1943 when 1664 HCU formed. It was destroyed with Cat E2/FA damage in the incident detailed above on the 23rd September 1943.

Pilot - F/O Raymond H Highsted RCAF (J/26984), aged 21, of New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Nav - Sgt John C Mitchell RAFVR (1397975), aged 27, of ?, Cremated Golders Green, Middlesex.

BA - Sgt Frederick J Luckett RAFVR (1800889), aged 21, of New Horsted. Buried Chatam Cemetery, Kent.

F Eng - F/Sgt John J (Jim) Timmins RAFVR (1777401), aged 19, of Rowlands Gill, County Durham. Buried High Spen Churchyard, near Winlaton, County Durham.

AG - Sgt James Nelson RAFVR (1002811), aged 23, of Preston, buried Preston New Hall Lane Cemetery, Lancs. Husband of Mary Nelson.

Rear Gunner - Sgt Herbert P D Charlton RAFVR (1318463), aged 22, of South Godstone, Surrey. Buried Godstone, Surrey. Survived crash but died 9th October 1943.

WOp/AG - Sgt Charles F West RAFVR (1330246), of Leyton, Essex. Survived the crash seriously injured.

F/O Highsted's grave at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery. He had only arrived at Croft from 24 OTU on the 4th of September 1943, he had however amassed a total of 554 hours flying, 200 of which being on Halifax's, however only three were at night. Ray was born in New Westminster, British Columbia, Canada. It transpires from a a webforum on another website that he was actually named Harold Raymond Highsted, the reverse of the listing on the CWGC register. Ray had a younger brother, whos son Mr David Highsted, I learn from the same webforum, was researching his Uncle. Despite attempts to contact him I have as yet been unsuccessful. If he wished to contact me I have gathered some information which may be of interest to him. Ray was buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery on 2nd October 1943.

F/Sgt Timmins was buried at St Patrick's Churchyard in High Spen, County Durham on the 2nd October 1943 not at Winlaton Churchyard as the CWGC database states, Winlaton is three miles from the actual location. In the 1970s the St Patrick's Churchyard suffered from subsidence and land slippage. Sadly all the gravestones were removed and destroyed but the graveyard was made stable, landscaped and then grassed. In the 1960s an engraved stone was placed on a wall of Hookergate Cemetery, a civil cemetery on land ajoining the church. This plaque carries the names of the War-dead buried there. John Timmins had a squadron nickname of "Geordie". Prior to enlisting into the RAFVR John Timmins (of Derwent Dene, Orchard Avenue, Rowlands Gill) volunteered as a Messenger in the ARP where he lived. This would envolved riding motorcycles and carrying messages over greater distance when necessary. Timmins also worked either making or selling leather goods during the same period. Such messengers were usually Boy Scouts, or older men with cars. He was also a member of 1072 Squadron ATC, he apparently joined 1664 HCU direct from the ATC. He was carried by members of the ATC squadron at his funeral. My thanks to Mr Brian Pears for much of this information on F/Sgt Timmins and for the photos of the memorial shown above.

Sgt Charles West recovered from his injuries and went on to complete his training, he was then posted to 425 Squadron. Sadly he was killed six months after the crash of EB181 when, on the 24th April 1944, Halifax MZ525 crashed near Topcliffe Airfield, Yorkshire; this time there were no survivors. He was taken home and buried in Abney Park Cemetery, London. He was 22 years old.

The location of this crash site has been somewhat tricky to prove with hard evidence. I believe that I have found it but over the years numerous researchers have all tried to find this site with mixed successes. It is almost certainly very close in proximity to another Halifax site, that of LL178, which crashed in the same area some months later. Wreckage in the area of LL178 could be from both aircraft and simply collected together and working out which wreckage is from which aircraft is vertually impossible but I believe that all the wreckage at the LL178 site is from LL178 as it completely disintergrated. My webpage detailing the loss of Halifax LL178 is detailed here.

The problem is that both the Halifax's EB181 and LL178 were of the same type and model number and manufacturer, any peices which remained after the first crash could have been removed when the second crashed, or in the years following the crashes the wreckage could have been combined as a result of gamekeeper clear-ups as is known to have occured elsewhere. The site of LL178 is (probably through this website) one of the more well known sites in the modern day North Yorkshire Moors where as EB181 has remained some what of a mystery to many.

Researchers Ken Reast and David Thompson located a small number of peices at (which I believe is) the correct crash site of EB181 in the early 1990s, these were placed in a broken down wall for protection. Upon contact with them I then found two tiny peices in the same area in 2002, and again placed them in the same wall. These peices remained there until the wall was rebuilt and since then I have not seen them again although I doubt the estate workers who rebuilt the wall would take them away so they were probably left in the centre of the wall and fresh stones added around them. Nothing else has ever been found on the surface since my last finds. The photograph below shows one of my two tiny peices found which I believe is from EB181.

While I am not keen in adding exact locations of crash sites on this website the crash location of EB181 is where the memorial cross to LL178 was placed in the mid-2000's.