The crew of Halifax JD106 took off from Wombleton airfield at 21.25hrs on 22nd June 1944 for a night cross-country training flight. At 01.05hrs the aircraft flew into high ground, broke up and partly caught fire on high ground on Rudland Rigg after the crew became lost while flying in low cloud. The pilot descended to get a fix on position having thought that
he was closer to base than his actual position and came down through the cloud thinking Wombleton was close by. As the aircraft was infact over high ground he was unaware of the hills until it was too late. Six of the crew were killed when the aircraft struck moorland but two were lucky and survived.
Halifax JD106 was built to contract ACFT/1808/C4 by English Electric (E.E.C.) Ltd at Salmesbury and was delivered directly to 10 Squadron at Melbourne on 22nd April 1943. After operational service it was transferred to 1666 HCU at Wombleton on an unknown date. On 27th April 1944 whilst taxying in preparation for a training flight it was involved in
a Cat.A/FA accident (detailed on this website). Halifax JB859 piloted by F/O W.R.J. Wells was taxying behind JD106 and the pilot, who was doing cockpit checks, was not keeping a good lookout and collided with the rear turret of JD106, killed the rear gunner Sgt Falan RCAF. The pilot of JD106 on this occasion was F/O W.R. Chalcroft RCAF (who later completed his training and saw service with 419 Squadron). JD106 was repaired on site and returned to flying but was written off in the incident detailed above with Cat.E2/FA(Burnt) damage being recorded following the accident on 23rd June 1944. No photographs of any members of this crew have been located nor I have I been fortunate enough to have had any of their families contact me.
Pilot - F/O Arthur Paul Haacke RCAF (J/25812), aged 24, of Elphinstone, Manitoba, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire. Also listed as being of Watson, Saskatchewan.
Navigator - F/O Melville Alfred Foy RCAF (J/35518), aged 25, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Flight Engineer - Sgt Percy Reginald Davis RAFVR (1833877), aged 19, of Hackney, London. Buried Abney Park Cemetery, Stoke Newington, London.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - WO1 Jean Marie Charles Plante RCAF (R/96696), aged 20, of Quebec City, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Air Bomber - F/O Herbert William Garwood RCAF (J/29693), aged 20, of London, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Air Gunner - P/O Leonard Allan Scutt RCAF (J/40007), aged 21, of Whonock, British Columbia, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Also listed as being of Limmerick, Saskatatchewan.
The others on board were:
Mid Upper Gunner - P/O L B Lemon RCAF - Injured.
Flight Engineer - Sgt R W L Lucas RAF - Injured.
The grave of F/O Haacke in Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery. At the time of the crash he had a total of 27 hours flying time on the Halifax, sixteen hours of which were at night.
Arthur Haacke was born on 24th June 1919, he was the son of Arthur David and Myrtle Haacke, of Elphinstone, Manitoba, Canada and was married to Pauline Haacke. On his death notification in Canada he is reported to have been from Watson, Saskatchewan. He could well have had a brother who served in the RCAF, a P/O George A Haacke of Elphinstone was listed as
missing on active service he was later discovered to have been made a PoW in Germany. Conformation of relationship needs researching.
The graves of four other members of this crew who were buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery.
Meville Foy was born on 17th December 1919, he was the son of Joseph George and Theresa Loretto Foy, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.
Jean Plante was born on 8th December 1922, he was the son of
Herbert Garwood was born on 16th April 1924 to William and Jane Garwood, of London, Ontario, Canada.
Leonard Scutt was born in 1923 to James and Mary Scutt, of Whonock, British Columbia, Canada.
The area of the crash where wreckage is still visible. I initially searched for this crash site in August 2002 with Will Lund, then again in June 2003 (on my own) and July 2003
(with John Skinn), a wide area of the moor was covered in these combined searches but sadly nothing was found. Fellow air historian Howard Newbould informed me that he believed that he had found some small remains of this aircraft around 1995 in a slightly different area to where I had been searching but a gas pipeline was laid across the area he found his parts in years since his visit and this may have gone straight through what was thought to be the crash site at that time. I revisited the area yet again in December 2003 determined to locate the site. After a slight clue on where to look, in a different place than previously searched and after an hour or so finally located some peices of the aircraft. The RAF crash report states a position for the crash as "1 mile south of Burton Howe", this I now know to be incorrect! This source seems to get quoted in a number of other more rescent publications. Since finding air historians Ken Reast and David Thompson through the powers of the internet it transpires that they had also located the site in 2001.
Some of the remaining parts of Halifax JD106.
These are believed to be bases of practice bombs carried by aircraft around the period in the War, so almost certainly from JD106.
P/O Lemon would later find himself posted to 429 Squadron on 30th November 1944 after a short period at No.76 Base but was posted back to No.76 Base on 11th February 1945.
he was later posted to 427 Squadron and returned to No.76 Base on 28th April 1945.
Nothing is known about either of the two British members of this crew on the night JD106 crashed onto the North Yorkshire Moors.
