The aircraft struck an area of high ground, west of Arden Hall, near Hawnby in North Yorkshire. The point in which the aircraft hit was feet off the summit if it had been flying in level flight, however level flight was being not being attained moments before the time crash. The crash report stated it was flying at a steep angle. The events in the hours following the crash are not known, but the aircraft was initially listed as "missing" prior to it being located on the North Yorkshire Moors. Although pure speculation, the bodies of the crew would have been removed for burial and a guard placed on the site prior to the RAF clearing the site of all recoverable peices of the aircraft and equipment, which given the nature of the crash was probably minimal. The remaining larger peices of airframe would have been cut up and removed, burnt on site or buried on site. The heather around the crash site would recover in time and now the site is vertually unnoticable to the casual passer-by.

I initially searched for the location of where Halifax LL178 had crashed in late 2002, this however was an unsuccessful search due to errors with the Yorkshire Air Museum's Aircraft Crash Map of Yorkshire. At the time this was my only source for rough locations. The grid reference listed there turned out to be some distance from the actual site which John Skinn and myself were to then locate in February 2003 on my next visit to the area. There would become a slight problem in determining that this was indeed where Halifax LL178 had crashed becaused two other Halifax's also crashed within a mile of each other. Two of which, this and Halifax EB181 were of the same type and manufacturer and both are known to have crashed in the Kepwick Bank / Arden Hall area, all the modern grid references for both aircraft seem to have been mixed up and inaccurately calculated.

To determine which aircraft we had located a search was carried out of the main area where part of the aircraft had either burnt out on crashing, or where the RAF had later set fire to remaining wreckage. This area could well be where the aircraft, or part of the aircraft came to rest but proving this today is going to be hard, there is no real crater to speak of anywhere nearby. The aim now was to try to locate peices which could be used for dating material (the photo above shows this area). A number of cooked .303 armour piercing rounds were found, most had the 1943 date on them but some were dated 1944 confirming that this area was indeed the location where Halifax LL178 had crashed. (The other Halifax crashes in the area were both in 1943). There were alot of other very small peices in the ash and peat however there was nothing else to determine a date from. Across the site there is a scatter of smaller items which must still be as they were when the aircraft crashed, as well as a small pit containing larger items. This pit could have either been filled by the RAF following the crash, or by game keepers in time afterwards. I have been back to the site a number of times since locating it to record the exact locations of all known remaining peices and to write down all part numbers and stamps of alluminium parts still readable.

In May 2004 a stone memorial was placed at the crash site, this I believe was created by Mr David Morris of Thirsk.

In late 2005 another memorial in the form of a wooden cross was also placed near the crash site, which also happens to be at the location which the Yorkshire Air Museum quote for the site. The cross was placed at this site by family friends of Doug Thicke, who on two occasions visited the area.

The pit with parts of a Halifax in it.

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