At 22.25hrs on 4th December 1944 this Halifax took off from Marston Moor airfield with the crew tasked with flying a night training flight as part of their training with 1652 Heavy Conversion Unit. The crew were tasked with practicing low level night bombing on a bombing range on the North Yorkshire Moors (believed to have been the bombing range on Helmsley Moor). Before taking off the crew were warned of rain showers combined with low cloud that were to be expected to blow in before they would be returning to base although the weather when they took off was fine. After the crew had either reached or neared the area of their exercise the visibility prevented them carrying it out so it appears to have been cancelled. At 23.10hrs the aircraft was flying roughly in a north-westerly direction near Sutton Bank but the height at which they were flying was only at around a thousand feet. This height was not adequate enough to safely avoid the high ground of the western edge of the North York Moors. The aircraft passed very close to the Hambleton Inn and it's propellers caught the ground just south of Dialstone Farm taking out lumps of turf and earth. It then lost a number of propeller blades here and though sustaining further damage by these breaking away, somehow remained in the air. The pilot managed to pull the aircraft nose up and managed to climb slightly. It passed directly over Dialstone Farm, showering it in fuel and small bits of aircraft and soil. The aircraft remained airborne for a short period though probably gliding rather than flying under power by this stage. Having reached the western escarpment edge of the Hambleton Hills the aircraft sunk into the Vale of Mowbray. Loosing height fast the aircraft appears to have descended at nearly the same angle as the steep wooded ground. At 23.10hrs it flew into woodland near Southwoods Hall while flying in a downwards attitude. Three members of the seven man crew died at the site while two died of their injuries in hospital leaving two other survivors. The aircraft had just missed Dialstone Farm, it's residents the Sharp family were involved with the crash of Halifax MZ466 a month after this one. I was able to speak to Mr Joseph Sharp around 2001 and he recalled to me the events of 4th December 1944. The next day he went back along the crash line and found the propeller marks on the ground near Cold Kirby where the aircraft first struck with wooden propeller blades nearby.
Pilot - P/O Graham Edward McGrath RAAF (428341), aged 20, of Clayton, Victoria, Australia. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Navigator - Sgt William Randolph Edwards RAFVR (1607130), aged 28, of Inverness. Buried Inverness Tomnahurich Cemetery. Seriously injured and taken to Northallerton Hospital, died on 8th December 1944.
Air Bomber - Sgt Joseph Fraser Cromarty RAFVR (1567127), aged 22, of Edinburgh. Buried Edinburgh Rosebank Cemetery. Taken to Northallerton Hospital but died four days later.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - F/Sgt Desmond Maurice Lee RAAF (434687), aged 21, of Cairns, Australia. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Flight Engineer - Sgt Peter Henry Reynolds RAFVR (1850794), aged 20, of London. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Mid Upper Gunner - Sgt Ronald Bosley RAFVR (1405723), aged 22, of Ebbw Vale, South Wales. Seriously injured, taken to Northallerton Hospital. He later recovered.
Rear Gunner - Sgt Norman Wilson RAFVR (2218709), aged 31, of Gateshead, Newcastle. Seriously injured, taken to Northallerton Hospital. He spent 18 months in hospital before being able to return home.
In August 2005 I was blessed by one of the survivors contacting me, he kindly gave me a full account of what happened on this night. I thank Mr Bosley for kindly taking the time to send this infomation, little would I realise when creating this website such contact with survivors would happen. I do not wish to shorten Mr Bosley's account and the following is in his own words...
"The flight was to be our last training bombing run. Due to cloud we were unable to see our target. Desiring to complete our training that night, 'Mac' (Macgrath) our pilot, asked 'Bill' (Edwards) the navigator the height of mountains in the area. Bill checked and informed Mac 1100 feet, safe to descend to 2000 feet which the pilot gradually did. When at 2000 ft we hit the mountain, Mac called "Crash Positions". We ran approx a mile along the top, leaped over the valley and hit another mountain top. Next thing I knew I was lying in a pool of petrol which was coming down from the tank in the wing. I had obviously been unconcious. The plane had split roughly across the middle. I had been thrown out (fracturing a vertabrae I found out later in hospital). I crawled around the front of the plane, heard someone moaning, crawled further around and found the wireless operator 'Rip' D.M.Lee, the engineer 'Pete' H.Reynolds and the navigator 'Bill' (Edwards) lying one on top of the other. I then dragged them clear of the petrol - only Bill was alive. I then crawled to the rear part of the plane where the rear gunner 'Tug' (Wilson) was still trapped. I could not reach him because of my injury, but stayed nearby talking to reasure him, saying I was sure someone would come. The 'someone' who arrived was the farmer over whose home we had flown, (unfortunately pouring petrol over his property). He informed me that he had telephoned the fire brigade. This farmer later visited me in hospital telling me that they had been unable to have a fire or cook for several days. Next to arrive was the fire brigade who checked us all, made me as comfortable as possble, released 'Tug' from his turret and checked the rest of the crew moving them further away from the aircraft out of further danger. A while later came a doctor from a Canadian squadron somewhere in the vicinity who tried to inject everyone, including the civilians. I told him "politely" to go away and leave us alone. Whilst I was in hospital at Northallerton, I was visited by two RAF Officers regarding my version of the crash. I gave them the same description of events as given to you regarding the height of mountains and heights we could descend to. {{I sent Mr Bosley the RAF's AM1180 crash report for this incident}} I see from your copy of the official report that they concluded it was pilot error. Mac was too good a pilot to descend lower than the navigator's recommendation. It also stated that we crashed at 1050ft. This confirms the answer given by the navigator, i.e. the highest point in the area was 1100ft. I have always been convinced that the altimeter was over-reading on that night's flight. I was hospitalised for nearly 3 weeks, when the authorities decided to clear as many patients as possible for Christmas. As my wife was staying in the area and visiting daily I was allowed home to Ebbw Vale, South Wales, on sick leave in her charge to convalesse for approx one month. I returned to light duties for a few months and around the middle of March was declared fit to fly again."
"I joined a new crew and was posted to 466 RAAF Station at Driffield, Yorkshire (466 Squadron). I completed around five operations, then the war ended fortunately. I retrained as a Motor Mechanic, was posted to RAF Cranwell from where I was eventually demobbed in June 1946." The photograph of Mr Bosley shown above was found on Facebook in 2013.
Graham McGrath was born on 7th March 1924 at Clayton, Victoria, Australia and as a young man he worked as a stores clerk for Victoria Railways in Melbourne. He enlisted for RAAF service on 10th October 1942 at Melbourne. Following training in Australia he was awarded his pilot's wings on 23rd July 1942. He then left Australia on 30th August 1942 and arrived in the UK two months later. He was posted to train at 3 (P)AFU then 21 OTU over the next few months. He was then posted to No.41 Base (Marston Moor) and joined 1652 Heavy Conversion Unit on 8th September 1944. He received a commission on 29th October 1944. The photograph shown above was kindly supplied to this account by Mr Norman Wilson (Jnr).
Two other members of this crew were buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Sgt Cromarty is buried in Edinburgh and Sgt Edwards in Inverness. No photograph of the full crew of this aircraft is known to be in existance.
Desmond "Rip" Lee was born on the 14th July 1923 in Cairns, Australia and was a son of Albert and Maude Catherine Lee. He enlisted for RAAF service on 5th January 1943 also in Cairns and was a joiner and carpenter by trade. After basic training in Australia he left for the UK on 4th November 1943 and arrived on 10th December 1943. Once in the UK he trained at No.2 Radio School, No.2 (Observer) Advanced Flying Unit and 21 Operatinal Training Unit before posting to 1652 Heavy Conversion Unit on 8th September 1944. Sadly his older brother F/Sgt Beverley Gordon Lee RAAF (426753) was also killed during the War while serving with 514 Squadron. He lost his life on 30th June 1944 after a mid-air collision caused Lancaster PB178 to crash in Sussex. He is buried at Brookwood Cemetery and was thirty one years old.
In November 2007 I was again fortunate enough to be emailed by Mrs Diane DeKlerk, the grand-daughter of survivor Norman Wilson who in turn put me in contact with her father Mr Norman Wilson (Jnr), Mr Wilson was kind enough to firstly send the painting of his father (shown above) and to be able to give further information into his father's life and flying career. I would like to thank him for this. Norman Wilson was born on 15th January 1913 in Gateshead on Tyne, at the age of fourteen he left school to become a coal miner and worked in mines around the Newcastle and Gateshead area. At the outbreak of War he was transferred to work in an iron ore mine near Saltburn, Yorkshire where he married and had his son also named Norman in 1940 (they later had a daughter). He joined the Saltburn Home Guard where he had some training on Lewis guns. He twice survived being buried alive in mining accidents before volunteering to join the services at the end of 1943 and after basic training opted to be an air gunner after getting the taste for machine guns with the Home Guard. He first flew on 18th February 1944 at 11 AGS at Andreas, Isle of Man in Anson LT837 with the pilot being F/Sgt Proudfoot. Following 21 flights in Ansons at this training unit and seventeen hours flying he completed the course on 11th May 1944 but officially qualified as an air gunner on 28th April 1944.
His next training was with 21 OTU, "X" Flight, based at Moreton in the Marsh and he first flew in a Wellington on 15th June 1944 with the pilot being W/O Bagnall. He would then make his first flight with "Mac" McGrath here, and here he added 10 hours 40 minutes flying before being posted to "D" Flight of 21 OTU at Enstone later in June 1944. Again he first flew in a Wellington here on 27th June 1944 with F/O Gray being the pilot. His (and probably the main part of his crew) completed 56 flights from Enstone though mainly training exercises until 23rd September 1944 (although "Tug" returned to Moreton in the Marsh for parachute and dinghy training from 3rd July to 18th August) and clocked up 50 hours flying in the day and 45 hours flying at night. One of these flights was a leaflet dropping operation over Norway (with "Mac" and "Rip") on 13th August 1944 and possibly a further such flight. He was later awarded a medal from the King of Norway for making such flights. The basic crew were later posted to Marston Moor, picked up their mid-upper gunner and the flight engineer and made their first flight here in a Halifax on 2nd November 1944 with F/O Knox being the pilot (probably an instructor) in aircraft "GV-B" where they continued to have training exercises.
Of the events of the night of the accident Mr Wilson is able to say that his fathers recollections of the incident was that they had one last night-flying exercise to do before joining an operational squadron the following week. Mac had refused two faulty planes before accepting the one which caused the crash. Here it is probably best to quote directly from Mr Wilson's email, his father was a very lucky man to survive the accident, his father thought that "they were returning to base and the engines cut out one after the other and the plane "nose dived" into the ground, after which he lost consciousness. He said he remembered someone telling him to blow his whistle but not remembering whether he did or not, then waking up in hospital in plaster unable to move. He remembered asking about Mac & Rip and the rest of the crew, to be told they were in a different part of the hospital, but given no details. (It was much later he learned of their deaths). He was under the impression that the mid-upper gunner had walked away from the crash uninjured, had been posted to a squadron a couple of weeks later and had been shot down and killed on his 1st mission, so that he was now the sole survivor of the crew. {This was not the case however}. The injuries he sustained were to plague him for the rest of his life. When I saw him in Northallerton Hospital, he was covered from head to toe in plaster. His left arm, left leg in slings, his body, back & front in one-inch plaster cast. He had a fractured skull, his arm broken in two places such that a steel plate had to be bolted in situ. His pelvis was fractured and he had to be taught to walk again (with a limp, as one leg was now about 1/2 inch shorter than the other). He had 3 broken ribs & a broken leg. I believe he was in Northallerton for about 18 months before being transferred closer home to Dunstan Hill Hospital (Gateshead). Even after his discharge he was being admitted 3-4 times per year because of pelvis problems. Until about 1948 when we moved house, he was in regular contact with both Mrs McGrath & Mrs Lee. Mrs Lee came to England to visit her boys graves" and met up with the Wilson family. Mrs Lee brought two pieces of coral from the Great Barrier Reef which she had placed on her boys gravestones. Mr Wilson remembers seeing them there when he and his father and mother visited the graves in Harrogate in the early 1950's and again in 1986 when he visited with his wife. Norman Wilson died in 1987.
Halifax LW278 was built to contract ACFT/1808/C4/C by The English Electric Company Ltd. at Samlesbury and was delivered directly to 158 Squadron at Lissett as new on 18th September 1943. It replaced Halifax JN904 as "NP-K" that had been lost on Ops on 16th / 17th September 1943. Using the 158 Squadron records I have traced it being used by them until the end of 1943. It's operational use deserves recording here. It was used on seventeen operational sorties with all but two of these being completed operations. It's first operational flight was on the night of 22nd / 23rd September on Ops to Hannover with the pilot being F/Sgt Herbert Blackmore Marshall RAFVR (1268036). Marshall became LW278's regular pilot. It's next operational use was on the night of 23rd / 24th September 1943 to Mannheim with F/Sgt Marshall again in control. It's next couple of operational uses were by P/O J A V Denton; on 27th / 28th September 1943 he was to being a flight to bomb Hanvover but a problem with the hydraulics saw the crew jettison the bombload and land at Feltwell wwre it was then repaired that day. Denton then begun flying an operational flight to Bochum on 29th / 30th September 1943 but owing to a problem with a starboard engine and an oil pressure fault the crew again jettisoned the bomb load and made early return to Lissett. It's AM Form 78 then has an error, it states it was listed as Cat.E (Missing) on 3rd October 1943 but this is clearly an error. Any problems with the aeroplane were fixed by the time F/Sgt Marshall was in the pilot's seat on 3rd / 4th October 1943 for ops to Kassel and on 4th / 5th October 1943 to Frankfurt. Both went without incident. On the night of 8th / 9th October 1943 F/Sgt Marshall flew it to Hannover, LW278 was attacked twice by a enemy aircraft but was not damaged. The Halifaxes gunner's Sgt L W Rawluk and Sgt N Gamble returned fire and later claimed the enemy aircraft as damaged. The aircraft was next used again operationally on 22nd / 23rd October 1943 to bomb Kassel but there is a problem with the available records stating who flew it. The 158 Squadron ORB states F/Sgt Marshall was the captain. A combat report for this date submitted by his two air gunners, Rawluk and Gamble, states that they were flying Halifax LW299 which received three bullet holes caused by the attacking enemy aircraft with a landing being made at Catfoss. For this operational flight the 158 Squadron ORB gives LW299 as being flown by F/O K T S Holmes. Perhaps Holmes was flying LW278 and Marshall LW299. The ORB scribe was not infallible and he may be wrong. F/Sgt Marshall then received a commission and appears to have gone on leave. LW278 was next used operationally on 3rd / 4th November 1943 to bomb Dusseldorf with the pilot being Sgt W C Glydon, while over the target area a hole appeared through the front windshield, cause unknown. This is an interesting occurance because it may explain why the centre triangle windscreen section I found at the crash site looks to have been repaired. The damage on 4th November was soon repaired and it was then used by F/O B W Holmes twice operationally; the first on 11th / 12th November 1943 to Cannes with a landing being made at Hurn, the second being on 18th / 19th November 1943 for Ops to Mannheim with both going without incident. LW278's pilot for the next operational flight was P/O D G Cameron on 19th / 20th November 1943 with the target bein Leverkusen. P/O H B Marshall then resumed his use of the aircraft for the next four sorties, Berlin on 22nd / 23rd November 1943, Frankfurt on 25th / 26th November 1943 with minor damage being caused by gun fire from a Halifax in front of LW278 taking evasive action and returning fire, Stuttgart on 26th / 27th November 1943 and then Leipzig on 3rd / 4th December 1943. This was P/O Marshall's last operational flight in LW278, for service with 158 Squadron he was later awarded the DFM and also the DFC, members of his crew also received the same awards. Halifax LW278's final oprational flight was on the night of 20th / 21st December 1943 when it was flown by P/O J R N Atkins to attack Frankfurt with the sortie going without incident. 158 Squadron converted from Halifax MkII to Halifax MkIII during January 1944 so this aircraft was not needed by 158 Squadron any longer. The aircraft was transferred to 1652 Heavy Conversion Unit at Marston Moor some time in early 1944 but the date it arrived is not yet known. It was written off as a result of the crash on 4th December 1944, sustaining Cat.E2/FA damage. It was struck off charge on 10th December 1944 once the paperwork caught up.
The woodland through which Halifax LW278 crashed.
This photograph shows a non-natural scar in the woodland and which contains small pieces of perspex and part of the bomb sight, I would suggest that this mark was created by the bulk of the aircraft and it is infact very close to the point of impact with nose of the aircraft, if not the point of impact.
The photograph above shows a general view of the area of where the crash occurred as seen from the escarpment above.
The photograph above shows a complete portion of cockpit windscreen, this part was located in the centre section of the front windscreen. Photographed on a very wet day. One of the side of this is held together by what appears to have been a repair. This would fit for it having sustained damaged on 4th November 1943 with a repair being made on site at Lissett.
The photograph above shows a rare aileron mass balance. The Halifax had two of these; one on the top side of the end of each wing to stop the ailerons flapping about. Made of lead many were removed from crash sites at the time and they rarely turn up at crash sites today. Museum volunteer Graham Sharpe made a mould of this and two copies are now mounted on the Halifax at the Yorkshire Air museum which was missing these items. LW278's loss is forever recognised on this reproduction aircraft.
The photograph above left shows an instrument face found near the crash site many years ago by aviation historian Mr Ken Reast. Ken finding this was the key to me locating the crash site. Ken had located parts of the aircraft in a field near the crash site in the 1990s, this location was where I believe the RAF brought the wreckage to prior to it being removed by lorry from the crash site. The photograph on the right is what was labelled as being from Halifax LW278 and in the collection of Eric Barton and I have obtained to re-home, unfortunately I don't believe that the Halifax would have housed both airspeed indicators so one must have been erronously bagged. The actually crash location I had been informed by Mr Sharp (from Dialstone) was in woodland so Ken's location must have been below the crash site. I began a search of the woodland immediately above Ken's location and eventually found the site in 2008. I returned a number of times between learning the woodland was to be felled and it then being felled in 2010 to record what was where. Normally any clear-felling by machinery destroys crash sites. I returned to the site in early 2011 to see what damage had been done. The forestry team marked the location of the main collection of wreckage, thankfully this was left untouched but the impact crater was filled in with waste timber unfortunately. I returned to the crash site just after the 75th anniversary of the accident and is much changed. The area of conifers that were cut down has began to re-grow in small beech trees but is totally overgrown with brambles although a small path through has been cut by someone clearly laying a remembrance poppy at the site on a number of occasions. Great to see this at one of the lesser known sites in the area.
Various pieces of propeller blades found in the woodland which shows that aircraft had not lost all the blades in the first contact with the ground near Dialstone Farm.
The painted fragment above I think once showed the lettering "Mod 929" hand painted. Can anyone suggest was Mod 929 was please?
The item above shows a typical Halifax part number.