On the 12th of April 1944 the crew of this Halifax, "S for Sugar", were carrying out an air to air firing exercise over the North Sea. On their return inland the aircraft was flying very low when one of its engines failed and unconfirmed reports suggest the engine was also on fire. As a result of flying very low there was little height available to regain control of the aircraft and it crashed into woodland near Deepdale Farm, Deepdale inside what is now Dalby Forest at 16.10hrs. Six of the seven airmen on board were killed, with the survivor remarkably escaping with only minor injuries.

In July 2004 I received at letter from Mrs M Hick of Scarborough, following my request in a local magazine for witnesses to accidents in the Hackness area. This lady's mother witnessed this accident. The aircraft came over the hill from the east and crashed into the wooded area with the tail section falling off first (I would suggest that this saved the rear gunner from fatal injuries). Mrs Hick's mother had witnessed the crash from a nearby field, on her way back from obtaining water from their well. The surviving airman saw her and asked if she was alright. The aircraft had broken up across a stream, she recalled the stream had aircraft fuel flowing down it. As with all such incidents, a guard was placed on the wreckage until it was cleared.

Halifax LW614 was built to contract ACFT/1808/C4/C by E.E.C. Ltd at Salmesbury and delivered directly to 431 'Iroquois' Squadron at Croft on 15th February 1944 but the unit were operating Halifax B.V's at this period so the aircraft was immediately transferred to 432 Squadron at East Moor who were converting from Lancaster B.II's to Halifax B.III's in February 1944. It was written off in the incident detailed above with Cat.E2/FA Burnt damage being recorded. Prior to its crash this aircraft had previously been on nine operational flights. This crews last operational flight had been just two days before this accident when they successfuly attacked railyards at Ghent.

Pilot - P/O Arthur K Clarke RCAF (J/89944), aged 22, of Hawkstone, Simcoe County, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

FEng - Sgt Harvey Halliwell RAFVR (1523572), aged 20, of Middleton, Lancashire. Buried Middleton (St Leonard), Lancashire.

Navigator - P/O Thomas H Woodard RCAF (J/86325), aged 26, of Weyburn, Saskatchewan, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Bomb Aimer - Sgt Francis E Cranch RCAF (J/89914), aged 31, of Crouch End, London. Buried Tottenham and Wood Green Cemetery, London.

WOp/AG - Sgt Felix C Hindmarsh RCAF (J/89248), aged 24, of Edam, Saskatchewan, Canada. Buried Edinburgh (Mount Vernon) Roman Catholic Cemetery.

Air Gunner - P/O David G Bell RCAF (J/88695), aged 25, of Lower Capilano, British Columbia. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Fitter/Passenger - LAC David V MacKenzie RCAF (R/142262), aged 24, of Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Rear Gunner - Sgt D McNeil RCAF, survived.

On the 15th of April 1944 a Roman Catholic Mass was held at East Moor for Sgt's Woodard and Hindmarsh, on the 17th a funeral service for F/Sgt Clarke and LAC McKenzie was held at Sutton on the Forest church after which the burials were carried out.

Arthur Clarke and his headstone at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery. P/O Clarke's brother one P/O Edward A Clarke RCAF (J/86745) also served as a pilot in the RCAF, he was also serving on the same 432 Squadron at the same time as his brother. P/O E A Clarke sadly lost his life on 29th July 1944 whilst on his last operational flight of his tour of duty flying in Halifax NP702 on Ops to Hamburg. The aircraft was lost without trace and he and his crew are commemerated on the Runnymede Memorial.

The grave of LAC David V Mackenzie RCAF to the left. The photograph to the right was found on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial with whom I have contributed some information regarding other casualties. The credit this website gives is "Brother of James Alexander MacKenzie L/64625 - Royal Canadian Engineers", so it either IS J A MacKenzie, or more likely his brother LAC D V Mackenzie RCAF as it is linked to him on their search result page.

Two other members of this crews graves at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

John Skinn and myself first searched for the crash site in July 2004, we found only one peice of the aircraft but a large peice and a rare sight at a crash site. Initially dismissed as possibly farm rubbish or a coal bucket after some cleaning Air Ministry markings were found on it which idetified it as a large and remarkably intact section of the aircrafts bakerlite DF Loop casing (pictured above). The DF Loop is visable on the Halifax photograph at the top of this page, midway between the cockpit glazing and the mid-upper turret.

In May 2006 Howard Newbould and myself visited the site and were able to locate further peices of the aircraft which after correspondance from Mrs Hick was the location which she recalled. I then returned to the site in March 2010 to re-photograph the parts previously located with a digital camera. The photograph above shows a peice of the aircrafts outer skin with the green/grey colour scheme still visable.

A small collection of remaining wreckage found in the stream.

An English Electric inspection stamp located on one of the parts at the site. The other number seems to have been incorrectly stamped and an attempt has been made to overstamp it with the correct assembly number, with the same correct number being stamped underneath.

A Mr Andrew Hindmarsh, relation of Sgt Hindmarsh, erected a plaque on the Edam War Memorial in Saskatchewan, Canada in 1990 to commemerate Sgt Felix Hindmarsh killed in the accident to LW614. An Andrew M Hindmarsh also from Edam, Saskatchewan served with 408 Squadrom in WW2, he died in January 1991 aged 69. He may well be the same man.