Halifax NR287 near Scawton.

On 15th March 1945 a Free French crewed Halifax took off from Elvington at 18.30hrs for Ops to Hagen. 267 aircraft took part in the raid, carried out in clear visiblity and severe damage was sustained to the central and eastern districts of the town. During the outbound trip the aircraft drifted off course slightly, though this was corrected and the bomb load was released over the target. The crew made for base of Elvington at 6000 feet but poor visibility was over North Yorkshire. As they approached base they were told that they could not land as the airfield was busy and was fog-bound so they were directed north to land at another airfield (though which airfield is not yet known). At some point in the flight it is believed that the aircraft's instruments had been damaged. The aircraft flew north and in almost zero visibility headed towards the North Yorkshire Moors. It was thought that the pilot had ordered the flight engineer to go to the back of the aircraft and check to see if all the bombs had gone from the bomb bay, which he did but then noticed the ground rushing by just below them. It was too late for the pilot to pull up, the aircraft struck a stone wall, believed to be near the A170 road, between Helmsley and Thirsk, it then started to break up. The main body of the Halifax then seemingly became airborne again briefly before eventually crashing into a tree near Scawton, west of Helmsley. The wings and engines broke off soon after the first impact. This researcher spoke to local people in 2007 who recalled the bodies of airmen being found along the route the aircraft had taken. It was thought by locals that the crew who remained at the front of the aircraft had survived the first impact with the wall but had assumed the aircraft was breaking up in mid-air and begun to bale out but they were to be only afew feet from the ground and stood no chance to survival in attempting to bale out. The impacts with the walls would clearly have caused damage to the front of the aircraft and it is possible that all who were found on the route of the crashing aircraft had infact been thrown out in the impacts and had been killed, or as locals believe, in attempting to bale out. Aircrew did not have their parachutes attached to their bodies in regular flight, it would take time to leave ones position, gather ones parachute and escape the aircraft. This period of time would appear to have been too less a period for them to be baling out in this case in my opinion.

The flight engineer; who had passed out on opening the hatch to the bomb bay, and the rear gunner were luckier, the rear of the aircraft survived remarkably well in comparison to the rest of the plane. They somehow survived the crash and were rescued by villagers who had heard the crash and took them to the vicarage where they were given first aid before being taken by ambulance to hospital in Northallerton. It is thought these two made a recovery and were able to later return home to a liberated France.

The RAF Form AM1180 crash card simply states that the aircraft had missed their base and overshot by twenty five miles, where it flew into the high ground at 850 feet above sea level at 23.45hrs and caught fire on impact. The pilot of this aircraft was nearing the end of his Tour of Operations and was known for being a nervous pilot and had fainted on previous missions, though this may not have been a factor in the loss. A brief entry in the Elvington ORB with regard this incident states: "NR287 'C' of 347 Sqn crashed into highground near Thirsk." Wombleton ORB states similar:"00.00 hours. Aircraft of 347 Sqn crashed at Scawton. 5 killed. Two admitted to Northallerton Hospital."

Halifax NR287 was built to contract ACFT/2553/C4/C by E.E.C. Ltd at Salmesbury and delivered directly to 347 Squadron on 2nd December 1944. It sustained Cat.E2/FB Burnt damage in the incident detailed above and was struck off charge some days later on 26th March 1945.

Those who lost their lives here were buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery but have since been returned to France, they were :

Pilot - Cmdt George C Ostre FFAF (3361), aged 27 - killed.

Navigator - Capt Raymond J A Chevalier FFAF (36290), aged 25 - killed. He was a vicar before the War so I am informed.

Air Gunner - Lt Antoine L Chemin FFAF (814), aged 31 - killed.

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Adj Henri Chabres FFAF (37435), aged 27 - killed.

Air Gunner - Sgt Rene M E Raymond FFAF (1423), aged ? - killed.

The two who stayed with the Halifax survived the crash were:

Flight Engineer - Sgc Henri Sciolette FFAF, injured.

Rear Gunner - Sgc A Tilliers FFAF, injured.

The website "aircrewremembrancesociety.com" have borrowed two of my photographs from this webpage without asking my permission first, those being the photograph of the field where the aircraft came to rest and that of the memorial in the village church. Upon finding their account of this incident I have borrowed the two photographs I show of the crew on this webpage from their website, without their permission!! Sadly the names of those shown are not yet known. What is also of interest is that the photograph above shows a Halifax coded "C", in 347 Squadron's case the code was used by Halifax NR287; the aircraft that crashed at Scawton, so it is probably the aircraft and crew involved in this accident. The photograph below shows the same crew probably with some ground crew.

Raymond Chevalier.

Yorkshire-based air historian Mr David Morris contacted one of the survivors of this accident in 1996. Mr Sciolette was able add further details about his mishap at Scawton in a letter (kindly copied and shared by Mr Ken Reast), he stated that after the accident and recovery in hospital he was taken to the crash site and that he saw five damaged walls caused by the aircraft passing through.

One other more important addition Mr Sciolette was able to add was that Sgt Tillier returned to France after the War but was killed in a flying accident in 1947 in Indochina, Southeast Asia while flying with paratroops.

A memorial plaque was placed on the tree which stopped the aircraft soon after the crash, this was removed and placed in Scawton Church after the tree died. It was paid for by the French Authorities. Every year on Armistice Day the name of those who died in this accident are read in the village.

A photograph taken at the time of the crash and published in the out of print "White Rose Base" book by Mr Brian Rapier.

Scawton Church porch and the plaque.

I have yet to visit the crash site but I believe that it is situated in the area of this small valley.

Cmdt Ostre trained to fly Halifax's at 1663 HCU Rufforth and while he was staioned there on the 25th May 1944 he was the pilot of a Halifax that crashed on landing. At that time of this incident Bill Chorley reports in his excellent series of losses books that "HE HAD LOGGED AT LEAST 4,330 HRS OF SOLO FLYING" but at the time only sixteen of these hours were on Halifax's. A remarkable ammount of flying time.