On the night of 23rd / 24th November 1943 the crews of six Halifax aircraft belonging to 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit were tasked with flying night cross country training exercises. The weather on this night was forecast to be extremely bad but for some reason the Commanding Officer of the Riccall-based training unit allowed the exercise to continue and these six aircraft were the only six aircraft in the whole of the Yorkshire based Heavy Conversion Units to carry out training flights on this night. Of these six aircraft, two returned early with icing problems; one of which (Halifax DT541) crashed near Riccall, another aircraft crashed into the side of the substantial peak of Great Whernside in the Pennines. Only two of the six crews completed the exercise, though one of these is thought to have suffered had engine problems caused by the effects of icing.

At 23.05hrs on 23rd November 1943 the crew of Halifax JB926 took off from their base at Riccall near Selby, Yorkshire for the exercise and headed towards St.Bees Head on the north-west coast, from there the turning points of the exercise were to have been St.Abbs Head, Hexham, Sleaford and Northampton, then return to base. It was probably on the stage between Hexham and Sleaford that major problems occurred for the crew of JB926 because of the severe weather over the Pennines. The weather conditions consisted of severe turbulance, poor visibility, upto gale Force 8 winds with torrential rain and icing conditions occurring at 4000 feet above the ground. At around 01.15hrs aircraft engines were heard over the Healey area, to the west of Masham and that an aircraft was in a steep dive. Because of the weather nothing was seen of the aircraft but a short time later a red glow was seen in the Colsterdale area, over Agra Moor at Slipstone Crags. It was later discovered that this was where Halifax JB926 had crashed killing all on board. The crash investigation found that prior to impact the aircraft had began to break up in the air; the port outer wing had broken away and both outer engines had also broken loose. A large fire then broke out on impact with the ground and destroyed much of what remained of the aircraft. The RAF's AM Form 1180 incorrectly suggested that both DT578 and JB926 could have collided causing both aircraft to have crashed but this was later ruled out in the full AIB investigation as the crew of JB926 had transmitted their position to have been near St.Bees Head at the time Halifax DT578 crashed and therefore neither could have been involved a collision together over Yorkshire. Neither were JB926 or DT578 involved in collisions with the other 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit aircraft in the air.

I have yet to find any information stating why any of these aircraft were ever in the air when the whole of the Yorkshire-based flying training units were aware of the severe weather forecast on this night. The Commanding Officer of 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit, W/CO Francis William Thompson DFC RAFVR (60758), was replaced soon after the events of this night having been awarded the Air Force Cross for his long term work as an instructor at 1658 H.C.U. (Gazetted on 1st January 1944). He was replaced by W/Co Henry Howard Drummond DFM RAFVR (112544), who was himself was the Senior Flight Commander at the time of the accidents and who was also awarded the Air Force Cross for his work as an instructor at 1658 H.C.U. (Gazetted on the same date). I strongly suspect W/Co Thompson was moved on from his roll as the commanding officer following the investigation as he ordered flying training to continue despite having received weather reports suggesting this was unwise.

Pilot - Sgt Richard Ernest Charles Bacon RAFVR (1612703), aged 22, of Norwich, Norfolk. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Flight Engineer - Sgt George Heathcote Manley RAFVR (1490978), aged 22, of Childwall, Liverpool. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Bomb Aimer - F/Sgt John James MacGillivray RCAF (R/143002), aged 23, of Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Flight Engineer - Sgt James Titterington RAFVR (1796161), aged 23, of Belfast. Buried Belfast (Dundonald) Cemetery, County Down, Northern Ireland.

Navigator - F/O Henry McCarthy RAFVR (151083). Buried Leytonstone RC Cemetery, Essex.

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Basil Frank Taylor RAFVR (1296656), aged 21, of Reading, Berkshire. Buried Henley Road Cemetery, Reading, Berkshire.

Air Gunner - Sgt Alexander John Winton RAFVR (1570461), aged 20, of Macduff, Scotland. Buried Macduff Cemetery, Banffshire.

Air Gunner - Sgt David Elwyn Phillips RAFVR (1652804), aged 22. Buried Whitchurch (Pantmawr) Cemetery, Glamorganshire, Wales.

Headstones of the three buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

John MacGillivray was born on 24th January 1920 in Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada and was the son of William Lorne and Mabel Claire (nee Jennison) MacGillivray. The family lived in Saskatchewan for much of his early life, though he spent a year in Manitoba and they then moved to Vancouver, British Columbia in 1932. After leaving school he began working as a pharmacy apprentice in 1940 but appears to have later returned to college. He enlisted for RCAF service on 14th November 1941 in Vancouver. After initially being selected for pilot training in Canada he later switched to being an air bomber and after gaining his flying badge he was posted to the UK in April 1943 to continue his training. He then trained at No.3 (O)AFU and 20 OTU before posting to 1658 HCU on 1st October 1943.

The only officer of this crew was Henry McCarthy, he received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 22nd January 1943 and rose to F/O on probation (war subs) on 22nd July 1943.

David Phillips was born on 24th March 1920 at Cwmtwrch, Brecon.

James Titterton was born on 16th April 1920 at Belfast.

George Manley was born on 4th May 1921 at West Derby.

The aircraft crashed just in front of the line crags just below the horizon shown on the photograph above. A memorial was erected at the site by Mr David Morris in the mid-1980s and the majority of the bigger pieces of wreckage that are on the surface at the site were gathered together in rocks in front of this stone. I first visited this crash site in October 2003 and have since visited the site numerous times. Smaller pieces of the aircraft are still scattered over a wide area but the majority of the remains are tiny and hidden amongst heather, pretty much everything shows signs of the severe post-crash fire. I have yet to learn where the other sections of the aircraft that broke away in the air landed.

A general overview of the crash site.

A few of the fragments at the crash site are still identifiable through part numbers on the metal, the photograph above shows a typical Halifax part number and the photograph below shows an "E.E.P." of English Electric, of Preston, who made Halifax JB926.