Halifax L9619 near Keld.

Halifax L9619. This photograph is a reasonably famous one that appears in many books and on websites as an example of an early Halifax.

In documenting the eventual crash to Halifax L9619 it is important to give some background to the operational sortie it's crew were flying. The target was to bomb the dry dock at St.Nazaire, on the Atlantic coast of France. This dry dock was the only one on the Atlantic coast that was capable of allowing the German battleship Tirpitz to be repaired on the Atlantic, if the dock area could be destroyed it would force the Tirpitz to use dry docks in Northern Germany and to get there from the Atlantic would mean that the battleship was much more prone to attack from Allied aircraft in the North Sea. The German's use of St.Nazaire was an important statigic position for their shipping. Allied bombing was carried out a number of times up to March 1942 and none with any real success. The bombing alone appears to have had limited effect as crews were to locate the target precisely as to not cause civilian casualties. On 28th March 1942 a major attack by Allied forces evenyually badly damaged the docks.

On the night of 15th / 16th February 1942 10 Squadron were ordered to supply six aircraft for the attack on St.Nazaire. The operatinal orders prior to take off ordered them to fly the route to the target using turning points from base, to Cottesmore, Bridport and then to fly due south over the English Channel to Plurien (Northern France) down to St.Nazaire. They were to spend no longer than fifteen minutes over the target area before flying the resiprocal route back to Leeming. All six aircraft took off between 17.30hrs and 18.00hrs, the crew of Halifax L9619 were last to take off from Leeming at 18.00hrs. Of the six aircraft that were planned to be used the crew of one inadvertantly forgot to close the pilot's escape hatch before taking off and once in the air the crew could not close it so returned to base at 17.00hrs. Unfortunately the 10 Squadron records do not state when the crew of Halifax L9619 were over the target area, the other four released their bomb load at between 20.33hrs and 20.52hrs from heights as low as 2,500 feet and as high as 14,000 feet and all reported that cloud obscured their view. Owing to thick cloud over the target area the crew of Halifax L9619 spent too attempting to locate it before releasing at least part of their 7x 1000lb load. It is fair to say that as Halifax L9619 took off last and that as they then spent too long over the target so they would have been last to release their load and later than 20.52hrs. During the return leg the wireless of L9619 failed and because of poor weather over Northern England they drifted off course. The squadron records state that the crew believed that they passed Cottesmore on the route north and had managed to reach Church Fenton but then became lost, after making a "Darky" assistance request from units on the ground they were given a direction of 016b degrees to steer and to fly on that heading for fifteen minutes. Still not locating an airfield they again made a number of "Darky" calls and again the course was the same heading but for ten minutes this time. No airfield was found. Having made unsuccessful attempts at gaining assistance through their "Darky" signals the crew saw hills below them. Not knowing where they were and with fuel levels indicating that they would run out in a few minutes the pilot climbed the aircraft to a safe height of 5,000 feet and ordered the crew to bale out. All left the aircraft successfully and all landed in Cumberland without incident. The pilot was last to bale out, his logbook states "baled out Appleby". The aircraft flew on east and crashed a few miles further on, onto moorland near Keld, at the head of Swaledale at 01.43hrs on 16th February 1942.

Pilot - F/Sgt Eos Clwydfryn Lloyd RAF (522279).

Second Pilot - P/O Laurence David Hillier RCAF (J/6380).

Flight Engineer - Sgt James Woods Thain RAF (568996).

Navigator - Sgt Frank Frederick Mapes RAFVR (1160949).

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - F/Sgt William Norman Guertin RCAF (R/68183).

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Llewelyn Clifford Matthias RAFVR (1056236).

Air Gunner - Sgt R L Gifford RAF.

Of those involved in the crash near Keld on 15th February 1942 Lloyd, Hillier, Mapes, Guertin and Gifford all flew together on their next operational flight on 26th February 1942 with 10 Squadron in Halifax W1006 on an attack of Kiel harbour. On the night of 27th / 28th April 1942 Lloyd, Hillier, Thain and Guertin and Gifford were flying in 10 Squadron Halifax W1058 on an operational flight to locate and bomb the German battleship Tirpitz at Trondheim when Sgt Gifford was wounded by enemy action, the crew landed at Lossiemouth. This appears to be Sgt Gifford's last operational flight with 10 Squadron and nothing more is known about him.

P/O Hillier (with his own crew), F/Sgt Eos Lloyd, F/Sgt Guertin and Sgt Thain were part of the 10 Squadron contingent that were sent on detachment to North Africa, on 6th July 1942 those who were sent there took off from Leeming for the long flight south to serve with what became 10/227 Squadron. P/O Hillier's aircraft was one of two aircraft that were damaged on landing at Gibraltar and he and his crew were sent back home, arriving at Leeming on 14th July 1942. Lloyd, Guertin and Thain made it to North Africa and joined 10/227 Squadron. On 1st August 1942 W/O Lloyd was walking beside either the runway or a road around Mena airfield when a South African vehicle driven by a South African national approached from behind, swerved off the road and onto the sand on which W/O Lloyd was stood. The vehicle struck Lloyd from behind and it was recorded in the 10/227 ORB that it was thought that he would loose the sight in an eye. The unit orb wholy lay blame on the vehicle driver and stated he was criminally negligent. This injury took W/O Lloyd of operational flying and I thank to Russ Grey for sharing pages of Eos Lloyd's logbook. In September 1942 Guertin and Thain joined the newly formed 462 Squadron.

On 5th / 6th November 1942 F/Sgt Guertin was flying in 462 Squadron Halifax W7671 when an engine caught fire soon after taking off. His then pilot initially instructed his crew to abandon the aircraft and two of the crew complied but the fire then went out and after dumping the bombload the aircraft, complete with the rest of the crew including F/Sgt Guertin, landed safely at base of Fayid. The two airmen who had baled out survived and later returned to their unit. On 10th / 11th November 1942 F/Sgt Guertin was flying operationally in Halifax DT498 when the aircraft was hit and badly damaged by flak in the Tobruk area. With the aircraft on fire the order to abandon it was given and three of the crew including F/Sgt Guertin survived but was captured. Sadly three other members of his then crew died. F/Sgt Guertin probably landed in the sea as one of the other survivors reportedly swam four miles to the African coast and after hiding for four days was eventually picked up by Allied troops. Guertin (of Wallaceburg, Ontario, Canada) was captured and spent the rest of the War as a PoW.

James Thain had earlier served with 35 Squadron before posting to 10 Squadron. He also went to North Africa and would serve with 10/227 Squadron and then 462 Squadron until Christmas 1942 when the unit received orders that all existing aircrew with 462 Squadron were instructed to return to the UK as all were classed as having completed their operational tours. 462 Squadron re-equipped with new aircrew in January 1943. F/Sgt Thain's new unit or later postings are not known. James Thain received a commission on 27th April 1944 (54584) to the rank of Acting P/O on probation (emergency) in the Technical Branch of the RAF. He was graded as P/O on probation on 7th September 1944 and was promoted to F/O (war subs) on 7th March 1945. He remained in the RAF after the war taking the rank of F/O and was later promoted to F/Lt on 11th May 1948. He was appointed to a permanent commission of F/Lt in the Technical Branch on 16th May 1952.

Frank Mapes was born on 21st July 1920 in London. He was posted from 10 Squadron to 77 Squadron on 25th April 1942. He served with 77 Squadron until 4th April 1943 when he was posted to 1663 Heavy Conversion Unit. He received a commission on 24th March 1943. He later served with 571 Squadron flying as a navigator in Moquitoes and was awarded the DFC for service with them, Gazetted on 13th October 1944. He died on 21st October 1963 in Kent.
Sgt Llewelyn Matthias was born on 12th January 1918. He was posted in to 10 Squadron on 30th December 1941 and was flying his first operational flight when he baled out of Halifax L6919 on 16th February 1942. He was killed on 5th / 6th June 1942 when 10 Squadron Halifax W7696 crashed near Cologne on Ops to Essen. He is buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery. His name is spelt incorrectly as Sgt Mathias throughout the 10 Squadron ORB.

David Hillier is the airman in the centre on the photograph above, he was known to his family by his second name. David was born on 27th April 1918 and was the son of Henry Robert and Pearl Hillier, of La Tugue, Quebec, Canada. His mother died when he was young and his father re-married. As a young man he attended a buisness college in Montreal studying bookkeeping. He then worked for his father's company as a clerk and bookkeeper from 1938 until leaving to joing Canada's war effort in 1940. He enlisted into the RCAF in Montreal on 14th October 1940. He gained his pilot's Wings on 27th July 1941 and was granted a commission as P/O the following day. Upon arrival in the UK he trained at 10 OTU before posting to 10 Squadron on 2nd January 1942. Having been posted to 10/227 Squadron in July 1942 and then returning to 10 Squadron after a mishap at Gibraltar a week later he was posted to 405 Squadron on 8th August 1942. He was promoted to the rank of Acting F/Lt on the same date. He was appointed as "B-Flight" Commander of 405 Squadron at Topcliffe but was sadly killed on 3rd September 1942 flying Halifax DT487 on Ops to Karlsruhe, Germany. The aircraft was shot down by a German night-fighter (piloted by Oblt Martinek of 1/NJG4) which then crashed at 01.46hrs in Belgium. F/Lt Hillier was initially buried locally in the Communal Cemetery Lesves, Belgium but was later exhumed and reburied in the War Cemetery, Hotton, Belgium. He was twenty four years old. My thanks to Bernard LeJeune of La Tuque, Quebec for contacting me regarding F/Lt Hillier and for the photograph of him shown above. The aircraft shown appears to carry the coding "M" and could be the aircraft in which he was to lose his life which carried the same squadron code.

There were two people who served in the RAF under the name and initials "R.L.Gifford" who may fit to being his true identity; Roger Lancelot Gifford RAFVR (991755) and Reginald Lincoln Gifford RAFVR (1852127) but I have yet to discover which one. AIR81 / 13760 should answer this. If he was Reginald Lincoln Gifford then he was born on 8th May 1917 in East Ham, London, in the 1939 register he was working as an aeroplane erector at Castle Bromwich, Birmingham (probably at the Vickers factory) and he died in 1974 at Cheltenham.
I located the crash site of Halifax L9619 near Keld in September 2010 and small remains of the aircraft still exist at the crash site including a lot of wooden fragments, infact the most wood I have seen at a Halifax site. For years a sign used to stand near the site warning of there being bombs remaining under the surface of the moor. This sign has now gone but the six-inch high post stump still remains. It is not known how many bombs did or do remain at the crash site as 10 Squadron ORB stated that the crew had released their bombs over France, it is possible that some were not released or had become "hung up" and when down with the aircraft. The warning post apparently came about after a local farmer wore a track in the moor with his tractor and after a time the peat became compressed and the fins of a bomb appeared. I returned to the site in 2018 and it looked very different, the scattered wreckage appeared collected together and very much reduced in quantity.

A general view of the area of the crash site on a very wet part of the Yorkshire Dales.

Some of the larger pieces of the aircraft still at the site in 2010.

A .303 bullet case dated 1941.

One large wooden section with a metal bracket attached containing the number and inspection stamp "HP" shown below confirming the aircraft to be Halifax and the part coming from the Handley Page factory.

Halifax L9619 was built to contract 692649/37 by Handley Page Ltd. at Radlett. It was allotted to 8 MU on 11th September 1941 at Little Rissington but was taken on charge by 10 Squadron at Leeming on 8th November 1941. As a result of the crash on 16th February 1942 Cat.E2/FB damage was the damage assessment and it was struck off charge on 21st February 1942 with a total flying time of just 47.00 hours. It was broken up on site and taken to the roadside at the High Bridge for loading onto road transport.

In 2016 I found a fragment of aircraft in the river bed many miles down stream which is probably from this aircraft. How it got into the river is anyone's guess.

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