Aircraft accidents in Yorkshire.

Halifax LW279 near Cawton, Helmsley.

On the night of 7th/8th June 1944 the crew of this aircraft set out from Wombleton at 22.14hrs to undertake a Bullseye training flight. It is believed they carried out the exercise, such exercises usually involved navigating to a British city and practicing a bombing run there, it would also benifit ground units who would test themselves. The weather over Ryedale by the time they returned was by now poor, with low cloud present. It is thought that they were making for home when an engine failed and then caught fire, the fire is then believed to have spread to the rest of the aircraft which could not be put out. At just before 04.00hrs, control was already lost and the aircraft descended through the cloud, it crashed inverted into rising ground south of Cawton and caught fire. All seven airmen stood no chance, they sadly lost their lives in the impact.

Pilot - P/O Arthur T Gill RCAF (J/85996), aged 29, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Navigator - F/O William B Hawkins RCAF (J/35828), aged 28, of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Flight Engineer - Sgt Richard R Norman RCAF (R/109152), aged 27, of Bowden, Alberta, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Air Bomber - Sgt William W Astles RCAF (R/169396), aged 23, of London, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

WOp/Air Gunner - WO1 William J Banner RCAF (R/127993), aged 24, of Oshawa, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire, Yorkshire.

Air Gunner - P/O Rudolph F Warne RCAF (J/39032), of Canada. aged 20, of Prince Rupert, British Columbia, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Air Gunner - F/O Thomas H Wilson RCAF (J/39036), aged 19, of Parkman, Saskatchewan, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.

Sgt William W Astles and his headstone at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery. He was born on 3rd March 1921, and was the son of Charles and Grace Astles, of 72 Connaught Avenue, London, Ontario and he attended Sir Adam Beck Collegiate from 1934-1939. His father was a veteran of the Great War and his son enlisted in the Postal Corps, where he served for three years before transferring to air crew in the RCAF and training as an Air Gunner. A F/O John J Astles RCAF was killed in February 1944. William's father lived at 72 Connaught St, London. John's father lived at 88 Connaught Ave, London. I would suggest that the two men were cousins.

The gravestones of the other six members of this crew who were buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery.

The crew had arrived at 1666 HCU in mid-May 1944.

Myself, Ken Reast, Dick Barton and Albert Pritchard visited the site in January 2006. It is thought that our party was the first to survey the site. Fair remains are still to be found on the surface, this is probably due to the soil being very thin and litle appears to be far below the surface. What we found was all on the surface. A large proportion of broken peices of cast alluminium bare witness to the engines and undercarriage being extensively damaged in the crash. The crash site is on private land and permission to access the site was given by Mr Hicks to whom we are most grateful. All items we found were left on the site.

Peices of the aircraft found on the surface.

Part of the face of an altimeter.

Halifax LW279 was built to contract ACFT/1808/C4/C by E.E.C. Ltd at Salmesbury and delivered directly to 429 Squadron at Leeming in mid-September 1943. The unit converted to Halifax MkV's in November 1943 so the aircraft was transferred to 428 Squadron at Middleton St.George. On an as yet unspecified date in early 1944 it transferred to 419 Squadron at Middleton St.George but this was short lived, the unit was converting to Lancasters in March 1944 so it transferred to 1666 HCU at Wombleton for the training role. The aircraft was written off in the incident recorded above with Cat.E2/FA Burnt damage being recorded.