Halifax LW378 near Crayke, Easingwold.
On 2nd March 1944 the crew of this Halifax were returning to their base of Tholthorpe following an evening cross-country navigation
exercise. During the training flight the aircraft's starboard outer engine failed, the engine was shut down and the propeller feathered.
This in itself was not a serious problem as pilots were trained to flying on three engines. The aircraft went in for a landing at Tholthorpe
but the pilot was forced to overshoot, climbing on three engines would almost certainly have proved difficult but the crew attempted to go
around to have another try at landing on the same runway but suffered trouble with another engine while doing so. The pilot lost control
and the aircraft crashed two hours after taking off near Oakdene Farm, Crayke at 20.05hrs with seven of the eight man crew on board being
sadly killed. The aircraft is believed to have struck a tree close to Oakdene Farm prior to hitting the ground with a large fire destroying
much of the aircraft. An attending firemen was traced in 2010 and recalled the trouble in putting out the burning aircraft, he believed
the diffulties were caused by burning phosphorus bombs that had ignited in the crash.
The AM Form 1180 accident record card held at the RAF Museum is very difficult to read and not a detailed accident report, the wording on the
report suggests that the failed engine may have caught fire prior to the crash. This researcher attempts to stay away from speculation but from
what is known of similiar Halifax crashes where two engines on the same side were stopped it is possible that in turning the aircraft to line up
for Tholthorpe the pilot allowed the side with the two shut down engines to drop, this often resulted in Halifax's pulling to that side and
the pilot's loosing control. Combined with the aircraft being at a low altitude there would be little time to attempt to dive out of the problem
to re-gain control before the aircraft was at ground level. This may have occured to LW378 but nothing proving this has yet been found.
Halifax LW378's history is brief, it was built to Contract ACFT/1808/C4/C by E.E.C. Ltd at Salmesbury and was ready for
collection in October 1943. It was delivered to 425 Squadron at Dishforth in November 1943 and moved with unit to Tholthorpe on 9th December
1943. Cat.E2/FA Burnt damage was recorded after assessment following the incident detailed above on 2nd March 1944.
Pilot - P/O Joseph H T R Bertrand RCAF (J/87075), aged 19, of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Flight Engineer - Sgt James E Dix RAFVR (1833824), aged 38, of Stockport. Buried Norbury, Cheshire.
Bomb Aimer - P/O Elbert C Bousquet RCAF (J/88339), aged 19, of Wilkie, Saskatchewan, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - P/O Christian J J L Goudreau RCAF (J/89449), aged 22, of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Air Gunner - P/O Roland J Trudel RCAF (J/89446), aged 25, of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Air Gunner - P/O Douglas N Hay RCAF (J/90944), aged 32, of Belleview, Manitoba, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Air Gunner - Sgt Charles E Cote RCAF (R/10797), aged 22, of Quebec City, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Navigator - F/Sgt Joseph O L "Leonel" Houle RCAF, of Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan, Canada. Seriously injured but survived.
The gravestones of those killed in this accident and buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery. Sadly very little is known of any of these airmen and currently no
relations of any have been found. No photographs have been found of any of the crew.
Joseph Bertrand was born on 10th December 1922. He received his commission after his death from the rank of Flight Seargant to Pilot Officer.
James Dix was one of the oldest airmen to be killed on active service in Bomber Command at the age of thirty eight.
Elbert Bousquet was born on 2nd October 1923 in Wilkie, Saskatchewan. His father moved to the Wilkie area in 1910 from Roxton Pond, Quebec while his mother was
from Northfield, Rice County, Minnesota. USA. Elbert went to Glen Logan school and later McLurg high school, he was working as a despatcher when he enlisted
in Toronto on 28th April 1942. Bousquet Lake in Saskatchewan is named in his honour.
Christian Goudreau was born on 4th October 1921.
Roland Trudel was born on 23rd March 1918. His father, Regis Trudel was in the Canadian Army and died in June 1932, his mother died in 1992, aged 101. P/O Trudel is commemerated on his mother's grave in Canada.
Douglas Hay was born on 25th December 1913.
Charles Cote was born on 27th April 1921.
Joseph Houle appears to have been known by his third name "Leonel", he died in Gravelbourg in May 2002, aged 81.
Following a request for information about this accident in the Easingwold Advertiser in May 2011 by it's editor Mr David Smith,
the landowners of where the aircraft crashed came forward and ironically both had been family friends for years but had never discussed
the incident before. Mr Smith kindly set a meeting with them for me. Prior to visiting the area I talked with the landowners to see
what they knew of the accident and the crash site which turned out to be very little other than someone had previously visited the
field some years ago have claimed to have made investigations locally. The unknown person is said to have made a search of the field
but failed to locate anything aircraft-related, he also suggested to the landowners that the aircraft clipped at least one specfic
tree near the house and damaged a second away from the property. It also transpired that he probably gave them a print out of an
early version of this webpage.
In June 2011 I visited the farm with air historians Albert Pritchard, Ken Reast and Dick Barton and we located small fragments
of the aircraft in the field suggested by this previous visitor. Should this researcher come forward I would like to credit him on
this webpage in helping my research. I also agree with his suggestion of the aircraft striking the branches of a nearby tree just
before striking the ground though it does appear not to have been in level flight at the time it struck the tree due to the closeness
of this tree to a large concentration of formerly molten alluminium. This often is the result of a large portion of the aircraft
stopping there and catching fire. This area is too close to the tree for the aircraft to have slowed enough had it been flying
level. The accident crash card, the AM Form 1180, stated that the aircraft caught fire. This is the largest area of burnt
Halifax I have seen at a low ground site, clearly the post-crash fire must have been intense.
We spent a reasonable amount of time in the field searching ideally for an intact peice of the Halifax with a readable part
number, this would confirm the aircraft but the search proved in vein. We did however locate one .303 bullet case dated 1942 and
a "Dip Stick" cap with the lettering "A.G.S." which refered to "Aircraft General Supplies" - such parts were used across a number
of aircraft types. Only one aircraft is known to have crashed in the Crayke area in the War and combined with witness accounts the
site can only be that of Halifax LW378. We could have spent longer searching for this illusive peice but the field was used for grazing horses
and perhaps we were begining to outstay our welcome with the animals!
A selection of the small items located at the crash site.
The effects of the post-crash fire are still to be found in the field with a huge amount of small peices of once molten
aircraft alluminium scattering the field. This was possibly the largest area of molten Halifax I have seen at a crash site.
