On the 29th June 1943 the crew of this aircraft were undertaking a cross-country training flight when an engine failed ten minutes after taking off due to the failure of the big end baring inside the engine. At 10.52hrs the pilot made a text-book crash landing in a field near Crosby Manor Farm, near to Thornton le Beans but sadly two of the crew were killed with five surviving.
Pilot - F/Lt David J Corcoran RCAF (J/4328), of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Uninjured.
FEng - Sgt Venier RAF
Nav - P/O Richard E (Dick) Nutter RCAF (J/17555), aged 29, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Buried Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.
AB - P/O Webley (probably Leslie C E Webley RCAF (J/21610), of Assiniboia, Saskatchewan, Canada.)
WOp/AG - Sgt Raymond Crookes RAFVR (1455496), aged 21, of Sheffield. Buried Sheffield (Crookes Cemetery), Sheffield, Yorkshire (Sec JJ, grave 6101).
AG - Sgt Holdsworth
AG - P/O Darrell E Larlee RCAF (J/14743), of St.John, New Brunswick, Canada.
Dick Nutter's grave at Dishforth Cemetery, Yorkshire.
David Corcoran was a very experienced pilot with nearly 1500 hours flying to his name when this incident occured, his experience was however not on the Halifax type, he had only twenty six hours to his name on this type.
Darrell Larlee was born in Bath, Carleton County, New Brunswick on 19th May 1912 and attended Mount Allision University before begining work for the Fraser Company Ltd in the forests of New Brunswick and Quebec. At the ripe old age of twenty eight he enlisted into the RCAF in early 1940 to become a pilot but was not accepted so was posted to a ground role. In 1941 he tried to become aircrew again and was accepted as an airgunner, he did well in training and passed out commissioned. He was posted overseas in late-1941. After further training in the UK (which involved this accident at Thornton le Beans) he was eventually posted to 419 Squadron. He had completed eighteen operational flights before 31st August 1943 when he, along with F/Lt Corcoran (his pilot in DT553) were undertaking ops to Berlin when their aircraft, Halifax JD331, was shot down by a nightfighter. He and Corcoran survived but were captured and taken prisoner of war. He found himself in the Sagan PoW camp, made famous for the Great Escape break-out resulting in fifty escapees being murdered. Larlee took an active role in the tunnel digging but could not take part in the break-out because he was suffering from a bad leg at the time. He saw out the war as a PoW and later returned home to Canada and returned to working for the company he left in 1940. He died in 1993, aged 83.
It seems likely that P/O Webley was later promoted and he was one F/O Leslie C E Webley RCAF (J/21610), he was posted to 431 Squadron and sadly killed when Halifax LK884 on 9th May 1944. The aircraft was shot down by a night fighter and crashed near Rance, Belgium. He is buried at Gosselies Communal Cemetery, Belgium.