The aircraft crashed close to where this modern road and is on private land. Air historian Graham Sharpe and I visited the crash site in March 2005 and a number of small pieces of the aircraft are still present on the surface at the site. We would like to express our thanks to Lord Downe for allowing our visit and for the help he was able to give us allowing the site to be located without difficulty. As a footnote to visiting the site, the crash site and general area of Wykeham Abbey is strictly private property and not only that, the body of F/Lt Haldon was not recovered from the site and as such the land is his last resting place. There is no memorial to him at Wykeham. If anyone reading this has photographs of any of the crew I would like to add them to this webpage.

Roland Harrison (shown above) had a total of 732 hours flying at the time of his death, 37 hours of which were on the Wellington type. He had enlisted for RAF service in 1942 and begun his training in January 1943. He appears to have served as an instructor for much of his service after training.

Peter Ingram was probably born in Chelsea, London and was the son of Frederick Howard and Florence (nee Lane) Ingram. He was attached to the CGS from 100 Squadron and their ORB records his death. His brother Frederick James Ingram was also an air gunner and was killed on the 17th April 1944, he is buried in Delhi War Cemetery.

Frederick Stiff was born on 13th November 1911 at Sudbury, Suffolk and was the son of William Robert and Margaret (nee Linn) Stiff. He was detached to the CGS from 201 Squadron. He was married to Hilda Stiff, of Hurworth, Co.Durham. His brother AC1 George Edward Stiff RAFVR died as a PoW while being held by the Japaneese, he died on 9th December 1942, he was twenty two years old and has no known grave.

John Armstrong was born on 28th April 1925 at Middlesbrough and was the son of John William and Florence May (nee Forrest) Armstrong.

F/Lt Haldon was the most experienced airman in Wellington BJ895 on this date but his body was not recovered from the crash site and his name commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial, CWGC list him as being on the books of 431 Squadron at the time of his death. His service still needs more research. Prior to May 1943 he had served in North Africa, he was posted back to the UK around the end of April 1943 and on 6th May 1943 he was posted to 1659 at Topcliffe to be an air gunner instructor. Later in 1943 he was serving in North Africa again as an air gunner with 70 Squadron. He would receive a commission in October 1943. The National Archives hold a remarkably detailed document giving his story of escape and evasion in 1943 which saw all but one of a crew of six evade capture after walking some 340 miles in a month through the desert. I feel that displaying it on this webpage would make a worthy addition.

On the night of 5th / 6th September 1943 he was the front gunner in Wellington Z8976 tasked with bombing Tobruk when, at 23.15hrs the aircraft was flying at 12,000 feet and was approaching the target area when it was hit by anti-aircraft fire between six to ten miles west of Tobruk. The crew released their bombs but soon after both engines of the aircraft cut out though the starboard engine then began working again. The crew headed away from Tobruk in a rough south-easterly direction and it bacame obvious that they would not make Allied lines they made a smooth forced landing in the desert with none of the crew being injured. Because of the close proximity of the enemy troops it was decided not to set fire to the aircraft but to destroy all equipment in the aircraft by hand, they then filled any available container with water from the aircraft's water tank and moved from the area quickly. Having initially chosen to head north to the coast they changed their mind an hour into the walk and returned to the aircraft before walking south for the rest of the night. Over the next few days they used damaged vehicles to shelter from the heat of the midday sun and navigated between marked water supplies on their map. They luckily were assisted by Arabs they approached in the desert who either helped them on their way or offered supplies of food and water, they also found weapons and equipment in abandoned lorries as they went. By day twelve the long walk had meant that the rear gunner's feet were becoming infected, the crew opted to head towards a road and should his feet become too bad to continue they would commandeer a lorry and try and continue by road. The following day they reached a road and spotted two parked lorries. At night the group jumped on the driver of one of the lorries but the attempt was not a success; the driver fought back and is thought to have shot the rear gunner before the other members of the crew opened fire on the driver. What they didn't know was that both lorries were carrying Italian troops and they were awoken by the noise. The aircrew fired at these troops, and although no other members of the crew had witnessed it, it was likely that the rear gunner, dispite his foot injuries, had fought against the troops and had been injured. He was not seen again by the rest of the crew and became a Prisoner of War. Between the night of day thirteen and day twenty two the rest of the crew continued to walk towards Allied lines and were assisted in this by a number of Arabs who again fed and watered them and directed them. On day twenty four nearing German lines they were assisted by Arabs who re-directed them away from their lines. Day twenty six brought heavy rain! Three days later they spotted two jeeps driven by British soldiers. They stopped the jeeps and were driven their camp. The following day they caught a lift to Alexandria with a rations lorry and to safety. These five airmen had walked some 340 miles in 29 days and this episode was a remarkable archievement, all were put forward for awards, some for Military Medals or Crosses but many were approved as Mentions in Despatches instead. The full crew who survived this adventure and details of their awards were:

Pilot - Sgt Reginald Cyril Carter RAFVR (1289031), MiD.
Second Pilot - Sgt Arthur Dennis Bebbington RAFVR (655944) - MiD.
Navigator - Sgt Ivor Davies RAF (920641) - MiD.
Wireless Operator - P/O Brian Earl Johnston RCAF (J/15429) - DFC.
Front Gunner - Sgt John Christopher Haldon RAFVR (1283177) - MiD.
Rear Gunner - F/Sgt Georges Thomas Bon Croisiau RCAF (R/82128) - MiD.

Reginald Carter received a commission on 22nd April 1943 (149463). He was Mentioned in Despatches on 2nd June 1943. He was later awarded the DFC in 1945 for service with 571 Squadron and survived the War. George Croisiau became a PoW and was Mentioned in Despatches on 2nd June 1943. He was repatriated to Canada a year later and was released from the RCAF in December 1944. Ivor Davies was Mentioned in Despatches on 2nd June 1943. John Haldon was Mentioned in Despatches on 2nd June 1943. He was posted to No.6 Group Bomber Command at the time of this plaudit. He received a commission on 18th October 1943 to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency), rising to F/O (war subs) on 18th April 1944 and F/Lt (war subs) on 18th October 1945. It's very sad that having survived the desert he was lost in the accident at Wykeham in peace-time. Arthur Bebbington was awarded the Military Medal, he received a commission on 12th December 1942 (141140) but rejoined 70 Squadron. He was killed on 23rd March 1943 flying in North Africa and was Mentioned in Despatches after his death on 2nd June 1943. Brian Johnston received the Distinguished Flying Cross (Gazetted on 5th February 1943). He was the only one not to be Mentioned in Despatches having already been awarded his DFC.