Halifax DG277 near Long Marston.
At 23.33hrs on 14th August 1944 Halifax DG277 took off from Rufforth airfield so the crew could carry out a night navigation exercise as part of the training programme at 1663 Heavy Conversion Unit. Just before 03.00hrs on 15th August 1944 the aircraft was returning to base in poor weather but with the crew struggling with poor visibility. The aircraft flew into rising ground to the south of Long Marston, it hit an oak tree prior to coming to a halt in a field and at the edge of a small wood. The flight engineer sadly died as a result of the accident and six others were injured but at least two of these must have been seriously injured as they did not resume training again for some months. The others named below who were injured survived the war but possibly as they were too seriously injured to resume their training. This aircraft crashed near Long Marston in North Yorkshire, not Long Marston in Warwickshire as is incorrectly stated on other websites and a simple check of the death index for the flight engineer involved would prove this.
Pilot - F/O Thomas Gordon Smith RNZAF (NZ.414692). Injured.
Flight Engineer - F/Sgt John Simpson Piper RAFVR (1880334), aged 35, of Coulsdon. Buried Coulsdon Churchyard, Surrey.
Navigator - F/O D Gordon RNZAF. Injured.
Bomb Aimer - F/Sgt Alfred Charles Maurice Ackrill RAFVR (1320970). Injured.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt J C Finn.
Air Gunner - F/O Edward Henry Ewin RAFVR (154904). Injured.
Air Gunner - F/O Walter Dennis Waller RAFVR (154752). Injured.
Ken Reast, Albert Pritchard, Eric Barton and I located small surface remains at the crash site of Halifax DG277 in March 2009, an oak tree close to the finds bares witness to something damaging it, almost certainly this aircraft. Thanks to the landowner Mr Beckett, of Long Marston, for allowing our visit.
Some of the pieces of metal found on the surface following a field-walk across the crash site, although none of the parts found bare Halifax part numbers many are undoubtably from the Halifax.
Thomas Smith was initially treated for his injuries at the sick quarters at Marston Moor airfield, he then received care at York Military Hospital and the RAF Hospital Rauceby. Because of the burns he received he was then taken to East Grinstead Hospital in July 1945 and he became one of the famous Guinea Pig patients.
The two air gunners resumed training but both were killed in a training accident with 1658 H.C.U. on 5th March 1945 when Halifax LL544 crashed near Skipwith, Yorkshire. F/O Ewin was buried in Selby Cemetery and was twenty three years old. He received a commission on 23rd December 1943 to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) and rising to F/O six months later. F/O Waller was returned home to Swansea and buried under private arrangments there. He had received a commission on 10th December 1943 to P/O on probation (emergency) and rose to F/O on 10th June 1944.
