On the night of 20th / 21st July 1944 578 Squadron supplied a number of Halifaxes for an operational flight to bomb an oil refinery at Bottrop, Germany. This night would turn out to be horrenous for 578 Squadron in terms of losses, six aircraft failed to return to base with thirty six airmen being killed with a further six surviving parachute descents over Europe. Halifax LK834 took off from Burn airfield at 22.56hrs and the crew carried out their task, releasing the bomb load as instructed. On their return to Yorkshire low cloud effected visibility, while making for Burn airfield this aircraft collided with Halifax MZ696 of 578 Squadron over the Howden area and both aircraft became locked together. At 03.15hrs they crashed on land near Gate House Farm, Balkholme near Howden with the loss of all on board both aircraft. In total fourteen airmen were killed. Details of the other crew I list on a seperate specific webpage.

Pilot - P/O William Davidson RAFVR (179653), aged 20. Buried Perth (Wellshill) Cemetery, Perthshire.

Flight Engineer - Sgt Edward Roxby RAFVR (1218669), aged 22, of Easington Colliery. Buried Easington Colliery Cemetery.

Navigator - Sgt Eric Stanley Clark RAFVR (1581727), aged 21, of Wolverhampton. Buried Wolverhampton Borough Cemetery, Staffordshire.

Bomb Aimer - Sgt Leslie Matthewman RAFVR (1621498), aged 21, of Leeds. Buried Lawnswood Cemetery, Leeds, Yorkshire (Y/132).

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Harold James Watkins RAFVR (1234938), aged 23, of Acton. Buried Acton Cemetery, Middlesex.

Air Gunner - Sgt Thomas Scott Barnett RAFVR 91571360), aged 28. Buried Tollcross (Central) Churchyard, Glasgow.

Air Gunner - WO Albert Leonard Page RAFVR (1376742), aged 23, of South Woodford. Buried City of London Cemetery, Manor Park, Essex.

A memorial was dedicated close to the crash sites on 15th October 2006 with the local parson Rev.Poskitt officiating. Around New Years Eve in 2007 a local man was metal detecting the field where the aircraft crashed and found a sizeable unexploded bomb which resulted in local roads being closed when the bomb detonated by the Army Bomb Disposal Unit. This bomb was almost certainly an un-released bomb that was still on board one of the aircraft when it crashed.

Well before the memorial was thought about air historians Eric Barton, Ken Reast and Albert Pritchard located surface remains on the site of where the aircraft crashed in March 1997 with permission of the landowner Mr George Wilburn. Mr Wilburn has since died. The photograph shown above is of a small piece of one of the aircraft retained by Eric Barton following his search in 1997, the "57.." number prefix identifies the item as being from a Halifax. The memorial is not on the crash site but overlooks the area.