On the night of 4th / 5th March 1945 the crew of this 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit aircraft took off from Riccall airfield at 19.55hrs to undertake a night cross-country training flight. With the exercise all but complete the aircraft was in the circuit of Riccall but overshot the approach to land, at 00.20hrs the pilot tried to apply power to climb away and fly another circuit of the airfield but while making a banked turn to fly around control was lost, the aircraft lost height and it crashed near Skipwith. Sadly four members of this crew were killed while the others were injured.
I used to work with a Mr John Henley who told me about a crash that occurred near where he lived on a farm at the time. I believe that this probably relates to Halifax LL544. He recounted to me that as a child he was at home on the night of this incident and heard the aircraft flying very low nearby and clearly in trouble. After the crash near the farm he recalled that the aircraft had taken the tops off two poplar trees at the end of his farm drive before taking out a telegraph pole and crashing in an adjacent field and catching fire. He recalled that the owner of a house at the corner of the field where the aircraft came down was forced to leave his house for the night due to bullets exploding. The bomb load was removed the next day, taken further into the field, put into a large hole in the ground and blown up. The young Mr Henley and his family had to take cover some distance away but he saw shrapnel whizz over his head from a mile away. Wreckage from the aircraft remained in the field for some time but was later taken away.
Navigator - F/O Joseph Hooper RAFVR (157579), aged 34, of Nottingham. Buried Selby Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt William George Mowbray RAFVR (1685751), aged 22, of Carlisle. Buried Upperby Cemetery, Carlisle, Cumbria.
Air Gunner - F/O Edward Henry Ewin RAFVR (154904), aged 23, of Didsbury, Manchester. Buried Selby Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Air Gunner - F/O Walter Dennis Waller RAFVR (154752), aged 23, of Swansea. Buried Sketty (Bethel) Chapelyard, Glamorgan.
Pilot - F/Lt Francis Chamberlain Neville RAFVR (142515).
Flight Engineer - Sgt Dennis Raphael Goodman RAFVR (3006403).
Bomb Aimer - F/O Victor Ernest Phillips RAFVR (162343).
Graves of the two crew who are buried in Selby Cemetery. Both Walter Waller and Edward Ewin had survived the accident to Halifax DG277 near Long Marston on 15th August 1944 while training with 1663 HCU. Both must have been fairly seriously injured and had only just resumed flying.
Walter Waller received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 10th December 1943 and rose to F/O six moths later.
Edward Ewin received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 23rd December 1943 and rose to F/O six moths later.
Joseph Cooper received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 20th September 1943 and rose to F/O six months later.
Francis Neville received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 31st December 1942 rising to F/O six months later and F/Lt on 31st December 1944.
Victor Phillips received a commission on 26th February 1944 to the rank of P/O on probation and rose to F/O six months later. He relinquished his commission on 10th May 1946, probably on the grounds that he received injuries in the crash of Halifax LL544 that prevented him from returning to his duties.
Historians Eric Barton, Albert Pritchard and Ken Reast sought permission from the landowner and field walked the field in August 2007 locating a handful of pieces that were enough to confirm the location. The two photographs shown here were taken by Eric Barton and show the general area of the crash and a selection of the fragments they found. The item below in the photograph above is an aircraft dimmer control and was retained by Eric Barton.
