ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 192846
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| Date: | Sunday 14 January 1945 |
| Time: | 21:45 |
| Type: |  Handley Page Halifax Mk III |
| Owner/operator: | 425 (Alouette) Sqn RCAF |
| Registration: | MZ466 |
| MSN: | |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | about half a mile north of White Mare Crag, near Thirsk, Yorkshire, En -
 United Kingdom
|
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Training |
| Departure airport: | |
At 1851hrs on 14 January 1945 the Halifax III MZ466 KW-P of 425 Sqn RCAF took off from Tholthorpe airfield for a night cross-country navigation exercise with a crew of seven men, mainly French-Canadians. The training flight was carried out and the crew were returning to their home airfield in the Vale of York but low cloud was covered the general area around the base and as the aircraft neared Thirsk the crew were almost certainly flying in cloud and were disorientated. As the aircraft neared the Sutton Bank it was flying roughly east and descending through the cloud. Soon after flying over Southwoods Hall the crew would not have seen the high ground they were descending into until it was not possible to avoid a crash. At 2145hrs (or 2115hrs, sources vary) the aircraft struck this high ground about half a mile north of White Mare Crag. After the impact the aircraft bounced itself onto the snow covered fields above with the tail section breaking off almost immediately and much of the aircraft then disintergated and caught fire across the field as it came to a halt some distance from it’s initial point of impact to the west of Dialstone Farm, near Thirsk, Yorkshire. Six of the crew were killed in these seconds, the airmen in the front part of the aircraft stood no chance of survival and almost certainly lost their lives instantly.
Mr Joseph Sharp, the 24 year old son of the owner of Dialstone Farm, Mr John Sharp, had heard the resulting crash. He was tending to animals in the farm buildings and was the first to arrive at the crash site and by the time he arrived at the crash a number of fires had broken out and bullets were heard to be exploding with the heat. He heard the shouts of a trapped survivor who was in danger of being burnt by these fires and made his way to him by climbing up to where this survivor was trapped in the remains of the mid-upper turret. Mr Sharp recounted that the airman was a larger man than he was and was trapped by a metal bar across his knees, he told Joseph Sharp to un-zip his flying boots and to try and lift him out but reaching down into the remaining fuselage this was not possible, the metal bar along with his broken legs prevented him being easily removed. The farm’s owner Mr John Sharp and his daughter Mabel arrived at the site a short time later, Joseph had had to go for help and met them on his way back to the farm. The fire which was slowly making it’s way up the fuselage was getting closer to the turret by the time he returned to the airman with his father, Joseph then went inside the remains of the aircraft and underneath the air gunner while his father climbed up to where his son had previously been. Mabel began throwing snow onto the fire to try and stop it spreading, given all she had were her hands to do this, it had little effect. John and Joseph Sharp managed to extract the airman as the fire was literally reaching them, they dragged him further from the flames onto a peice of the aircraft where he was clearing in some pain. He was put onto the snow and wrapped in a parachute which was found. The Sharp’s then turned their efforts in looking for the other members of the crew and after locating them it was realised that none had stood a chance of survival given their frontal location on the aircraft, there was nothing that could be done for them.
Meanwhile, people at Southwoods Hall down the hillside had also seen the fire on the hill top and had contacted the police, who inturn one assumes they had contacted the RAF and other services who had all began to drive to the top of Sutton Bank and to Dialstone Farm. A horse and sled had been brought up to the crash site and the survivor was put onto this sled and carefully taken back to Dialstone Farm, this took some time due to the airman’s injuries and the pain he was in and soon after they arrived back at the farm, the authorities arrived. Joseph Sharp returned to the crash site again and helped recover the bodies of the other airmen. It was at this stage that it was realised there was a body short so a second search was made and the tail section of the aircraft was located, the gunner was in his turret but had also been killed in the crash, he along with his crew mates were taken to Dialstone Farm and eventually to be buried along side one another at Harrogate’s Stonefall Cemetery.
The survivor was taken to the Friarage Hospital in Northallerton where he spent a period of time before being admitted to a smaller cottage hospital in the town. He later returned to Canada where it is known that he visited some of the families of the airmen killed in the crash. His family also wrote to the Sharp family to express their thanks for saving his life. Other documentary sources state this air gunner suffered severe burns in the crash, this however was not the case, as far as is known he suffered two broken legs and a broken arm, one also assumes however he had other injuries of a more minor nature.
Crew:
Pilot - F/O John Wallace Richard Walsh RCAF (J/38040), aged 20, of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Flight Engineer - Sgt Kenneth Millard Hillis RCAF (R/254854), aged 30, of Brockville, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Navigator - Sous Lt Joseph Robert Real Gingras RCAF (T/41523), aged 21, of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Bomb Aimer - Sous Lt Robert Joseph Dubeau RCAF (J/41523), aged 23, of Penetang, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - WO2 Jean Jacques Marcel Simard RCAF (R/125326), aged 23, of Ottawa, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Rear Gunner - F/Sgt Joseph Leon Alfred Chauvin RCAF (R/207284), aged 21, of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Mid Upper Gunner - F/Sgt Octave Robert Custeau RCAF, of Three Rivers, Quebec, Canada. Survived but with serious injuries; multiple fractures.
The recovery of the aircraft took some time, nothing was done until the snow had melted and a guard was placed at the site, it was recounted that these guards were very reluctant to stand in a snow covered field on top of the Hambleton Hills in the middle of Winter. One guard was found sheltering at the farm and was given food in the house by Mrs Sharp. The aircraft was eventually recovered from the area. A main wheel and the turret ended up on the slope down towards Southwoods Hall but the rest of the aircraft was scattered across the fields on the hill top. In the decades following the crash the area has been ploughed and cultivated and much of anything which would have remained on site was almost certainly ploughed in.
Halifax LW466 was built to contract ACFT/2595/C4/C by the London Aircraft Production Group at the Leavesden factory and was delivered directly to 425 Squadron at Tholthorpe airfield in October 1944. It was written off with Cat.E2/FA(Burnt) damage being recorded following the incident detailed above near Sutton Bank. A brief entry on Tholthorpe’s ORB states: "Aircraft on training flight crashed at 21.45 hours at Dialstone Farm, Hambleton. 6 killed, 1 injured."
Sources:
http://www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk/aircraft/planes/45/mz466.html
"Royal Air Force Bomber Command losses, vol 6. Aircraft and Crews Losses 1945", by W R Chorley, ISBN 0-904597-92-X
https://www.findagrave.com/page=gr&GRid=46566971
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thirsk
http://www.maplandia.com/united-kingdom/england/yorkshire-and-humberside/north-yorkshire-county/thirsk/
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 15-Jan-2017 08:38 | Laurent Rizzotti | Added |
| 14-Oct-2018 15:25 | Nepa | Updated [Time, Operator, Operator] |
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