The Oxford took from RAF Millom on the morning of the 2nd November 1941 for a cross-country navigation exercise. The aircraft flew into cloud and struck the hillside close to the summit of Caw Fell towards the western side of the Lake District at just before 10.00 hrs killing both airmen on board and destroying the aircraft.
Pilot - Sgt Charles A Desbaillets RCAF (R79007), aged 22, of Montreal, Province of Quebec, Canada. Buried Haverigg Cemetery.
Trainee Obs - LAC Henry Hodgkinson RAFVR, aged 29, of Derby, buried Derby Nottingham Road Cemetery.
The pilot and his headstone at Haverigg Cemetery.
The hottest day I have ever known whilst visiting aircraft sites!
Will Lund and myself visited the site in October 2003, not much remains today. Both engines which were in the shallow crater afew years ago have gone, one hopes to a museum. It is one site mentioned in Wainwrights guide books.
David Earl's series of two Hell on High Ground books detail this incident and many of the other accidents in the Lake District, which he has researched to great extent. I do not plan to copy his work.