This aircraft, JD106, was the sister aircraft to JD105 which flew into the top of Hood Hill in 1943, the crew of JD106 took off
from Wombleton at 21.25 hrs on the 22nd/23rd June 1944 for a night
cross country training flight. At 01.05hrs it flew into high ground and broke up and partly caught fire to the
west of Farndale on Rudland Rigg after getting lost whilst in low cloud. The pilot descended to get a
fix on position. He thought that he was closer to base than his actual position and came down through the
cloud thinking Wombleton was close by. Six of the crew were killed, two were lucky and survived. The form AM1180 states
that the pilot was piloting the aircraft solo, confusion exists as to why there were two pilots on board.
The aircraft was built to contract ACFT/1808/C4 by E.E.C. Ltd at Salmesbury and delivered directly to 10 Sqdn at Melbourne on 22nd April
194.43. After operational service it was transferred to 1666 HCU at Wombleton on an as yet unspecified date. On 27th April 1944 whilst
taxying in preparation for a training flight was involved in a Cat.A/FA accident. Halifax JB859 piloted by F/O W.R.J. Wells was
taxying behind JD106 and the pilot who was doing cockpit checks was not keeping a good lookout and collided with the rear turret of
JD106, killed the rear gunner Sgt Falan RCAF. The pilot of JD106 on this occasion was F/O W.R. Chalcroft RCAF. The aircraft was repaired on site and returned to
flying but was written off in the incident detailed above with Cat E2/FA Burnt damage on 23rd June 1944.
Pilot - F/O Arthur P Haacke RCAF, aged 24, of Elphinstone, Manitoba, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire. Husband of Pauline Haacke. Also listed as being of Watson, Saskat.
Nav - F/O Melville A Foy RCAF, aged 25. of Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire. His father lived at 201 Willow Ave, Toronto.
F Eng - Sgt Percy R Davis RAFVR, aged 19, of Hackney, London, buried Abney Park Cemetery, London.
W Opp / Air Gunner - WO1 Jean M C Plante RCAF, aged 20, of Quebec City, Canada, buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Air Bomber - F/O Herbert W Garwood RCAF, aged 20, of London, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire. His father lived at 270 Simcoe Street, London, Ontario.
Air Gunner - P/O Leonard A Scutt RCAF, aged 21, of Whonock, British Columbia, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Also listed as being of Limerick, Sask.
The others on board were:
Pilot - P/O L B Lemon RAF - Unhurt.
F Eng - Sgt R W L Lucas RAF - Injured.
The grave of F/O Haacke in Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery. At the time of the crash he had a total of 27 hours flying time on this type of Halifax, 16 of which were at night.
The area of the crash where wreckage is still visable.
I searched for this crash site in August 2002 (with Will Lund), June 2003 (on my own) and July 2003 (with John Skinn), a wide area
of the moor was covered but sadly nothing was found on these searches. I was told by Howard Newbould that afew small peices of what is
thought to from this aircraft were found about a decade ago by him, although a gas pipeline was been laid over this site in years
following his visit and this may have gone straight through what was thought to be the crash site. I revisited the area yet again
in December 2003 determined to locate the site. After a slight clue on where to look, in a different place than previously
searched and after an hour or so finally located some peices of alloy.
Thanks to David E Thompson for helping to locate this aircraft crash site. The crash report states a position for the crash
as "1 mile south of Burton Howe", this I now know to be incorrect. This source seems to get quoted in a number of other more rescent
publications, the Yorkshire Air Museum for one quote this description.
Arthur Haacke could well have had a brother who served in the RCAF, a P/O George A Haacke of Elphinstone, Manitoba was listed as
missing on active service. He ended up a POW in Germany. Conformation of relationship needs researching.