This night was a bad night for Bomber Command, a number of aircraft were to be lost due to severe icing in Yorkshire. This Halifax was one of 760 leaving to bomb Chemnitz on the 5th of March 1945 on Operation Thunderclap. It left its Linton base at 16.48 hrs and flew in a north-easterly direction over the Moors, crews were ordered to circle base until all the units aircraft were in the air and could all continue as one large bombing force, where the pilots flew during this waiting time was more or less up to them so long as they were over Linton at a set time, around 15.30hrs. No adverse weather was forcast prior to take off, though this would prove to be an inaccurate forecast. Soon after take off this aircraft began to encouter icing conditions, the pilot began circling in an attempt to get above freezing fog which was present over much of North Yorkshire on this evening. The attempt failed and the aircraft came down just south of Hutton le Hole near Westfield Farm at 16.59 hrs, due to icing on the aircrafts surfaces making control impossible. All seven on board the aircraft were lost. Mr W. E. Strickland of nearby Westfield Lodge Farm witnessed the crash unfold, he was "out in his farmyard when he heard a Halifax making a peculiar noise and saw it, just below cloud at about 3000 feet, making a slow, flat spin to the right. As the aircraft fell, it spun faster, then nosed down and struck the ground at about forty-five degrees about 300 yards away" from him. When it struck the ground it burst into flames. Several minutes later the bombload blew up. It was one of seven Halifax's to crash on this day due to identical circumstances. Another source states that three of the crew may have survived the crash, though injured crawled clear only to be killed when the bomb load blew up moments later.
This aircraft was built to contract ACFT/1688/C4/C by Handley Page at Radlet and was delivered directly to 426 Sqdn on 9th September 1944. It was destroyed in the incident detailed above with Cat E2 / Burnt damage. A brief entry in Linton on Ouse's ORB states: "05.03.45. 426 Sqdn Halifax crashed at Kirkbymoorside".
Pilot - F/O Humphrey S Watts RCAF, aged 28, of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Navigator - F/O Frank MacGregor Myers RCAF, aged 20, of Dauphin, Manitoba, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Bomb Aimer - F Sgt William A Way RCAF, aged 20, of St Thomas, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Mid Upper Gunner - P/O Maxwell W Coones RCAF, aged 20, of Peterborough, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
W Op / Air Gunner - P/O Benedict J (Bennie) McCarthy RCAF, aged 27, of Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire. Also listed as being from Glace Bay, Nova Scotia
F Eng - P/O William A Togwell RAFVR, aged 25, of Derby, buried Nottingham Road Cemetery, Derby. Husband of Florrie (nee Bettison).
Rear Gunner - P/O Richard A Biggerstaff RCAF, aged 18 (or 19?), of Brandon, Manitoba, Canada. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire.
F/O Watts grave at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, he had completed 22 sorties prior to his death. The rest of the crew had 21 under their belt. The Form 1180 states that the pilot had lst his logbook prior to operational flying, he had 509 hours total to his name, of which 174 were on the Halifax type, all operational hours. He had also flown aircraft MZ454, NA184 and NA190. The Canadian airmen killed in this crash and others who were killed in crashes in the 5th of March were buried at Harrogate on the 12th of March, various funeral services took place during the morning with interment soon after. In all 17 Linton airmen were buried at Harrogate on this morning.
The Halifax came down in the corn fields to the centre of the photograph. The resulting explosion spread wreckage around for some distance. In April 2004 John and myself searched the woodland to the west of the crash site, we located a large peice of the aircraft's undercarriage in the undergrowth. I have not considered looking in the fields as cultivation seems to take place here all year round.
Part of one of the aircraft's undercarriage hinge mountings.
What appears to be one of the aircraft's undercarriage hinges.
Me with the two items fitted back together, as they probably were as they hit the ground after the aircraft exploded.
I have yet to visit the site of the crash, it is on private land. In the White Rose Base book 1972, it states that there was wreckage visable then. I would expect there to be some small peices of the aircraft scattered in the fields nearby. In Chorley's 1945 Bomber Losses book, the description of where the aircraft came down is misleading. The quote comes from " Thunderbirds at War, Diary of a Bomber Squadron, 426 Sqdn - Laurance Motiuk. This is an excellent book and details just about everything 426 Sqdn related.
On the 8th of Feb 1944, Watts and crew had just dropped their bombs over the target when the hydraulics failed, he returned to base and landed safely though.
On the 28th of Dec 1943, Watts and crew were on the way to attacking Opladen when they were attacked six times by a Me110 at 20,000 feet. Evasive action was taken, the rear gunner, F/Sgt Biggerstaff, guns had jammed so he could not return fire. Some of the Me110's bullets struck home damaging the de-icing fluid lines near the mid upper gunner, F/Sgt Coones. He too did not return fire as he was blinded by the fluid going into his eyes. Somehow F/O Watts shook the Enemy off and they continued to the target. This was in the same aircraft that they were all to be killed in afew months later.