On the 23rd of November 1943 the crew of this Halifax took off from their base at Riccall near Selby, Yorkshire for a night cross-country exercise. The weather forecast was bad, the six aircraft from this unit were the only six aircraft in the whole of 4 Group to be in the air on this night, of the six, two returned early with icing problems; one of which crashed near base. Another aircraft crashed into Great Whernside. Only two of the six completed the exercise, though one of these is thought to have had engine problems caused by the effects of icing. On take-off at 23.05hrs the crew of JB926 headed from base to St Bees Head on the north-west coast, from there to St Abbs Head, then Hexham, then south to Sleaford and Northampton, then return to base. It was probably on the stage to Sleaford that problems occured when they flew into a storm and severe weather. At around 01.15hrs aircraft engines were heard near Healey to the west of Masham, it appeared to a witness that they soon became louder and that the aircraft was in a steep dive. Because of the weather nothing was seen of the aircraft. The weather over the Yorkshire Dales at this stage in the flight was very bad; the other aircraft had already crashed on Great Whernside and this would soon join it in crashing. A short time later a red glow was seen on over Agra Moor at Slipstone Crags, it later turned out to have been where this Halifax had crashed killing all on board. The weather had played an important factor into the crash occuring, strong winds, upto gale force 8 were recorded and torrential rain with icing occuring at 4000 feet. Prior to impact the aircraft had began to break up in the air, the port outer wing had broken away and both outer engines had also broken loose. A large fire broke out on impact destroying much of what remained of the aircraft. One source suggested that both DT578 and JB926 could have collided causing both aircraft to have crashed. This was later ruled out, JB926 radioed its position to have been near St Bees Head at the time DT578 crashed and therefore neither could have been involved in the others loss. Why any of these aircraft were ever in the air was never recorded.

Pilot - Sgt Richard E C Bacon RAFVR, aged 22, of Norwich, buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire (Sect C, row E, grave 12).

F Eng - Sgt George H Manley RAFVR, aged 22, of Liverpool, buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire (Sect C, row E, grave 14).

Bomb Aimer - F/Sgt John James MacGillivray RCAF, buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire (Sect C, row E, grave 13).

F Eng - Sgt James Titterington RAFVR, aged 23, buried Belfast Dundonald Cemetery.

Nav - F/O Henry McCarthy RAFVR, buried Leytonstone Roman Catholics Cemetery, Essex.

W Op / Air Gunner - Sgt B F Taylor RAFVR, aged 21, buried Reading Henley Road Cemetery.

AG - Sgt Alexander J Winton RAFVR, aged 20, buried Macduff Cemetery.

AG - Sgt David E Phillips RAFVR, aged 22, buried Whitchurch Pantmawr Cemetery.

Headstones of the three buried at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery.

John Skinn, Howard Newbould and myself visited this crash site in October 2003. A memorial was been erected at the site by David Morris some years ago and the majority of the larger peices of wreckage are in front of this stone. Smaller peices of the aircraft are scattered over a wide area but the majority of the remains are tiny and all shows signs of the post-crash fire.

Since my first visit I have been back a number of times.