2019

NY5786 : Looking over Handley Page Halifax DK116 crash site to the summit of Glendhu Hill

taken 4 years ago, near to Glendhu Hill [hill or Mountain], Cumbria, Great Britain

Looking over Handley Page Halifax DK116 crash site to the summit of Glendhu Hill
Looking over Handley Page Halifax DK116 crash site to the summit of Glendhu Hill
The crash site on Glendhu Hill, which wasn't forested at the time of the crash on 15 October 1944. The crew of Halifax DK116 (1667 HCU) had taken off from RAF Sandtoft near Scunthorpe on a cross country navigation exercise when the port inner engine caught fire. Attempts to extinguish the fire were unsuccessful and the crew prepared to bail out. However, only three of the crew managed to leave before the aircraft dived into Glendhu Hill in the Kielder Forest, Northumberland, barely a mile from the Scottish border.

Various reports suggest the pilot put the Halifax into a dive in an attempt to put the fire out but from which it failed to recover and/or that the remaining crew tried to save the life of the rear gunner who was allegedly trapped in his turret. However, after the three men bailed out no-one knows for sure what happened.

CREW
Killed
P/O Herbert George Haddrell (Pilot, aged 30)
Sgt John Neilson (Flight Engineer, aged 24)
W/O Maurice Fredrick James (Air Gunner, aged 22)
W/O Geoffrey Symonds (Air Gunner)

Survived
Sgt John Mahony (Navigator, aged 22) [Killed in action six months later]
Sgt Reid (Wireless Operator)
Sgt Hammond (Air Gunner)

One of the four Bristol Hercules engines was dug out from under 20' of peat in the 1970s.

Creative Commons Licence [Some Rights Reserved]   © Copyright James T M Towill and licensed for reuse under this Creative Commons Licence.
This photo is linked from: Automatic Clusters: · Forested at the Time of the Crash [6] ·
1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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1:50,000 Modern Day Landranger(TM) Map © Crown Copyright
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NY5786, 15 images   (more nearby 🔍)
Photographer
James T M Towill   (more nearby)
Date Taken
Tuesday, 31 December, 2019   (more nearby)
Submitted
Thursday, 2 January, 2020
Subject Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NY 5785 8622 [10m precision]
WGS84: 55:10.1090N 2:39.7932W
Camera Location
OSGB36: geotagged! NY 5787 8621
View Direction
West-northwest (about 292 degrees)
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Image Type (about): geograph 
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