Our village memorial to the brave crew of Halifax Bomber NA612 :
Memorial to Second World War Halifax bomber crew
The night of 3/4 March 1945 saw the last major effort by the Luftwaffe's Night Fighter force over the UK. Bomber Command operations for that night were to attack the synthetic Oli plants in the Ruhr Valley. Simultaneously there was a diversionary attack, known as "Operation Sweepstake". The crews on this operation were mainly made up for crews from Operation Training Units, and Heavy Conversion Units, including the HCU for 6(RCAF) Group, 1664 HCU at RAF Disforth.
At the same time the Luftwaffe set up "Operation Gisela" and 200 nightfighters, mainly Junkers Ju-88s, left their bases in northern Germany and Denmark to attack the bombers on their return. This included intruder raids over the UK, the last operations of their type, and the last German aircraft, a Ju-88G, to crash on British soil in WW2 came down this evening, near Elvington Airfield.
Amongst the aircraft operational this night was Halifax Mk.III NA 612 "S for Sugar" of 1664 HCU captained by 20year old Canadian, Pilot Officer Kenneth Griffey from Hamilton Ontario. His crew were all Canadian, with the exception of the Flight Engineer Sgt. S. Foster, RAFVR., from Tyneside. The others were Navigator, WO2 J. Buttery; Bomb Aimer, FO. G. H. Lloyd; Wireless Operator, WO2 G. H. Chevrier; Mid-upper Gunner, Sgt. L. Boardman; Rear Gunner, Sgt. J. E. Fielder, all RCAF.
The aircraft was seen to catch fire as it turned on its final approach to Dishforth, some 3½ miles south of the village of Brafferton, near Helperby, in North Yorkshire and came down in a field less that half a mile to the west of the village Church, St. Peters