Handley Page Halifax - Pentrefoelas, Conwy, North Wales, UK
Posted by: 
Dragontree
N 53° 02.967 W 003° 40.947
30U E 454253 N 5877989
Inside the church of Pentrefoelas is a brass plaque commemorating the crash of a Handley Page Halifax aircraft during World War II.
Waymark Code: WMBYDY
Location: North Wales, United Kingdom
Date Posted: 07/04/2011
Views: 5
The plaque reads:
'On January 4th 1944 Handley Page Halifax LW323 of No. 1858
Conversion Unit RAF, crashed nearby. There were no survivors.
This plaque is dedicated to the memory of those who died.
Pilot Officer Andrew Fotheringham of Sydney Australia RAAF Pilot
Flying Officer James Macleod of St John's Canada RCAF Navigator
Sergeant William Thompson of Winnipeg Canada RCAF Air Bomber
Sergeant Bill Pinder of Wakefield Yorks RAF Pilot Engineer
Sergeant Leonard Dower of Bridlington Yorks RAF Wireless Op
Sergeant Robert Wright of Ripley Derby RAF Air Gunner
Sergeant Peter Rogerson of Overton Lancs RAF Air Gunner
They Died for our Freedom'
Some parts of the plaque are very hard to read but we have done our best to research and quote what we can see. Unfortunately there is no documentation about the crash.
There is a little from a personal account by Jennifer F. Hibbens regarding her father - Vivian Joseph "Smoky" Hibbens - RAAF 234 Sqd. from Corowa, NSW, Australia, available here:
visit link
'My father, 'Smoky' Hibbens enlisted in the RAAF in Melbourne on 13th October 1940, and was trained under the Empire Air Training Scheme, doing his Elementary Flying Training at Narromine NSW. He gained his Wings at Camp Borden, Ontario, Canada. His time in Canada was not without incident - along with a close friend and fellow trainee, Andy Fotheringham (a Canadian from New Jersey, New Brunswick, Canada) took a plane each and 'beat up' a little town called Barrie, just north of Niagara Falls. Seeing as though they flew between the Post Office and a Hotel just above car height at 160 mph - they received quite lenient sentences. Andy was found guilty of one charge and received 21 days detention and my father was found guilty of four charges and received 62 days detention - reduced to 31. Apparently their Commanding Officer went into bat for them - being an old Airman himself from WWI, he 'understood' their folly.'
Andy Fotheringham who had enlisted in the RAAF in Australia around the same time as my father, after graduating from Camp Borden, was transferred to the 1658 Conversion RAF Unit and he became a Flying Instructor during the war. He was based at Hawarden in Wales. The crash which killed him and his crew was a training flight - the conditions were apparently icy and treacherous and the plane crashed on landing killing all on board. Location of the crash was at Denbighshire Wales. (His grave is at RAF Regional Cemetery, Blacon, Chester England. Plot A. Grave 412.)'