On 1943-04-18, Squadron Leader A. Ross Dawson, a Technical Officer with 1659 HCU at Topcliffe, wrote in his diary:

"Well we ran into more trouble today. Squadron Leader Hill, our 22 year old flight commander of B flight crashed this morning in L for London, our oldest kite, only 25 hours off its second major and everyone was killed, 8 of them. I had become great friends with Howie Hill and it really shook me to think of him going like that. He was always lively& ready for anything. He had gone his whole tour of ops, won the DFM & then ended like that. Only a couple of weeks ago I remember talking about what we were going to do after the war & he was saying he didn't really have much to go back to." Ross was asked if he would assist with the investigation but he declined: "I don't mind so much if it's fellows I don't know but when it comes to my best friends, I'd rather leave it to someone else." Ross does, however, provide a quite detailed description of what occurred "They took off at 9;45 & crashed just south of York at 10:12. He was suppose to be doing two-engine exercises with his pupil & crew but from eye-witness accounts, all four engines were going nicely when it happened. He was about feet just south of York when suddenly one elevator started to flap up & down as if the linkage controls had broken. Then, obviously out of control, the plane did two complete rolls & and dived straight down while one elevator came off and landed about 150 yds away from the debris. It ploughed straight into the ground & fortunately the boys would never know a thing after that first smash. There were three holes in the ground, one for each of the outboard engines & one large one for the fuselage and the two inner engines _ these engines were down almost out of sight in the earth so they really hit hard. The fuselage had folded up like an accordion & then when it caught fire it just melted all own into a molten mass at the bottom of the hole. . . The investigation showed that one of the torque brackets on the main elevator must have failed causing the plane to go out of control." He concludes with "that's just the way it goes & tomorrow it will be more or less forgotten & no one will speak of it again if they can help it. That's the way it has to be in war time."

Diary of A Ross Dawson, courtesy CWM