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Lavallee, Joseph Pierre (Flying Officer)

Killed in Flying Accident 1944-January-18

Birth Date: 1922 (age 22)

Son of Joseph and Blanche Perreault Lavallee, of Quebec.

Home: Quebec City, Quebec

Service
RCAF
Unit
1659 HCU- Heavy Conversion Unit
Rank
Flying Officer
Marshal
Air Chief MarshalA/C/M
Air MarshalA/M
Air Vice MarshalA/V/M
Air CommodoreA/C
Group CaptainG/C
Wing CommanderW/C
Squadron LeaderS/L
Flight LieutenantF/L
Flying OfficerF/O
Pilot OfficerP/O
Warrant Officer 1st ClassWO1
Warrant Officer 2nd ClassWO2
Flight SergeantFS
SergeantSGT
CorporalCPL
Senior AircraftmanSAC
Leading AircraftmanLAC
Aircraftman 1st ClassAC1
Aircraftman 2nd ClassAC2
Position
Pilot
Service Numbers
J/10983
1659 Heavy Conversion Unit, Topcliffe, Yorkshire. The pilot of Halifax aircraft LW 334 FD-T was flying in poor visibility when the aircraft crashed into a 1,300 foot hill two miles south-east of Osmotherly, Yorkshire. F/O(s) W.L. Boisvert, W. Phillips, W/O G.E. Gift, Sgt(s) R.G. Kimball and G.H. Hivon were also killed. A cross was dedicated to this crew's memory on Jan. 18, 1994 (www.yorkshire-aircraft.co.uk and BCL'HCU). Addendum: In the early morning of 18 January 1944 Halifax LW334 took off from its base at RAF Topcliffe on a cross country training flight. The crew comprised young Canadians under training to become a fully fledged bomber crew with much still to learn. As the aircraft lumbered north into the murky Vale of York the six wide eyed and eager to learn airmen adjusted their positions and got down to the job in hand. The weather had not been good all week. Low cloud had hampered flying training and crews had been instructed not to descend below three thousand feet if the ground was not visible. At 10.30 hours LW334 struck the southern tip of the Black Hambleton Hills, near Osmotherley, at eleven hundred feet in fog. The crew of six were killed. A memorial dedication was held on Tuesday 18 January 1994 to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of this tragic event. A wooden memorial cross and descriptive plaque was blessed by the local parish priest the Reverand Stuart East at 10.30 hours. The plaque inscription reads:-THIS MEMORIAL CROSS IS DEDICATED TO THE SIX ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE AIRMEN WHO LOST THEIR LIVES HERE ON 18 JANUARY 1944. THEIR AVERAGE AGE WAS JUST 23 YEARS. HANDLEY PAGE HALIFAX B2 LW334 1659 HCU RAF TOPCLIFFE. COMMEMORATED ON THIS FIFTIETH ANNIVERSARY OF THEIR DEATH 18 JANUARY 1944. "TAKE NOTHING BUT PHOTOGRAPHS""LEAVE NOTHING BUT FOOTPRINTS" J10933 F/0 JOSEPH P LAVALEE - PILOT; J20970 F/O WILFRED L BOISVERT - NAVIGATOR; J23210 F/O WALTER PHILLIPS - BOMB AIMER; R111125 W02 GEORGE E GIFF - WIRELESS OPERATOR AIR GUNNER; R187271 SGT GUY H EIVON - AIR GUNNER; R54130 SGT RICHARD G KIMBALL - FLIGHT ENGINEER. As the location of this memorial is on private property permission to erect the cross and hold a ceremony was saught and willingly given by Lord Pollington, The Earl of Mexeborough. Detail provided by David E. Thompson, Middlesborough, England.

Canada Source Canadian Virtual War Memorial

Canada Primary Source Library and Archives Canada Service Files (may not exist)

Burial
Google Map Stonefall Cemetery, UK
Sec C Row J Grave 8

Crew on Halifax B.Mk.II LW334

Handley Page Halifax

(RAF Photo, 1942)(Source Harold A Skaarup Web Page)A Royal Air Force Handley Page Halifax Mk. II Series I (Serial No. W7676), coded TL-P, of No. 35 Squadron, RAF, based at Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire in the UK, being piloted by Flight Lieutenant Reginald Lane, (later Lieutenant-General, RCAF), over the English countryside. Flt Lt Lane and his crew flew twelve operations in W7676, which failed to return from a raid on Nuremberg on the night of 28/29 August 1942, when it was being flown by Flt Sgt D. John and crew.

The Handley Page Halifax is a British Royal Air Force (RAF) four-engined heavy bomber of the Second World War. It was developed by Handley Page to the same specification as the contemporary twin-engine Avro Manchester.

The Halifax has its origins in the twin-engine HP56 proposal of the late 1930s, produced in response to the British Air Ministry's Specification P.13/36 for a capable medium bomber for "world-wide use." The HP56 was ordered as a backup to the Avro 679, both aircraft being designed to use the underperforming Rolls-Royce Vulture engine. The Handley Page design was altered at the Ministry to a four-engine arrangement powered by the Rolls-Royce Merlin engine; the rival Avro 679 was produced as the twin-engine Avro Manchester which, while regarded as unsuccessful mainly due to the Vulture engine, was a direct predecessor of the famed Avro Lancaster. Both the Lancaster and the Halifax would emerge as capable four-engined strategic bombers, thousands of which would be built and operated by the RAF and several other services during the War.

On 25 October 1939, the Halifax performed its maiden flight, and it entered service with the RAF on 13 November 1940. It quickly became a major component of Bomber Command, performing routine strategic bombing missions against the Axis Powers, many of them at night. Arthur Harris, the Air Officer Commanding-in-Chief of Bomber Command, described the Halifax as inferior to the rival Lancaster (in part due to its smaller payload) though this opinion was not shared by many of the crews that flew it, particularly for the MkIII variant. Nevertheless, production of the Halifax continued until April 1945. During their service with Bomber Command, Halifaxes flew a total of 82,773 operations and dropped 224,207 tons of bombs, while 1,833 aircraft were lost. The Halifax was also flown in large numbers by other Allied and Commonwealth nations, such as the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF), Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), Free French Air Force and Polish forces. Wikipedia

YouTube Halifax Heavy Bomber WWII

General Harold A Skaarup Web Page

Wkikpedia Wikipedia Halifax Bomber

Museum National Air Force Museum of Canada

CASPIR Aircraft Groups:
RCAF On Strength (5), RCAF 6 Group (1596), RCAF 400 Squadron (1443), Canadian Aircraft Losses (1562), Canadian Museum(2)
last update: 2023-12-08 20:34:11

Halifax B.Mk.II LW334

Crashed into hillside at Black Hambleton, near Osmotherley, Yorkshire, in fog 18.1.44

Unit 1659 Heavy Conversion Unit, Topcliffe.

The weather had been poor this same week back in 1944 and low cloud had hampered flying training with crews instructed not to descend below 3,000 feet if the ground was not visible and to ensure that they remained above the high ground of the North York Moors . Just after 10:00 the crew were instructed to return to base and were probably letting down to land at Topcliffe when for reasons we will never know the Halifax struck Black Hambleton killing the crew of 6 young Canadian airmen who now lay together , as they flew , in Stonefall Cemetery .(Source David Thompson "and in the morning")


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