James Harold's Story.
James Harold Preece was born on 10th July 1924 in North Bay, Ontario, Canada to parents James and Rosina. Prior to enlisting he worked as a railway clerk. He enlisted in the RCAF at North Bay on 24th August 1942 and trained as a Wireless Operator/ Air Gunner in Canada prior to embarking on a ship for the UK at Halifax on 3rd May 1944 arriving in England on 10th May 1944. He was posted to 10 (O) AFU at RAF Dumfries on 30th May 1944 before being transferred to 82 OTU on 18th October 1944 for operations training. He was assigned to 1664 CU at RAF Dishforth on 8th November 1944 for training in Halifax bombers. On 12th December 1944 James was killed when Halifax LL541 that he flying in crashed with the loss of all 8 crew. James was buried at the RAF Regional Cemetery at Blacon Chester.The Loss of Halifax LL541
LL541 along with another Halifax ZU-K, had taken off from Dishforth at 10:10hrs on 12th December 1944. The day was dry with light cloud and a slight westerly. Their tasking was to fly a route southwest over the high ground of Mid Wales to the Irish Sea then return. However, at 13:00hrs and flying over Wales at 18,000 feet. It was observed by the mid upper gunner of ‘ZU-K’, that LL541 ‘ZU-O’ which was flying behind, suddenly dropped as if conducting a ‘Corkscrew’ manoeuvre, then it was seen to go almost vertical before starting to recover about 3,000 feet below. ‘O’ was then seen to dive and entering cloud then becoming unseen and contact lost. Meanwhile on the ground below, a member of the ROC a Mr T Price saw LL541 coming out of the cloud at approximately 3,000 feet over the high ground just north of the market town of Rhyader. Also observed, the aircraft was shedding large pieces and it was obvious that it was disintegrating in the air and doomed to come down on top of Pen-y-Bwlch.What wasn’t seen was any evidence of the crew bailing out! Mr Price made the authorities aware of the crash and started the process of finding the doomed crew. The rescue party arrived at the huge area of shattered aircraft observing several different impact points in addition to the main. The crew were also amongst the remains and in a horrific state, all the recovery crews could do was to find as much as they could and cover the remains under anything that came to hand. It took a week to bring down the crew along with anything sensitive such as radios and the like.
It is not known why Halifax LL541 lost control and crashed. It was suggested that the pilot may have suffered from oxygen deprivation and passed out, putting the plane into a dive which stressed the aircraft’s frame. He may have come around and tried to regain control but failed to clear the ridge to the west of Rhayader.
On that fateful flight LL541 had its seven regular crew members, plus an extra Flight Engineer ( McMurtry) . All 8 men were Canadians serving in the RCAF, namely;
Pilot Officer Gerald Lister (Pilot), aged 22.
Flying Officer Ernest Brautigam (Navigator), aged 19.
Flight Sergeant David Levine (Bomb Aimer), aged 23.
Flight Sergeant John Overland (Air Gunner), aged 19.
Flight Sergeant Grant Goehring (Air Gunner), aged 21.
Flight Sergeant James Preece (Wireless Operator/Air Gunner), aged 20.
Sergeant Frank Willmek (Flight Engineer), aged 23.
Flight Sergeant Allan McMurtry (Flight Engineer), aged 22.
Details Credit https://trysor.net/portfolio/december-12th-1944-the-last-flight-of-royal-canadian-airforce-halifax-ll541/
Accident Report 1
Accident Report 2
Accident Report 3
Accident Report 4
Display at the memorial service held on the 80th Anniversary of the crash in 2024. The service was attended by the last surviving witness to the crash who was 10 years old at the time.
Memorial at the crash site laid in 2024.
Memorial plaque at the Eland Valley Visitor Centre
Local newspaper report