It was in the early predawn that Pilot Officer Richard Pryce Hughes crashed his aircraft on the heathland a little less than 500 yards from where I live. That was 78 years ago and I was yet to be born and where my house is was still a pine covered heathland. A marker has been erected to show the location of the crash and as we approach the 11th of the 11th my wife or I place a cross on the small monument in remembrance, lest we forget.

The heathland upon which Pilot Officer Richard Pryce Hughes crashed.

RCAF recruitment poster.

The Handley Page Halifax.

A painting depicting a 1,000 bomber raid.

The 10 Squadron winged arrow – approved by King George VI in September 1937.

The Bomber Command memorial depicting a typical crew.

A Halifax during a raid.

The fate of a heavy bomber hit by flak.

The Bristol Blenheim.

The De Havilland Mosquito.

The graves of the two brave Hughes cousins.

The Canadian memorial to their bomber crews at Nanton.

The marker placed in memory of Pilot Officer Richard Pryce Hughes.

Each year as we approach the 11th of the 11th my wife or I place a cross on the marker in remembrance… lest we forget.

Images under Creative Commons licence with thanks to the Royal Air Force, the Ministry of Defence, Google Maps, the Royal Canadian Air Force.