This plaque is in memory of the French aircrew of a Halifax bomber which crashed in the vicinity of the church on 15 March 1945 on its way back to its base at Elvington near York. The pilot George Ostre was flying his last mission and had difficulty keeping his 347 Squadron Halifax C-Charlie NR287 on course. When he arrived back at Elvington at 6,000 feet he heard another aircraft being permission to land and told his crew ‘We shan’t be among the first — we’ll go down a little to the north and then come through the mush to the south’. He ordered the engineer to check if all the bombs had gone and when he got to the bays he got the shock of his life as he saw the ground and
trees speeding past him in the dark — then there was a crash and he fainted and woke to hear the sound of petrol flowing from the burst tanks. He got out of wreckage and whistled, a second whistle replied and he and the only other survivor were found by people from the village carrying storm lanterns who took them to the vicarage where some RAF men gave them first aid before they were taken by ambulance to hospital in Northallerton.
At first impact the Halifax hit a stone wall and the wings and engines were ripped off whilst the fuselage bounded a considerable distance before hitting a tree. The pilot, navigator, wireless operator and the rest of the crew were all killed by the first impact and only the flight engineer Sergeant Chef Sciolette and rear gunner Sergeant Chef Tilliers survived. The plaque commemorates all the crew and for some years after the war they were all remembered by name at each Armistice day Service. They were :
