​One of the things we all look for when walking in the hills is peace and tranquillity. Often this can be a challenge especially in the busier parts of the National Parks and on the sunny days, but there are some places where you can go and just drop a little off the paths and experience the serenity you strive for.

I often find myself visiting parts of the Brecon Beacons National Park that are a little off the beaten track. Walking to aircraft crash sites often means getting off the grid, engaging those navigation skills and finding spaces that require you to be respectful and calm. It is always in the back of your mind that you are somewhere where people lost their lives and that can bring a solemnity to the situation. But it can also make you look up and see. And I mean really see, really look. Look at the beautiful hills around us and make us appreciate life and all we have all the more.

​RAF Winthorpe was opened on the outskirts of Newark in 1940 and became home to No. 1661 Heavy Conversion Unit in 1942. A year later on the 5th September 1943 Lancaster W4929 took off on a cross country night training mission.
The crew were

• Pilot: Sgt N.T. Duxbury
• Navigator: P/Off V.R. Folkerson
• Bomb Aimer: P/Off T.F.E. Johnson
• Air Gunner: Sgt. E.M. Buckby
• Mid Upper Gunner: Sgt. J.G. Curran
• Flight Engineer: Sgt. L. Holding
• Wireless Operator: Sgt F.W. Wilson
• Bomb Aimer: Sgt. R. Wilson

Late in the evening residents in the village of Glyntawe heard a large aircraft flying in a North Westerly direction over the Brecon Beacons. For reasons that are still unknown the plane came down at around 2320hrs on remote moorland north of Fan Foel but there was a heavy storm at the time. The evidence of the wreckage and crater pointed towards a high impact crash with the engines under power when it hit the ground. All the crew perished at the scene.