Whitley P4957 slightly damaged by flak, landed at Cold Kirby on return.

10 Squadron's ORB is very poorly written for this date with the scribe appearing to have dated too many pages "17th/18th September 1940" after the operations flown on this night, the operational flights flown on the 20th/21st September 1940 are then added to these pre-dated pages. The ORB technically states that on the night of "17th/18th September 1940" the crew of this aircraft were tasked with undertaking Ops. However the same pilot, second pilot, wireless operator and rear gunner also flew Whitley T4130 on Ops on the "real" 17th/18th September 1940 so there is clearly an error in the ORB and T4130 is included on this website as damage was sustained on this date. I include reference of this error here to try and explain the situation in researching these battle damage incidents when the only available information is the squadron ORB's and the errors contained there in.

On the night of 20th/21st September 1940 this crew were tasked with attacking various railway marshalling yards and storage sidings with Hamm, Soest and Ehrang being selected. They took off from Leeming at 21.19hrs and while making an attack on the primary target of Ehrang the aircraft was possibly slightly damaged by an accurate burst of flak, the captain believed that the aircraft had sustained damage to the ailerons. This was later found not to be the case however so the crew proceded to drops the rest of their bombs on a town, believed to be Cologne. The aircraft was then struck by flak in the rear turret, starboard rudder and starboard wing. Because of bad weather on their return to Yorkshire the pilot made a successful landing at Cold Kirby on the dispersal site/dummy airfield near the top of Sutton Bank on the North Yorkshire Moors. The aircraft was later flown back to base by F/O Warren later the same day and repairs were carried out at base.

Pilot - Sgt Victor Snell RAFVR (745231), of Balcombe, Sussex. Uninjured.

Second Pilot - Sgt John Eustace Rowlett RAFVR (741334). Uninjured.

Observer - P/O Boast.

Wireless Operator - Sgt R E Nicholson RAF (611204). Uninjured.

Air Gunner - Sgt A S Shand RAF (630244). Uninjured.

On 1st October 1940 Sgt's Snell, Shand and Nicholson were flying Whitley T4130 on Ops to Berlin, the aircraft crashed near Badbergen, Germany. Sgt Snell was killed and Sgt's Shand and Nicholson were taken prisoner of war. Victor Snell was twenty six years old and is buried in Reichwald Forest War Cemetery. Sgt Shand's correct identity was probably Alfred Shand, born in Camberwell, London in 1921.
P/O Boast's full identity was probably one Roy Stanley Boast RAFVR (81066). Roy Boast was born in the Rochford area of Essex in c1921, he received his commission to the rank of P/O on 16th June 1940. He was confirmed in his appointment and was promoted to F/O (war subs) on 16th June 1941 and then to F/Lt (war subs) on 16th June 1942. As Acting S/Ldr he was awarded the DFC for service with 405 PFF Squadron, Gazetted on 22nd May 1945. He was appointed to a permanent commission in the RAF to the rank of F/Lt on 1st September 1945 and received promotions to S/Ldr on 1st January 1949, W/Co on 1st January 1956, G/Cpt on 1st July 1961.

He was granted the OBE on 11th June 1960 in The Queen's Birthday Honours list and later the CBE on 1st January 1964. He retired from the RAF at his own request on 24th July 1965. He died in the North Walsham area of Norfolk in 2005. I would welcome information to confirm if indeed he flew with 10 Squadron in 1940.

Whitley P4957 was built to contract 75147/38 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd. at Baginton and was awaiting collection on 21st April 1940 and was delivered to 10 Squadron a few days later. Cat.M/FA damage was recorded following a take-off accident at Dishforth in May 1940 and the aircraft was repaired on site and returned to the unit. It was again slightly damaged, by flak on 2nd July 1940 in its tail and the pilot was able to return to base where repairs were carried out. It was again damaged by flak in the incident detailed above in September 1940 and repaired but was then destroyed (Cat.W/FB damage recorded) on 30th October 1940 when it flew into high ground on return from Ops to Wilhelmshaven. The aircraft struck moorland three miles from Slaggyford, Northumberland and thankfully the crew all survived.