Lancaster DS829 damaged by flak, returned to East Moor airfield.

At around midnight on the night of 28/29th January 1944 this aircraft took off from East Moor for Ops to Berlin. It was the aircrafts eleveth operational flight with 432 Squadron. The aircraft was hit by flak and sustained minor damage to cockpit area over Germany with the pilot suffering facial cuts, he was able to keep control of the aircraft and they landed safely at East Moor. Damage must have only been slight as it was used again on 30th January 1944.

Pilot - P/O Jack Esdale RAFVR (160680), of Tottenham, London. Facial injuries.

FEng - Sgt Harry Ibbotson RAFVR (176482), of Leeds, Yorkshire. Uninjured.

Nav - F/O Richard K D'Eye RAFVR (146686). Uninjured.

AB - P/O Geoffrey A Goom RAFVR (148057). Uninjured.

WOp/AG - F/Sgt G Middleton. Uninjured.

AG - Sgt J Peterson. Uninjured.

AG - F/Sgt A Pigeon. Uninjured.

This was P/O Esdale's tenth and final operational flight with 432 Squadron, he was posted to another unit soon after this incident. He received his commission on 26th October 1943 to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency), he rose to F/O (war subs) on 26th April 1944. F/O Jack Esdale was later posted to instructional duties with 1662 HCU in 1944. He was sadly killed on 2nd September 1944 whilst flying Halifax LL362 on an airtest when the aircraft developed a fault in the ailerons and the port outer engine overheated. The aircraft crashed into tree tops close to Swanland, near Hull, Yorkshire. Sadly he and another member of his crew were killed. F/O Esdale is buried in Tottenham Cemetery, London. This loss will be detailed on this website in due course.

Richard D'eye received his commission on 23rd May 1943 to P/O on probation (emergency), he rose to F/O on probation (emergency) on 23rd November 1943 and F/Lt (war subs) on 23rd May 1945.
Geoffrey Goom received his commission on 6th June 1943 to P/O on probation (emergency), he rose to F/O on probation (war subs) on 6th December 1943. He was posted to 35 Squadron after serving with 432 Squadron, 35 Squadron were by now a Pathfinder squadron. He was awarded the DFC for service with them, Gazetted on 15th September 1944. He then rose to F/Lt (war subs) on 6th June 1945.
On 9th May 1944 P/O H Ibbotson was lost when Halifax LW594 of 432 Squadron was on Ops to Haine-St.-Pierre. It was shot down by a night-fighter and crashed at 03.32hrs at Grand Reng, Belgium. P/O Ibbotson is buried in Gosselies Communal Cemetery.
Nothing more is currently known about the last three named.
Lancaster DS829 was built to contract ACFT/239 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and delivered directly to 426 Squadron at Linton on Ouse in September 1943. It was transferred to 432 Squadron at East Moor in mid-November 1943. In the incident detailed above it was recorded as suffering Cat.A/FB damage. Repair on site were completed in a couple of days. DS829 completed one further operational flight with 432 Squadron before it was transferred to 426 Squadron at Linton on Ouse on 9th February 1944 and carried the coding "OW-W". It was lost as Cat.E(m) on 16th March 1944 when it failed to return from Op's to Stuttgart after it was abandoned after total engine failure. The seven became PoW but one sadly died of TB before the end of the War.