Halifax at East Moor airfield.

On the 7th of August 1944 this aircraft took off from Linton on Ouse at 20.51hrs for Ops to Caen but, as previously stated with the other incidents on this night, the Op was scrubbed whilst over the target. The actual target was to hit German troop and armour concentrations but not far from the beaches of Normandy. Because of the close proximity to Allied troops crews were briefed not to attack if they could not identify the target. As a result bombs were not dropped by the force and they all returned home. One account perhaps incorrectly stated that this aircraft had not progressed all the way as it had developed a radio system fault and the pilot turned and made an early return for base, given that the pilot made no mention of this in his book this is now presumed incorrect. This aircraft arrived at Linton and joined the circuit to go into land, the engineer lowered the undercarriage which came down correctly but green light in the cockpit (used in day-time landings) came on and blinded the pilot. Linton's tower was contacted and the aircraft was given the go ahead to extend their circuit into a dog-leg to allow them to cover the light. Shortly afterwards a peice of chewwed gum was placed over the bulb which worked and the Linton's tower gave them permission to land. They touched down and coasted down half its length but as the pilot applied the brakes nothing happened. He was not concerned as he knew that Linton had a clear overshoot area. What they did not realise was it was East Moor where they had landed and the overshoot area at the southern end of the N-S runway had a ditch at the end of it and two other Halifax's had already overshot minutes earlier. This aircraft ran off the runway, over Strensall lane, across the ditch and lost its undercarriage. It came to rest inbetween the other two aircraft at either 01.16hrs or 01.24hrs (sources vary) on the 8th August. The crew exited and only then found out where they had landed, the dog leg had taken them afew miles east of Linton and seeing the airfield below and having permission to land had similar gone in and landed. Later they returned to Linton and some days later the pilot was told by his CO that the brakes on this Halifax were known to be playing up, his CO had done a similar landing the day before but had used the grass to slow down one. Only years later the pilot discovered that neck pain caused by this incident was attributed to broken bones in his neck. Many years later the pilot would write a book on his flying experiences and much of the above is drawn from that account. The crew of this aircraft escaped serious injury, police reports give two as being slightly injured though their names are not recorded.

NP713 was built to contract ACFT/1688/C4/C by Handley Page Ltd at Radlett and delivered to 426 Sqdn at Linton-on-Ouse in mid-July 1944 but this appears to have been an error as 426 Sqdn only operated Mk. III Halifaxes so the aircraft was immediately transferred to sister unit 408 Sqdn which operated a mixture of B.III's and B.VII's. It sustained Cat. E/FB damage in the incident above and was reduced to spares and produce.

Pilot - F/O Harlo L Jones RCAF (J/25886), of Dinsmore, Saskatchewan, Canada.

FEng - Sgt Wally T Wilkins RCAF, of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Ok.

Nav - F/O Donald M Oldershaw RCAF (J/35238), of Chatham, Ontario, Canada.

AB - WO2 Jean-Pierre B Brochu RCAF, of Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Ok.

WOp/AG - F/Sgt Don M Howard RCAF, of Renfrew, Ontario, Canada. Ok.

MUG - Sgt R Harold Sharpe RCAF, of Calgary, Canada. Ok.

AG - Sgt Ralph H Syer RCAF, of Hamilton, Canada. Ok. Enlisted 13th Nov 1942.