Whitley K9023 hit by flak, returned safely to Dishforth airfield.

On the night of 12/13th April 1940 the crew of this aircraft were tasked with a reconnaissance flight to observe shipping in the coastal regions of Kattegat and Skaggerak, Norway. This aircraft took off from Dishforth at 18.45hrs and bombed a supply ship but on their return the aircraft flew over a 'flak' ship which fired at the Whitley and scored hits. The pilot was able to return safely to Dishforth and land at 03.30hrs without further incident.

Pilot - F/Lt Richard Bickford RAF (37462), uninjured.

2nd Pilot - S/Ldr Desmond P Hanafin,

Obs - F/O M T Henry (Probably Michael T G Henry RAF (39876) who was actually a pilot and killed with 35 Sqn in January 1941 near Thirsk)

WOp/AG - LAC Arthur Millington,

WOp/AG - G L (Larry) Donnelly, uninjured.

Richard Bickford was station in Yorkshire for at least 18 months, during his time in the County he was involved in a number of minor mishaps, one in November 1939 when the same Whitley, K9023 was slightly damaged. Then again in June 1940 when Whitley P4962 was taking off and the undercarriage collapsed. Sadly on 30th August 1941 he was the pilot of Halifax L9518 which crashed near Pocklington, he and one other member of his then crew were killed. All these incidents are detailed on this website.
Larry Donnelly joined the RAF in 1937 and trained as a wireless operator/air gunner although he wished to be a pilot. During the early months of the War he completed 41 Ops on Whitleys with 10 Squadron and was posted to instruct at Kinloss, he was awarded the DFM with 10 Squadron. He flew a second Tour on Halifax's and a third in Coastal Command on Sunderlands with 461 Squadron in 1942 His wish to become a pilot was finally complete in 1945 when he was awared his Wings and he survived the War. He later wrote the books "The Whitley Boys", "The Other Few" and "A Quest For Wings". He died in January 2005.
It seems likely that Arthur Millington became a PoW later in the War.
Whitley K9023 was built to contract 522438/36 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and was awaiting collection on 25th May 1939. It was delivered to 10 Squadron at Dishforth on 26th May 1939 and coded "PB-E" but 10 Squadron changed their prefix with the outbreak of war and it became "ZA-E". It was slightly damaged at Dishforth on 15th October 1939 but no record of this is recorded on the aircrafts history. Cat.M/FB damage was recorded after the flak damage in April 1940 as detailed above and it was repaired on site and returned to the unit but may not have flown operationally again because it was replaced as "ZA-E" by Whitley P4957 which was delivered to 10 Squadron in late April 1940. It was then transferred to 10 OTU at Abingdon on 29th May 1940 and then to 19 OTU at Kinloss on 11th August 1940. Here it sustained a Cat.R/FA accident on 25th October 1940 when it suffered an engine failure on a night take off at Kinloss, the pilot completed a circuit but overshot landing at Kinloss. It was then dismantled and transported to Airwork General Trading Ltd at Gatwick on 9th November 1940 and converted to a ground instructional airframe in May 1941 but no details of where it was used has been found. Officially it became 3302M in August 1942 but nothing further is known of its history after this date.