Whitley N1466 at Topcliffe airfield.
On 16th November 1940 this aircraft is reported to have been slightly damaged at Topcliffe when the undercarriage collapsed on landing there at 23.30hrs.
The crew were returning from ops to Hamburg and had been diverted to land at Topcliffe. This raid was a maximum disruption raid and this specific aircraft
took off around 18.00hrs. Hamburg was the target on both 15th/16th and 16th/17th November 1940, this incident occured on the second of the raids.
Crew - Names unknown.
Whitley N1466 was built to contract 75147/38 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd. at Baginton and was awaiting collection on 22nd December 1939. It was flown into MU storage until allocated to 58 Squadron at Linton on Ouse in March 1940 when the unit began converting from Mk.III Whitley's to Mk.V's. Cat.M/FB damage was recorded following a flak incident on 28th May 1940 and it was repaired on site and returned to the unit the following month. On 6th September 1940 it made wheels-down forced landing short of fuel on return from Ops to Regenburg to bomb oil installations, the landing was either made at Waren Mill, Bamburgh, Northumberland or Warren Hill, Newmarket, Cambridgeshire! Cat.U damage was sustained (none) and it was refuelled and flown out. On 16th November 1940 it sustained Cat.M/FB damage at Topcliffe when the undercarriage collapsed. After this incident it was repaired and transferred to 19 OTU at Kinloss in December 1940. By November 1942 it was deemed a time expired airframe and was officially converted to a ground instructional airfield and given the serial number "3418M".