Whitley P4957 slightly damaged by flak, returned to Dishforth airfield.
On the night of 2nd/3rd July 1940 the crew of this aircraft were undertaking Ops to Hamm when the aircraft was hit by flak in the tail, the crew did not
drop the whole of their bomb load and returned to base and made a safe landing in the early hours of 3rd July 1940. The damage was later repaired.
Pilot - S/Ldr Desmond P Hanafin RAF (33087), uninjured.
Crew - Names unknown, uninjured.
Desmond Hanafin was awarded the DFC in September 1940 for servive with this unit. He survived the War.
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, Cat.M/FB, as detailed above and repaired on site to be returned to the unit
who moved to Leeming on 8th July 1940. It sustained minor flak damage on the night of 20th/21st September 1940 and landed at Cold Kirby dummy landing
site because of poor weather. It 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.
Reference to the flak incident as detailed at the top of this page is mentioned in passing in Frank Linin's book about P4957 the "Slaggyford Whitley".