Whitley Z9276 near Foxholes, Yorkshire Wolds.
On the night of 27/28th of December 1941 the crew of this aircraft were tasked with Ops to Dusseldorf, the had left Croft at 17.40hrs. It seems likely that outbound the aircraft
aircraft began to suffer technical problems (probably caused by icing conditions on the airframe) and then one of the engines overheated. Just over an hour into the flight at 18.45hrs the aircraft
struck high tension cables near Foxholes and crashed, it would take less than an hour to fly to Foxholes after taking off so it is more likely that it had got out over the North Sea but then turned back.
The aircrafts surfaces had suffered from severe icing conditions prior to the collision and the aircraft was falling out of the sky at the time with a force landing
begin more than a possibilty. Upon striking the ground the aircraft caught fire and three of the crew sustained injuries.
Pilot - Sgt(or P/O) Robert M Shattock RAFVR (1380935/102302), of Chipstead, Surrey.
Sgt Wado (or WadE?)
Sgt Lee
Sgt Newman
Sgt Lyndon
Robert Shattock was awarded a commission in the RAF on 23rd July 1941 as P/O on probation. I have not found the detailed of when he rose to F/O.
Robert Shattock's rank for the incident detailed above is Sergeant, however a F/O Shattock (102302)
was killed flying with 78 Squadron on 29th April 1942 and he is almost certainly the same man.
78 Squadron converted to fly Halifax's soon after this incident at Foxholes. He was the pilot of Halifax W7663 on the date he died, he was thirty four
years old and is buried in Dunkirk Town Cemetery, France.
Nothing more is known of the other four airmen.