On the night of 12th / 13th October 1942 the crew of this 12 Squadron aircraft were tasked with laying mines in the Hawthorn area of the North Sea and left Wickenby at 17.34hrs. Their two mines were successfully dropped in the shipping channel in the mouth of the River Elbe and the crew made for home. On their flight home the rear gunner suspected that their aircraft was being followed by a Luftwaffe aircraft so the pilot decided to fly as low as possible despite the dark night. As they neared or crossed the English coastline the crew were unsure of their location so they attempted to gain height but as power was applied the port engine cut out. The pilot then ordered his crew to bale out, the rear gunner managed to bale out but as the aircraft was roughly one hundred feet above the ground he was too low for his parachute to deploy properly and was killed. The rest of the crew stayed in the aircraft, which then crashed at around 23.30hrs near Langtoft, between Driffield and Malton. The bomb aimer was unfortunately thrown out during the crash and sadly died of his injuries in the early hours of the following morning.
Wellington Z8532 was built to contract B.71441/40 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd. at Weybridge and was received by 23 MU on 26th December 1941. It was taken on charge by 104 Squadron on 30th January 1942 and was transferred to 158 Squadron when they formed the following month. The aircraft's AM Form 78 states that on 30th April 1942 it sustained Cat.Ac/FB damage. The squadron records make no mention of any incident but 158 Squadron did use it operationally the night previously and it may have sustained the damage then. more information is required. The damage was repaired on site by a team from Fairfields and it was returned to 158 Squadron on 9th May 1942. On 23rd May 1942 it was transferred to 12 Squadron at Binbrook who then moved to Wickenby on 25th September 1942. As a result of the crash near Langtoft on 13th October 1942 Cat.E2/FB was the damage assessment and it was written off. The aircraft was struck off charge on 20th October 1942.
Bomb Aimer - F/Sgt John Percy Standfast RCAF (R/87945), aged 33. Of Big Bend district, British Columbia, Canada. Buried Driffield Cemetery, Yorkshire (grave 6182).
Air Gunner - Sgt Thomas Walter Yapp RCAF (R/101059), aged 24. Of Seattle, Washington, USA. Buried Driffield Cemetery, Yorkshire (grave 6188).
Pilot - Sgt Kenneth Rupert William Simmonds RAF (551578). Injured.
Navigator - Sgt Kenneth Bowes RAFVR (1098656). Injured.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt George Wendell Fisher RCAF (R/101449). Injured.
John Standfast was born on 7th August 1909 at Carnarvon, Wales and was the son of John and Gabrielle Mary (nee Percy) Standfast. He emigrated to British Columbia, Canada with his family in October 1916 though it appears his father followed later (probably as he was serving in First World War). As a young man he worked as a salesman between 1927 and 1933 but then left to begin gold mining and prospecting in the Big Bend area British Columbia. He enlisted for RCAF service on 30th January 1941 in Vancouver initially undertaking pilot training but then switching to bomb aimer training. He was awarded his air observer's flying badge on 28th March 1942; the air bomber's badge did not appear until later. Arriving in the UK in June 1942 he trained at 20 OTU before posting to 12 Squadron on 2nd October 1942. His father was living in Montreal by October 1942.
Thomas Yapp was born on 6th October 1918 at Duluth, Minnesota, USA and was the son of Howard Ellison and Evangeline (nee Harrison) Yapp. As a young man he worked as a mechanic in Alaska in the Summers of 1937 to 1939. He found permenant work as an assembly mechanic working for the Boeing Aircraft Co. in Seattle in January 1940 and was working there when he enlisted for RCAF service in Vancouver on 19th April 1941. After training in Canada he was awarded his air gunner's flying badge on 16th February 1942. Ten days later he married Betty Jane Chartier in Spokane, Washington, USA. He arrived in the UK in March 1942, following training at 3 AGS and 20 OTU he was posted to 12 Squadron on 2nd October 1942.
Kenneth Simmonds was born on 4th March 1921 in Epsom, Surrey and enlisted for RAF service on 24th May 1937. Sadly Sgt Simmonds was killed on 3rd March 1943 while flying 12 Squadron Lancaster W4855 on Ops to Hamburg. He and his then crew were initially buried locally to where their aircraft crashed near Rotenburg but they are now buried in Becklingen War Cemetery, Germany.
Kenneth Bowes was born on 11th June 1921 and enlisted for RAF service on 23rd March 1941. He recovered from his injuries sustained in the accident near Langtoft and married Joyce Barton, of Darlington, Co.Durham on Saturday 7th June 1943 in Darlington. On 12th June 1943, only six days after his marriage, he was flying in Lancaster ED357 on Ops to Dusseldorf when his aircraft was shot down on Ops to Dusseldorf over Holland and he was killed. Sgt Bowes was twenty three years old, sadly his body was either not recovered or not identified and he is listed on the Runnymede Memorial. In resent years the Ijsselmeer, where the aircraft crashed, was drained and parts of the aircraft surfaced. A propeller from the aircraft was recovered and now forms a memorial to Sgt Bowes in the town of Dronten and a street was named in his honour. The night he died was a bad night for 12 Squadron; they lost five Lancasters with the deaths of some thirty two airmen. It must have hit all at the squadron hard when they failed to return in the early hours.