Halifax JB867 at Pocklington airfield.
At 16.04hrs on 5th May 1943 the crew of this 102 Squadron aircraft were about to undertake a training flight but as the aircraft was taking off from Pocklington airfield it began to enter a swing to port as the pilot opened the throttles. The pilot then overcorrected the swing and lost control. He then reduced power to the engines but before the aircraft stopped both undercarriage legs then collapsed. While the rear gunner sustained injuries the other five escaped injury. The crew list (given below) is that which is contained in the casualty file (AIR81/22832) and slightly differs from what I presume was a guessed, though largely correct, crew list made by Bill Chorley in his Bomber Command Losses book published twenty years before the AIR81 file release. A number of website have since copied Chorley's list and it is therefore not correct.
Pilot - F/O Alan Gibson RAFVR (126828).
Navigator - F/O Derek Leonard Richard Mayes RAFVR (129584).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Frederick William Powell RAFVR (1315572).
Air Gunner - F/O William Thomas Carroll RAAF (407098).
Rear Gunner - Sgt James Hubert Conley RCAF (R/108771). Injured.
Flight Engineer - Sgt Alan John Pickard RAF (804287).
Halifax JB867 was built to contract ACFT/1808/C4 by English Electric Co. Ltd. at Samlesbury and was taken on charge by 102 Squadron at Pocklington on 1th March 1943. As a result of minor flak damage on 30th March 1943 Cat.A/FB was the damage assessment and it was repaired on site. On 4th April 1943 it was again damaged by flak on Ops to Essen which unfortunately killed the rear gunner P/O Thomas McLoughlin. Cat.A/FB damage was the damage assessment and it was again repaired on site. On 5th May 1943 it crashed at Pocklington on take off for a training flight. Cat.E/FA damage was the damage assessment and it was struck off charge on 16th May 1943 having clocked up 53 hours total flying time from new.
The injured rear gunner was taken to York Military Hospital. His father was from Lindsay, Ontario, Canada.
Alan Gibson received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 17th July 1942. He was later promoted to F/O on probation (war subs) on 17th January 1943 and to F/Lt (war subs) on 17th July 1944. For service with 102 Squadron he was awarded the DFC, Gazetted on 7th November 1943. It seems very likely that he left the RAF after the war and became a pilot for BOAC, someone with the same name and a holder of the DFC was the pilot of the ill-fated DeHavilland Comet G-ALYP that broke up in the air over the Mediterranean Sea on 10th January 1954 with the loss of all on board. He was thirty one years old. There is very little on the internet about Alan Gibson's flying after 102 Squadron and prior to what would appear to be the same man's untimely death in 1954 and given his experience there should be more written about him.
Frederick Powell was probably the same individual who received a commission on 5th April 1944 to the rank of P/O on probation (war subs) and was promoted to F/O (war subs) on 5th October 1944. He later served a second tour with 640 Squadron (joining Ian Simpson's crew) and was awarded the DFC Gazetted on 20th July 1945. Before he left the RAFVR he was promoted to F/Lt (war subs) on 5th April 1946.
Derek "Richard" Mayes was born on 26th December 1922 in Luton, Bedfordshire but his family moved to Hitchin where he attended Grammar School. He was working for an estate agent before he enlisted into the RAF. He received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 28th August 1942 and was promoted to F/O (war subs) on 28th February 1943. He was awarded the DFC for service with 102 Squadron, Gazetted on 7th December 1943 and was later promoted to F/Lt (war subs) on 28th August 1944. Post-War Richard Mayes became an accomplished actor starring in a number of films including the film Gandhi and starring in television's Emmerdale and Dr.Who. He died in October 2006.
William Carroll was born in Renmark, South Australia on 22nd September 1916. When he enlisted into the RAAF in Adelaide on 27th May 1940 he was working as a lorry driver but had also served in the 18th Light Horse Machine Gun Regiment since 1938. After basic training in Australia he arrived in the UK and trained at 23 OTU begining 26th April 1941 and 15 OTU briefly in June 1941 before receiving a posting to the Middle East / North Africa later to 37 Squadron in 1942 where he flew his first Tour. By July 1942 he was back in the UK and at 10 OTU, he received a commission on 27th October 1942 to the rank of P/O, he was posted to 1663 HCU in March 1943 and then to 102 Squadron by the end of April 1943. He was promoted to F/O on 27th April 1943. He completed his second Tour and was awarded the DFC for service with 102 Squadron, Gazetted on 7th December 1943. After serving with 102 Squadron he appears to have become a screened air gunner and taken off operational flying, going down the instructing route. He served at 10 OTU begining on 27th October 1943 (where he was probably trained to be an instructor). He was posted back to Australia in early 1944 via the USA and he later served at the Australian CGS and 7 OTU in 1944 where he undertook ground duties with range control. He was promoted to F/Lt on 7th September 1944 and also transferred to the Admin and Special Duties Branch on the same date. Before the end of the war he served at Australian Air Gunnery School in early 1945 all for gunnery instruction duties before leaving the RAAF in Summer 1945. He died in August 1966.