On the night of 5th / 6th June 1942 the crew of this 78 Squadron aircraft were undertaking an operational flight to bomb Essen and took off from Croft airfield at 23.12hrs. The crew released their bomb load over the target area from 17,000ft and made for home. On their return the aircraft a navigation error resulted in them being well off course from their route back to Croft, they ended up over on the west side of England and as the aircraft was more fuel than normal the crew realised that they would not be able to make a landing back at base. The pilot selected a field to make a forced landing near Lindale in the Meathop area, and made three dummy runs before lowering the undercarriage and landing. On touching down at 05.15hrs the undercarriage collapsed and the aircraft tipped up on to its nose. All appear to have escaped injury.
I would possibly link this incident with that of the one reported to have been on or around 4th April 1942 in which civilians were fined for visiting an aircraft in the same area as this Halifax and with the April date being incorrect.
Pilot - W/Co Arthur Henry Seymour-Lucas RAF (05200).
? - P/O Ide.
Observer - Sgt Robert Kynnersley Frankland RAFVR (926593), aged 30, of Leytonstone, Essex.
? - Sgt Edward Kenneth Davies RAFVR (1058275), aged 19, of Flint, Wales.
? - Sgt Leon Harold Seal RAFVR (1325688), aged 27, of Kingswood, Surrey.
? - Sgt David Smith BEM RAF (350171), aged 41, wife of Kelvinbridge, Glasgow.
? - Sgt James Roland Williams RAFVR (591301), aged 22, of Grimsby, Lincolnshire.
On the night of 19th / 20th June 1942 Sgt's Frankland, Davies, Seal, Smith and Williams were flying together in 78 Squadron Halifax BB200 undertaking Ops to Emden. The aircraft crashed into the North Sea off Denmark with the loss of all on board. Sgt Frankland's body was recovered and he rests in Kiel War Cemetery. The others have no known grave and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
Sgt Smith had served in the RAF as far back as the 1920s. While in the rank of Acting F/Sgt he was awarded the British Empire Medal (Military Division), Gazetted on 1st January 1942.
P/O Ide was serving with 78 Squadron by June 1942 and appears to have left by September 1942. I have not found any details in the squadron records that fully identify him.
Arthur Seymour-Lucas was born on 30th May 1908 and was the son of Sydney Seymour Lucas, an illustrator and portrait painter. He was granted a commission in the A.A.Class
of the RAFO as P/O on probation on 26th March 1930 and was confirmed in the rank of P/O on 26th March 1941. He was promoted to F/O on 26th September 1931. From March 1932 until
at least 1933 he served with 26 Squadron. He was promoted to F/Lt on 26th September 1935. In February 1936 he was posted to No.1 (Indian Wing) Station based at Kohat and then on
6th January 1938 to No.1 (Indian) Group HQ at Peshawar. He was promoted to S/Ldr on 1st October 1938 and to W/Co (temp) on 1st December 1940. He was was Commanding Officer of
78 Squadron from May to July 1942 when he was replaced by W/Co James Brian "Willie" Tait DSO DFC. He later received promotions to W/Co (war subs) on 27th January 1943 and
to G/Cpt on 1st January 1944. Post-War he remained in the RAFO was promoted to a substantive rank of G/Cpt on 1st July 1947.
Just days before his forced landing near Meathop he was flying Halifax V9991 on the night of 30th / 31st May 1941 on Ops to Cologne, as they were returning to the UK the aircraft began to ice up and he ordered his crew to abandon the aircraft. He then went on to belly land at Wittering where the aircraft sustained damage later assessed as being Cat.B. Sadly one of his then crew, Sgt Ernest Thomas Webb RAFVR (120304), sustained serious injuries on landing by parachute and died while being transported to hospital.
Halifax W7668 was built to Contract No.B73328/40 by Handley Page Ltd and was one of a batch of two hundred aircraft built to the contract. Aircraft from this contract began to be delivered to the RAF from 24th March 1942. W7668 first served with 78 Squadron and following the forced landing in the South Lakes in June 1942 it was taken away by road and repaired. It later served with 158 Squadron but crashed at Scampton airfield on 10th December 1942 on return from an operational flight to bomb Turin. It was again repaired before being passed to 1666 Heavy Conversion Unit based at Wombleton where it saw out its days. It was struck off charge on 1st August 1944.
The location of where this incident occurred has not yet been found. If you can assist please contact me
HERE. Thank you.
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