Unidentified Wellington damaged by flak, landed at Pocklington airfield.
On the night of 12th / 13th April 1942 405 Squadron supplied a number of Wellingtons for operational flights to Essen. One of these aircraft, Wellington "LQ-O", took off from Pocklington at 22.27hrs, was fired upon by a convoy and sustained flak damage to the front perspex and the tyres were also damaged. The aircraft appears to have then flown to the target and released their bombs at 01.53hrs from 15,000 feet. The crew returned to base of Pocklington and made a landing at 05.20hrs. In general, aircraft that had sustained tyre damage would be very fortunate not to suffer further damage on landing with undercarriage collapses being regular.
Pilot - F/Sgt Wigley.
Second Pilot? - Sgt Farrell (Probably Sgt Francis Harold John Farrell RAFVR (1375165)).
Navigator? - Sgt Mercer.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Arthur Nutt RAFVR (1170640)
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner? - Sgt Smith. (Possibly Sgt Eric Omar Smith RAFVR (1169531)).
Air Gunner - Sgt Ivor Watters RAF (610633).
Sgt Eric Omar Smith was killed on 27th June 1942 while flying with 405 Squadron when Halifax W1175 failed to return from an operational flight to Bremen. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
Arthur Nutt was later awarded the DFM for service with 405 Squadron, Gazetted on 29th December 1942.
Sgt Farrell was later posted to 102 Squadron and was killed on 9th September 1942 flying Halifax W7677 on Ops to Frankfurt. He is buried in Folschette Churchyard, Luxembourg in a joint grave with two other members of his 102 Squadron crew.
The crash site of Halifax W7677 in Luxembourg. I thank Ade Harris for both photographs shown here.
Ivor Watters was killed on 1st August 1942 flying Ops to Dusseldorf in Halifax W7718, he was trapped inside the badly damaged aircraft and was the only fatality when it crashed in Belgium.
