At 19.05hrs on 3rd November 1942 this 102 Conversion Flight aircraft landed in a cross wind at Pocklington airfield during a training flight and it swung off the runway, the pilot overcorrected the turn to try and bring it back in line. It swung out of control and the undercarriage collapsed.
Pilot - Sgt Peter Anthony James Grant RAFVR (1337376).
Sgt Grant completed his conversion training and was posted to the parent 102 Squadron. He was killed on Ops to Mannheim on 6th December 1942 flying Halifax W7911
which crashed in France with the loss of his whole crew. He is buried Abbeville Communal Cemetery, France. His crew may well have all been in Halifax L9510 in this
training incident in October 1942.
Halifax L9584 was built to contract 692649/37 by Handley Page Ltd. at Radlett. It was allotted to 12 MU on 26th August 1941 and was received by them on 25th September 1941. The aircraft was taken on charge by 35 Squadron at Linton on Ouse on 26th October 1941 where it carried the squadron code "TL-L". The aircraft's AM Form 78 states that on 15th January 1942 the aircraft received the first of it's many damage mishaps during 1942 when it was struck by bomb shrapnel while in a hanger from a jettisoned bomb that exploded on the airfield boundary. Cat.Ac/FA damage was the damage assessment and it was repaired on site. On 21st February 1942 it was transferred to 102 Conversion Flight, just over a month after the unit formed at Dalton. As a result of a landing accident at Dalton on 12th April 1942 undercarriage received "severe damage" (as the unit records states). The aircraft's AM Form 78 gives the initial damage assessment as being Cat.Ac/FA though this may have been later upgraded to Re-Cat.B that required a repair in works. 102 Conversion Flight moved to Topcliffe on 10th June 1942. On 5th August 1942 the aircraft was at Rawcliffe airfield and it tipped up onto it's nose on take off. Why it was at Rawcliffe is not yet known. If Cat.B damage resulted in April 1942 it may have been taken there to be repaired by Handley Page and crashed during an airtest. It have been repaired on site following the April 1942 incident and was simply at Rawcliffe months later for an inspection. The damage must have been very minor Cat.A/FA on 5th August 1942 as it was airtested on 6th August 1942 and passed as servicable. On 7th August 1942 102 Conversion Flight moved to Pocklington. On 3rd September 1942 the aircraft's tail wheel casting broke on landing at Pocklington and Cat.A/FA damage appears to have been the assessment as it is not logged on the aircraft's AM Form 78. It was again repaired on site and returned to the unit but spares for the repair were hard to come by so it sat unrepaired for a time. On 3rd November 1942 it was more seriously damaged when it crashed at Pocklington and the undercarriage leg (or legs) collapsed. Cat.E/FA damage was the damage assessment and it was struck off charge on 4th November 1942.
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