On 15th January 1942 35 Squadron Halifax L9584 was parked in Hanger D at Linton on Ouse. During the evening of this day other 35 Squadron aircraft were deployed to bomb Hamburg Railway station and one of these aircraft, Halifax R9367, took off from Linton on Ouse airfield at 18.15hrs. As the aircraft was taking off it suffered engine trouble. A lat-long position of how far the aircraft reached is given in the 35 Squadron orb and this plots to being some miles off Newcastle though I suspect this is an error because the bomb load was not jettisoned into the North Sea. By 19.00hrs the aircraft was back over Linton on Ouse. Linton on Ouse's Q-Site was unavailable to make a landing so at that time they jettisoned the bomb load in an area south-west of their home airfield from 1,000 feet. One of the 1000lb bombs landed on the boundary of the airfield and exploded. A large piece of shrapnel went through the door of Hanger D that was some five hundred yards away and struck Halifax L9484 inside. Twenty minutes later the crew of Halifax R9367 landed safely at Linton on Ouse without damage.
Crew - None.
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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