On the night of 19th / 20th June 1942 the crew of this aircraft were one of a number of 10 Squadron tasked with flying an operational flight to bomb Emden and took off from
Leeming at 23.15hrs. They bombed the target area at 01.41hrs from 16,000ft and the port outer engine was damaged by flak and had to be shut down. The crew were able to make a
safe return to base and landed at Leeming at 04.29hrs. On the night of 25th June 1942 many of this crew were flying in this same aircraft again for Ops to Bremen when the pilot's
escape hatch blew off on the flight to Germany as the pilot changed seats with another member of the crew, they jettisoned the bomb load and returned to base but the aircraft
was not listed as damaged in this second incident.
Pilot - F/Sgt Ernest Fred Allen RAFVR (1150772).
Navigator - P/O J H Stevens.
Bomb Aimer - F/Sgt William Scott Muego RAFVR (968038).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt W Everett / Everitt.
Air Gunner - Sgt R Dill.
Air Gunner - Sgt Ishwyn Howell Perkins RAFVR (949497).
Flight Engineer - Sgt H / R Holliday.
Halifax W7717 was built to contract B.73328/40 by Handley Page Ltd. at Radlett. It was taken on charge by 10 Squadron at Leeming as new on 5th June 1942. As a result of the battle damage sustained on 20th June 1942 minor Cat.A/FB damage would have been the assessment. It was quickly repaired and was used by 10 Squadron later in June 1942. The aircraft was then ferried out to the Middle East with 10/227 Squadron. It was taken on charge by 462 Squadron at Fayid when the unit absorbed 10/227 Squadron. On 31st October 1942 it was transferred to 4 M.E.T.S. at Aqir but on 8th December 1942 it had to be ditched off the Egyptian Coast after suffering an engine fire in flight. Cat.E/FA damage was recorded and the aircraft was struck off charge on 10th December 1942.
F/Sgt Allen, Sgt Dill, Sgt Holliday, P/O Stevens, Sgt Everett and Sgt Perkins were all posted to 10/227 Squadron in North Africa in Summer 1942 and all were then posted to 462 Squadron on its formation also in North Africa in September 1942. On Christmas Day 1942 462 Squadron received notification that all personnel were to be posted back to the UK as Tour Expired aircrew and after this many of their later postings are not yet known.
William Muego served with 225 Squadron before joining 10 Squadron and later 77 Squadron. He received a commission on 8th September 1942 to the rank of P/O on probation and was promoted to F/O on probation on 8th March 1943. He was awarded the DFC as Acting F/Lt while serving with 77 Squadron, Gazetted on 7th December 1943. By March 1944 he was in the rank of Acting F/Lt and had been posted to 35 Squadron PFF, on 24th March 1944 he was flying in Lancaster ND597 as a bomb aimer on Ops to Berlin, the aircraft was attacked by a night-fighter and then exploded in the air. William Muego was thrown out and survived despite serious injuries he became a PoW. While a PoW he was promoted to F/Lt (war subs) on 8th September 1944. Postwar he was a member of the RauxAF until reliquishing his commission on 23rd April 1959. He was born in Glasgow in 1914 and died in 1987.
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