Wellington Z8399 at Lindholme (or Doncaster?) airfield.
On the night of 17th / 18th April 1942 this 305 Squadron aircraft was tasked with flying an operational flight to bomb Hamburg and took off from Lindholme at 23.24hrs. This crew released their 4000lb bomb from 8,000 feet over the old town causing a very large explosion. During the course of the flight this aircraft was attacked by a night fighter and was also damaged by flak. Due to the early return of Wellington W5566 that crashed on landing at Lindholme two hours earlier other 305 Squadron aircraft appear to have been diverted to Doncaster airfield to land. Wellington Z8399 crashed on landing at 05.22hrs though the location given in the casualty file is at Lindholme and not Doncaster. While the unit orb states that there were no injuries there is a casualty file AIR81 in the National Archives that states that the last named received a bullet wound to his hand.
Pilot - F/Lt Robert Juliusz Hirszbandt OBE DFC PAF (P.1399).
Second Pilot - F/O Kazimierz Zygmunt Wieliczko GM PAF (P.0341).
Navigator - F/Lt Boleslaw Zenon Jarkowski PAF (P.76745).
Air Gunner - Sgt Jozef Zawistowski PAF (P.793168).
Air Gunner - Sgt Jozef Ulicki PAF (P.794201).
Air Gunner - Sgt Artur Dunajewski PAF (P.793517). Injured.
Kazimierz Wieliczko was awarded a George Medal for his actions on 29th September 1941 at 18 OTU for rescuing the sole surviving member of the eight man crew, the rear gunner from crashed Wellington R3216 at Bramcote. His award was Gazetted on 26th January 1942.
On 2nd June 1942 several of those named were flying Wellington Z8583 and returning from Ops to Essen when the aircraft crashed in Norfolk. All were killed.