Wellington BK431 "N" at Dishforth airfield.
On the night of 14th / 15th February 1943 this 426 Squadron aircraft was flown on an operational flight to bomb Cologne. It had taken off from Dishforth airfield at 18.06hrs and the bombs were released through thick cloud at 20.17hrs on to PFF marker flares but the target was not seen. The crew then landed without incident at Dishforth at 23.58hrs. The pilot applied the brakes and stopped the aircraft normally having taxied to a dispersal point. At 00.05hrs the pilot then ran up the engines to 1500 rpm and a short time later reduced the power to 800 rpm to clear the oil. While reducing the power the pilot heard something strike the port propeller. He stopped the engines quickly and an airman was found lying unconscious beneath the aircraft. Several members of groundcrew had approached the aircraft from the rear as it stopped but one continued to walk under the wing and into the rotating propeller. He was taken to hospital at Harrogate.
National Archives file "AIR81/21757" gives the aircraft identity as being "Wellington BK243 of 426 Squadron" but BK243 never served with 426 Squadron and had already been destroyed in a crash elsewhere by that date. The 426 Squadron records list F/Lt McNeill as piloting Wellington BK431 and this aircraft was a 426 Squadron aircraft.
Groundcrew - AC1 Edwin Ward RAFVR (1219882). Injured.
Pilot - F/O John Gordon McNeill RCAF (J/9201).
Second Pilot - P/O Wilfred Lawrence Shaw RCAF (J/13021).
Navigator - P/O John Douglas Bernard Valentine Reffitt RAFVR (47458).
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Roy Alexander Henry RCAF.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt James Harvey Evans RCAF (R/114226).
Air Gunner - Sgt Henry Maxwell Smith RCAF.