Halifax DK175 at Holme on Spalding Moor airfield.
On the night of 13th / 14th July 1943 this 76 Squadron aircraft was to be used for an operational flight to bomb Aachen. The aircraft was in the process of taking off from Holme on Spalding Moor at 23.48hrs when it swung out of control and off the runway. The undercarriage probably collapsed and then the wreckage caught fire, but the crew were able to get clear of the burning aircraft before it exploded in a field next to the airfield.
Pilot - F/Lt Leif Woodrow Hulthin RNAF (N.349), of Norway.
Flight Engineer - Sgt Raymond John Kellitt Machan RAFVR (655425), of Kenilworth, Cape Town, South Africa.
Navigator - Sgt Cyril Marshall Murfitt RAFVR (1576007).
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Alfred Vernon Cecil Barden RAFVR (1458788).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Frederick Southern RAFVR (1127777).
Air Gunner - Sgt Leonard Thomas Brawn RAFVR (1380936).
Air Gunner - Sgt W Freeman.
Alfred Barden received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 20th September 1943. He was just eighteen years old and is remembered by a stained glass window in the Emmanuel Church, Shelley, West Yorkshire. He was one of the youngest officers killed in Bomber Command in the whole of the Second World War.
Cyril Murfitt received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 19th September 1943.
Sgt Leonard Brawn was flying in Halifax DK174 on 3rd / 4th July 1943 when the aircraft was hit by flak over the target if Cologne which damaged the turret and injured Sgt Brawn in the foot. His pilot crash landed at Hartford Bridge airfield in Hampshire on the return. He was twenty one years old when he died as a result of the crash in Germany on 22nd October 1943. His brother F/Sgt Henry Brawn RAFVR (1601100) was killed flying with 51 Squadron on 11th August 1944 in Halifax LW588, he was twenty years old and is buried at Valenciennes Communal Cemetery, France.
Lt Hulthin, Sgt Machan, P/O Murfitt, P/O Barden, Sgt Southern and Sgt Brawn were killed on 22nd October 1943 flying Ops to Kassel in Halifax LK664 when the aircraft crashed in Germany. They are buried in Hanover War Cemetery.