Halifax DK245 damaged by enemy action, returned to Holme on Spalding Moor airfield.

On the night of 10th / 11th August 1943 this 76 Squadron aircraft had been used on an operational flight to bomb Nuremburg, it was damaged by flak in the port engine and the second pilot received fatal injuries by a piece of flak that entered the aircraft and struck him. The remaining crew returned to England, believed to have landed at base of Holme on Spalding Moor at 05.23hrs. The aircraft was later repaired but was destroyed in a crash on 29th January 1944 at Holme on Spalding Moor.

Pilot - Sgt Stephen John Troake RAFVR (658553).

Bomb Aimer? - P/O Thomas Gracie Paton RAFVR (132608).

Navigator - Sgt Reginald Jack Fayers (963752).

Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Philip Ian Weeks RAFVR (1174998).

Air Gunner - P/O Potter.

Flight Engineer - Sgt Louis Harold Barnes RAFVR (1179334).

Air Gunner - Sgt Ruben Seymour Orr RCAF (R/139891).

Second Pilot - Sgt Herbert Thomas Whittlesea RAFVR (1392934), aged 23, of Enfield. Buried Edmonton Cemetery, Middlesex.

On the night of 25th / 26th November 1943 Troake, Paton, Fayers, Weeks, Barnes and Orr were flying together in Halifax DK231 on ops to Frankfurt when the aircraft was shot down by a night-fighter. Troake, Barnes, Weeks and Orr were killed and are now buried in Durnbach War Cemetery. Fayers and Paton became PoWs.

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