On the night of 29th / 30th November 1943 the crew of this 1658 Heavy Conversion Unit aircraft were to carry out a basic night circuits and landings exercise using their home airfield of Riccall for the series of take offs and landings. Having taken off at 23.07hrs the aircraft flew a circuit of the airfield and landed five minutes later but was badly damaged on landing. It started to swing off the runway, the pilot overcorrected the swing which caused a tyre to burst and the undercarriage then collapsed. The damage was later inspected and it was deemed beyond repair.
Pilot - Sgt Eric Reginald Anderson RAFVR (1505663).
Following training at 1658 H.C.U. Eric Anderson was posted to 158 Squadron in December 1943, he received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 5th March 1944 and rose to F/O six months later. He was awarded the DFC for service with 158 Squadron, Gazetted on 6th October 1944, the citation for which reads.. "As pilot and captain this officer has completed very many sorties, involving attacks on well defended targets in Germany and, more recently, on targets in Northern France. He has displayed outstanding determination and his coolness and courage under enemy fire has greatly inspired his crew. On one occasion when over Bourg Leopold, Flying Officer Anderson saw one of the bomber force being attacked by a fighter. Drawing closer, he manoeuvred to a good position and his gunners opened fire. As the enemy aircraft turned to meet the challenge another burst of fire was delivered which caused the fighter to fall towards the ground with quantities of smoke pouring from it."
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