Lancaster ED650 damaged on Ops, returned to Holme on Spalding Moor airfield.
On the night of 20th / 21st April 1943 the crew of this 101 Squadron aircraft undertook an operational flight to bomb a target at Stettin. The aircraft took off
from Holme on Spalding Moor airfield at 21.40hrs. The crew bombed the target area at 01.13hrs from 12,000 feet and during the course of the night the aircraft received flak damage to the port wing and also to perspex on the starboard side of the fuselage. The flight engineer was also slightly injured in the head. Despite the damage the crew made a safe landing at Holme on Spalding Moor at 05.20hrs.
Pilot - Sgt Dennis Herbert Brook RAFVR (1127950).
Flight Engineer - Sgt Angus Clifford Keightley RAFVR (1078101). Injured.
Navigator - Sgt Gwyn Hopkin RAFVR (1392079).
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Thomas Edmund Wynn Latter RAFVR (1396732).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Arthur Reginald Tippett RAFVR (1312466).
Air Gunner - Sgt F Smith (Possibly Ferguson George Donald Smith RAFVR (133655)).
Air Gunner - Sgt Kenneth Henson RAFVR (1578815).
Lancaster ED650 was built to contract B.69274/40 by A.V. Roe and Co. Ltd. at Chadderton and was taken on charge by 101 Squadron at Holme on Spalding Moor on 20th February 1943. As a result of the damage sustained on 21st April 1943 Cat.A/FB damage was the assessment and it was repaired on site within days. It was damaged by flak on 11th June 1943 on Ops to Dusseldorf with pretty much the same crew as listed above, this again saw Cat.A/FB damage and it was again repaired on site. On 22nd June 1943 it failed to return from Ops to Krefeld. Cat.E(m) damage was recorded on the paperwork and it was struck off charge on 30th June 1943 having clocked up a total flying time of 172 hours. P/O Brook and Sgt's Keightley, Hopkin, Latter and Henson were five of those killed, they are buried in Rheinberg War Cemetery.