Halifax HR730 at Snaith airfield.
On the night of 12th / 13th May 1943 the crew of this 51 Squadron aircraft took off from Snaith airfield to carry out an opertional flight to bomb Duisburg. The squadron records state that the crew released their bomb load from 19,000 feet at 02.22hrs. On their return to Yorkshire they landed at Burn airfield at 05.15hrs. Later that afternoon a different pilot undertook the ferry flight from Burn to fly it back to Snaith. On landing at Snaith at 14.15hrs a heavy tail first landing was made which broke the tail oleo.
Pilot - Sgt Nicholas Chirgwin Richards RAFVR (1313436).
Halifax HR730 was built to contract ACFT/1688/42 by Handley Page Ltd. and was flown to 18 M.U. at Dumfries on 28th February 1943. The aircraft was taken on charge by 51 Squadron at Snaith on 31st March 1943. As a result of battle damage sustained on 27th April 1943 Cat.A/FB damage was the assessment and it was repaired on site. It was used operationally less than two days later so cannot have been seriously damaged. On 12th / 13th May 1943 the aircraft was used on Ops to Duisburg and was landed at Burn on the return to Yorkshire. During the afternoon it was ferried back to Snaith but the tail wheel assembly broke on landing. The aircraft's AM Form 78 lists that on 17th May 1943 a repair on site commenced by a team from Handley Page Ltd. Once the repair was complete it was returned to 51 Squadron on 19th June 1943. It's next operational flight was on 25th June 1943 this time to bomb Gelsenkirchen. The squadron records state that it received flak damage. Cat.A/FB damage must have been the damage assessment as this incident is not listed on the aircraft's AM Form 78. A repair on site must have been at least begun on site locally at Snaith. Here there is a problem with recording the history. The aircraft's AM Form 78 states that on 27th July 1943 it received a Cat.Ac/FB damage assessment but the aircraft does not feature on 51 Squadron's operational records around this date or at any stage after this date in 1943. One suggestion could be that it was damaged on 25th June 1943 and was initially assessed as Cat.A/FB but as the repair was carried out damage was found to be more severe so it was upgraded to Cat.Ac though normally this would be logged as Re-Cat.Ac. The aircraft's history throughout the rest of 1943 is therefore unclear. The AM Form 78 states it was returned to 51 Squadron on 1st January 1943 which is clearly an error. It was never flown operationally again by 51 Squadron in 1943. On 1st February 1944 the aircraft was transferred to 102 Squadron at Pocklington and on 30th March 1944 it was transferred to 1569 Heavy Conversion Unit at Topcliffe. The aircraft was then flown to 48 MU at Hawarden for storage on 7th January 1945 before being struck off charge on 1st November 1945.