Unidentified Halifax (HR731?) damaged by flak, returned to Snaith airfield.
This aircraft took off from Snaith at 23.38hrs on 11th June 1943 to undertake an operational flight to bomb Dusseldorf. They bombed the target area from 18,000ft at 02.19hrs and made for home. The aircraft was hit by three flak bursts and received slight damage over the target area. The crew were able to bring the aircraft safely back to base and landed at Snaith in the early hours of 12th June 1943 at 04.52hrs. The 51 Squadron ORB does not list the full identity of this aircraft but it was probably HR731 which the crew were flying around this time and were all killed flying later in June 1943.
Pilot - Sgt Anthony Osmond RAFVR (1390052), of Pinner, Middlesex.
Navigator - Sgt Geoffrey Charles Mortimer RAFVR (1576506), of Wolverhampton.
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Thomas George Barton RAFVR (1585435), of Slough, Buckinghamshire.
Wireless Operator - Sgt Phillip Blundell RAFVR (1027741), of Southport, Lancashire.
Flight Engineer - Sgt Brinley Huggan RAF (573249), of Bryn Mill, Glamorgan.
Air Gunner - Sgt John Emerson RAFVR (1300003), of Wallsend, Northumberland.
Air Gunner - Sgt James Rorison RAFVR (1358058), of Isle of Whithorn, Wigtownshire.
This whole crew were flying Halifax HR731 on Ops on 25th / 26th June 1943 to Gelsenkirchen when it was shot down by a night-fighter and crashed into the Ijsselmeer. Sgt's Mortimer and Rorison are buried at Harderwijk General Cemetery, Holland. Of their known ages the crew were all either 21 or 22 years old apart from Sgt Blundell who was thirty and who is buried at Amersfoort General Cemetery, Holland. The other members of the crew are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.