On 18th October 1943 the crew of this 51 Squadron aircraft were carrying out a cross country training flight when it swung on take off at Snaith airfield at 18.00hrs and came to a halt with the undercarriage collapsed. The damage was assessed and it joined many other MkII Halifaxes to be written off having sustained very similar damage. The pilot's crew was probably his regular crew but I have not yet confirmed this.
Pilot - P/O James Alfred Price RAFVR (125472).
James Price received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on on 3rd July 1942 and had risen to F/O six months later but the 51 Squadron ORB still listed him in the rank of P/O in November 1943. Having been posted in to 51 Squadron from 1658 HCU on 10th October 1943 he flew his first operational flight with 51 Squadron on 22nd October 1943 as a second pilot with F/Sgt McKenzie in Halifax JD311 and then the first with his own crew in the same aircraft on 3rd November 1943. He was killed on 22nd January 1944 while still serving with 51 Squadron, when Halifax
LV774 crashed on ops to Magdeburg with the loss of all but one of the crew. He is buried at Olderbroek General Cemetery, Holland.
Back to monthly table.