Halifax HR932 at Lissett airfield.
During the night of 9th October 1943 this 158 Squadron aircraft was about to be flown from Lissett airfield. After taxying from dispersal to await take off an oil tank on the port inner engine was found to be leaking. The mid upper gunner had entered his turret but had left his kit on the ground outside the aircraft, as he climbed down to pick his kit up the aircraft began to taxi back towards a dispersal point. Unfortunately he had not informed the pilot that he was leaving or received permission from the pilot to leave so that the pilot had no knowledge that he was leaving. The slipstream blew the airman into the path of the rear wheel of the aircraft. He sustained injuries so severe that he died at 03.00hrs. The date of his death is confused by the CWGC database and his gravestone stating that his death occurred on 8th October 1943. This disagrees with the 158 Squadron records which list the time and place as being at Driffield base hospital on 9th October 1943. The AM Form 1180 for the incident states it was on 8th October 1943 at 22.20hrs and if correct the air gunner dies on 9th October 1943. The 158 Squadron records also list the gunner as flying in Halifax JD300 with the same pilot on the 8th / 9th October 1943 on Ops to Hanover but having not landed until 04.00hrs on 9th October. I would suggest that this accident actually happened on the evening of 9th October 1943 and that he then died at 03.00hrs on 10th October 1943 but I will need to buy his death certificate to prove it. Operations were planned for the night of 9th October 1943 but were scrubbed with crews undertaking training flights.
Air Gunner - Sgt William George Martin RAFVR (1377906), aged 34, of Upper Holloway, Middlesex. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire (C.C.15).
Pilot - W/Co Charles Cranston Calder DFC RAFVR (62699).
William Martin's grave at Harrogate.
