Wellington HZ303 damaged by flak, returned to East Moor airfield.
On the night of 8th / 9th April 1943 this 429 Squadron aircraft was damaged by flak to it's port side while on an operational flight to bomb Duisburg, the pilot was able to make a safe landing at East Moor at 02.39hrs and the damage was immediately repaired. They also reported that the guns and intercom were not working properly. The aircraft was quickly repaired as it was used again on an operational flight a couple of days later by the same crew.
Pilot - Sgt Richard Campbell Ellison RAFVR (656945).
Navigator - Sgt William Gordon Bailey RAFVR (1392374).
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Horace E J Horton RAFVR (1187663).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Edward C Nicholson RAFVR (1378793).
Air Gunner - Sgt Walter Jospeh Mullaney RCAF, of Corning, New York, USA.
Richard Ellison received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation (emergency) on 3rd June 1943 (147969). On 20th April 1943 all of the above were flying Wellington HE414 on Ops to Brest when the aircraft was badly damaged by flak and caught fire, they crashed the aircraft on landing at Exeter without injury to anyone on board but the aircraft was badly damaged. On 11th / 12th June 1943 this crew were flying an operation flight to bomb Dusseldorf in Wellington HZ355 when the aircraft was badly damaged by a night fighter. P/O Ellison appears to have held the aircraft steady while his crew baled out but was then unable to make good his escape and was killed. He has no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. He was twenty three years old. The four crew initially evaded capture but Bill Chorley records in his superb Bomber Command Losses 1943 book (and further recorded on other webpages) that the survivors found their way into the Comet escape and evasion line and were in the hands of Lucien Collin's family. The position of three was given to the Germans by a Belgian and the three were captured while being guided through Paris and they ended up in a PoW camp. The Collin family were arrested and later executed by the Nazi authorities. Sgt Bailey did manage to evade capture and made it back to the UK though Walter Mullaney later escaped capture and found the advancing American Army and fought with them until the end of the war.
William Bailey received a commission (147918) to P/O on probation (emergency) on 3rd June 1943. He was promoted to F/O on 3rd December 1943 and F/Lt on 3rd June 1945.
Wellington HZ303 was built to contract 92439/40 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd at Blackpool and was delivered to 38 MU at Llandow on 3rd March 1943. After acceptance there it was taken on charge by 429 Squadron at East Moor on 1st April 1943. On 9th April 1943 this aircraft had suffered very minor flak damage to it's port side on Ops but it was repaired and back on Ops the following evening, the damage was not logged on it' AM Form 78 card as the repair was completed by ground crew at East Moor. Whether this repair was later worked upon and the airtest on 14th April 1943 was then to test this repair at the time of the crash it is not known. Cat.E2/FA(Burnt) damage was the damage assessment following the crash at Huntington. It had completed only two operational flights when this incident at Huntington occurred. It was struck off charge on 19th April 1943.