On the night of 27th / 28th September 1943 the crew of this 460 Squadron Lancaster took off from Binbrook airfield at 19.49hrs to undertake an operational flight to bomb Hanover. On the return flight the aircraft's navigational equipment failed and in poor visibility they drifted too far north, crossing the East Yorkshire coast instead of the Lincolnshire coast. The crew were able to get a weak signal from their base but were unable to see anything so the pilot instructed the crew to prepare to abandon the aircraft, immediately they received an instruction from their base to descend to 400 feet. So believing they must be over the Binbrook area they let down through cloud, after descending the navigator fired a yellow flare cartidge and they realised that they were only flying around ten feet off the ground. By this stage the aircraft was being flown so slowly that it would not climb easily so the pilot belly landed in a field near the village of Aldbrough at 03.20hrs.
Pilot - F/Sgt Peter Alan Crosby RAAF (416656). Of Seacliff, South Australia.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - F/Sgt Leslie Harold Chapman RAAF (410641), of Stawell, Victoria, Australia.
Flight Engineer - Sgt Milton Harold Bender RAFVR (1800537), of Golders Green, Middlesex.
Bomb Aimer - F/Sgt Clive Billett RAAF (414191). Of Brisbane, Queensland, Australia.
Navigator - F/Sgt Charles Edward Suffren RAAF (409280), of Ballarat, Victoria, Australia.
Air Gunner - P/O Laurence William Robb RAAF (418879), wife of Ivanhoe, Victoria, Australia.
Air Gunner - Sgt Stanley Frederick Hodge RAAF (426100).
Back row: (L-R)Bender, Billett, Chapman, Hodge. Front row (L-R): Crosby, Robb, Suffren. Photo from "www.ozatwar.com". This crew were posted in to 460 Squadron from 1667 HCU on 17th September 1943. On the night of 9th / 10th April 1944 all of the above were still flying with 460 Squadron, on this night they were flying Lancaster ME663 on a mine laying flight when the aircraft was attacked, badly damaged and set on fire over Denmark by a night-fighter. Five of the crew were killed and are buried in Esbjerg (Fourfelt) Cemetery, Denmark. Stanley Hodge eventually became a PoW. F/O Charles Suffren DFC landed heavily and broke his back, he was also taken PoW but died in hospital in Germany on 16th February 1945 and he is buried Durnbach War Cemetery. He was twenty three years old. His DFC had been Gazetted on 15th August 1944.
Milton Bender received a commission on 23rd February 1944. Both he and Peter Crosby were awarded a posthoumus DFC, Gazetted on 21st December 1945 but back dated to 8th April 1944.