Halifax JD125 damaged by flak, returned to Elvington airfield.
On the night of 27th / 28th May 1943 the crew of this 77 Squadron aircraft were tasked with flying an operational flight to bomb Essen and took off from Elvington airfield at 22.57hrs, they bombed the target markers on the target but the aircraft was hit by flak while over the target area. The crew were able to make a safe return to Elvington and land at 04.35hrs.
Pilot - F/O Thomas Rowe RAFVR (124836).
Flight Engineer - Sgt Ralph Tailford RAF.
Navigator - Sgt Albert Edwin Harvey RAFVR (657817).
Bomb Aimer - F/O A Grant.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Oscar Ernest Burger (1382880).
Air Gunner - Sgt A Knapp.
Air Gunner - P/O D Bellhouse.
Thomas Rowe was born on 13th August 1913 in Poole, Dorset. He played football for Portsmouth Football Club winning the F.A.Cup with them in 1939. He was granted a commission in the RAF to the rank of P/O on probation on 3rd July 1942 and rose to F/O on 3rd January 1943. For service with 77 Squadron he was awarded the DFC, Gazetted on 12th November 1943. He was made a PoW on an unknown date and was promoted to F/Lt (war subs) on 12th May 1944. He remained in the RAFVR after the war and finally reliquished his commission on 13th August 1958 of S/Ldr, retaining the rank of F/Lt. He died in May 2006.
Arthur Harvey received a commission on 26th August 1943 to the rank of P/O on probation (158597), he was awarded the DFC for service with 77 Squadron, Gazetted on 10th December 1943. He received a promotion to F/O (war subs) on 26th February 1944 but would not appear to have received promotion to F/Lt which would generally be two years after his commission.
Oscar Burger was awarded the DFM for service with 77 Squadron, Gazetted on 10th December 1943 but by the time this came through he had been granted a commission of P/O on probation on 31st August 1943 (159026). He was promoted to F/O on 31st February 1944 and F/Lt on 31st August 1945.
Halifax JD125 was built to contract ACFT/1808/C4c by English Electric Co.Ltd. at Samlesbury and was taken on charge as new by 77 Squadron at Elvington on 5th May 1943. As a result of sustaining battle damage on 28th May 1943 a minor damage assessment of Cat.A/FB was the result and it was repaired on site. On 13th August 1943 the aircraft failed to return from an operational flight to bomb Milan and was found to have crashed near Verneuil-Sur-Avre, France with it's crew of seven being killed. Cat.Em damage was recorded on the paperwork and the aircraft was struck off charge on 16th August 1943 having clocked up just short of 115 hours total flying from new.