On the night of 16th / 17th December 1943 the crew of this 101 Squadron aircraft took off from Ludford Magna airfield around 16.30hrs for an operational flight to bomb Berlin. All appears to have gone successfully whilst over Germany but poorly forecase weather for the time they were to return to the UK hampered their and numerous other aircraft in trying to find somewhere to land. Thick fog which was down to ground level over most of the area of Lincolnshire and Yorkshire where there were airfields resulted in numerous flying accidents on this night. The crew of LM389 had been diverted north from their Lincolnshire base and to land in Yorkshire, Holme on Spalding Moor is one of the airfields suggested as the destination. While trying to find somewhere to land the aircraft crashed at 00.27hrs near the village of Eastrington, between Selby and Goole. It appears to have descended into the ground and flown into the ground (believed to have been in or near a small wooded area) at 00.27hrs to the north of the village where it broke up. Sadly all five at the front of the aircraft were killed while the two air gunners further back survived. They had only just been posted to 101 Squadron from 1656 Heavy Conversion Unit on 2nd December 1943.
Pilot - P/O Norman Maylin Cooper RAFVR (170735), aged 20, of Letchworth, Hertfordshire. Cremated Cambridge.
Flight Engineer - Sgt Robert Kenneth Rye RAFVR (1809922), aged 19, of Maidstone, Kent. Buried Harrogate Stonefell Cemetery, Yorkshire (C/F/19).
Navigator - Sgt Robert Corrie Custance RAFVR (1396887), aged 20, wife of St.John's Wood. Buried Highgate Cemetery, London.
Bomb Aimer - Sgt Reginald William Melville Spelman RAFVR (1456979), aged 20, of Harpurhey, Manchester. Cremated Gorton, Manchester.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt John Gregory Hayden RAFVR (1294654), aged 21, of Luton, Bedfordshire. Buried Harrogate Stonefell Cemetery, Yorkshire (C/F/18).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - W/O Herbert Percy Davis RAF (626837), aged 25, of Middlewich, Cheshire. Buried Charfield Churchyard, Gloucestershire.
Air Gunner - Sgt J K Watson RAFVR (1567374). Injured.
Air Gunner - Sgt W O Ross RAFVR (1590730). Injured.
Graves of the two airmen buried at Stonefall Cemetery, Harrogate.
Norman Cooper received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 23rd November 1943.
Historians Eric Barton and Albert Pritchard obtained permission from the landowner to field walk the area of where the crash was believed to have occurred and located small fragments on the surface to confirm the location in September 2003.
