Unidentified Halifax damaged in the air, landed at Wombleton airfield.
The Wombleton airfield station record book states that on 28th October 1944 the airfield was warned to stand by for at least twenty aircraft being diverted to land their on return from operations to Cologne. In the end eighteen 434 Squadron aircraft landed there as well as one Halifax belonging to one of the Leeming-based squadrons. All aircraft made safe landings although it was stated in the record book that the bomb aimer in the Leeming based aircraft had sustained injuries when a small piece of perspex lodged in his eye. For this to have occurred it seems most likely that the aircraft had received minor flak damage which had broken the nose perspex.
I have searched through the two operation record books for both 427 and 429 Squadron who were the resident squadrons at Leeming to try and identify the damaged aircraft and injured bomb aimer without success. 427 Squadron sustained two flak damaged aircraft on this date; both entries in the ORB does not mention a landing at Wombleton and both their bomb aimers were flying again with their same crews in the nights following this date. This probably rules out these two 427 Squadron aircraft. No other 427 Squadron appear to have sustained any damage. 429 Squadron also sustained a number of battle damaged aircraft on this night, with a wireless operator killed in one aircraft and a flight engineer injured in another but these two aircraft appear to have landed in the South of England while others made safe landings at Carnaby. I have also been through the 434 Squadron aircraft flying on this night and also not come up with anything. As a result of this I have yet to work out which squadron the the aircraft belonged to and to then work out the name of the injured bomb aimer, I feel his injury should not be overlooked.
Bomb Aimer - Name unknown. Injured.
Crew - Names unknown.