On the night of 21st / 22nd January 1944 the crew of this 158 Squadron took off from Lissett airfield at 20.10hrs to undertake an operational flight to bomb Magdeburg. They bombed the bombed the target area on the pathfinder-dropped target indicators at 23.06hrs from 21.000 feet. On their return to England the crew became lost off the east coast, they spent around 25 minutes searching for their base and as a result the aircraft ran low on fuel. They attempted to reach base but with the fuel situation becoming critical the pilot ordered all but the bomb aimer to bale out. Three of the four engines had been shut down and the propellers feathered. Of the five that baled out sadly two appear to have been too low for their parachutes to deploy properly and were killed. The other three survived the descent. The pilot then crash landed the aircraft with the bomb aimer still on board at 03.48hrs near Lissett. There appears to have been a problem with the hydraulic system of this aircraft on this night, a possible split in a hydraulic pipe appears to have caused the undercarriage legs to lower earlier than necessary, if this was the case it would account for the fuel running low as the more drag would be caused by flying with the legs down and more power have had to be applied to the engines, resulting in a higher fuel consumption. The aircraft was later salvaged and repaired.
Navigator - Sgt Cyril Edward Evans RAFVR (1473693), aged 21, of Blackpool. Buried Layton Cemetery, Blackpool, Lancashire.
Air Gunner - Sgt Lewis Collingwood RAFVR (1823042), aged 19, of Beith. Buried Beith Burial Ground, Ayrshire.
Pilot - WO2 Allan Ross Van Slyke RCAF (R/121701).
Bomb Aimer - F/Sgt John Norman Albert McDonagh RCAF (R/139235).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Harry Ball RAFVR (1435132).
Mid Upper Gunner - Sgt William Alexander Grant RAFVR (1822923).
Flight Engineer - Sgt Robert Whitelaw RAFVR (1562120).
The graves of both airmen who died as a result of this incident. Cyril Evans' brother Ronald was killed while serving with 78 Squadron in North Africa on 11th January 1945, he is commemorated on the Alamein Memorial.
The survivors of this incident then suffered a tail wheel collapse at Lissett on return from an operational flight on 15th March 1944. On 24th / 25th March 1944 they were flying Halifax LW721 on Ops to Berlin when the aircraft was shot down over Germany. WO2 Van Slyke was killed and is now buried in Berlin War Cemetery. Sgt Whitelaw has no known grave and is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. Sgt Grant, F/Sgt McDonagh and Sgt Ball managed to bale out and were made PoWs. Harry Ball would later write the book "Two Brothers at War" about his time in Bomber Command.