Lancaster KB846 damaged in the air, landed at Croft airfield.
At mid-day on 31st December 1944 this 434 Squadron aircraft took off from Croft airfield for the crew to undertake a training exercise. As the aircraft reached a height of fifty feet off the ground it flew through a flock of birds that broke the nose perspex and injured the bomb aimer. The pilot flew a circuit of the airfield and landed safely. It was said that the bomb aimer should not have been in the nose of the aircraft when it took off. The pilot's name is given on the AM Form 1180 and this states that there were seven in the aircraft. I presume most or all were his regular crew with the bomb aimer being his regular.
Pilot - F/O Clifford Tomkins Alger RCAF (J/87340).
Bomb Aimer - Injured. (Possibly F/O V G Hindle RCAF (J/37190)?).
Five other crew - Names unknown.