Halifax LK656 near Leven.
On 20th January 1944 the crew of this 434 Squadron aircraft took off from Croft airfield at 16.25hrs to bomb Berlin. Just as the aircraft was releasing it's load of incendiaries at 19,000 feet the aircraft was hit twice by flak. The first flak strike struck towards the rear of the bomb bay and the second hit the fuselage near the wing root. The resulting damage was severe; the rudder control was sheared off, there was no oxygen supply or electrics from the rest position backwards, all the aircraft's aerials were missing and some of the electronics were destroyed. The aircraft stayed in the air, the remainder of the bomb load was jettisoned although a number of remaining incendiaries caught fire in the bomb bay and filled the cockpit with smoke. This fire was later put out and the pilot made for home using only aileron controls to steer the aircraft. The engines had not been damaged and there was no problem to the speed or height being lost. A message transmitted by them was picked up close to the coast stating "controls shot-up, unable to land, baling out". As the aircraft reached the British coastline the intercom between the pilot and the wireless operator failed, and soon after crossing the coast with the pilot begining to loose control and out of fuel they abandoned the aircraft. At that point the aircraft must have been roughly over the Rillington area with the crew leaving at intervals as it then passed roughly over Sledmere and Driffield before the aircraft continued on its own way for a period before crashing at 23.59hrs near Leven. Some of the crew suffered heavy landings; the pilot sustained head injuries and was taken to Driffield airfield sick quarters, and the bomb aimer (who was found near Sledmere) and rear gunner both sustained head and leg injuries. The navigator, wireless operator and flight engineer were picked up in the Rillington area and taken to Rillington police station. The aircraft exploded on crashing around three miles west of Leven, near Linley Hill and left a crater some thirty feet deep.
Halifax LK656 was built to Contract ACFT/891/ by Fairey Aviation Ltd at Stockport and was delivered directly to 427 Squadron at Leeming in late September 1943. It was transferred to 429 Squadron also at Leeming in November 1943 when the unit re-equipped with Halifax MkV's, having previously flown MkII's. It transferred to 434 Squadron at Croft in December 1943. Following the incident detailed above Cat.E2/FB damage was recorded.
Pilot - F/Sgt F W Johnson RCAF (R/148521). Injured.
Flight Engineer - Sgt S G Phillips RAFVR (1314422).
Navigator - P/O Robert W Davis RCAF (J/20968), of Verdun, Quebec, Canada.
Bomb Aimer - Sgt "Jim" D Campbell RCAF (R/154869), of Winnipeg. Injured.
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt A Hession RAFVR (1503980).
Air Gunner - Sgt William George Whitton RCAF (R/191709), of Paris, Ontario, Canada.
Air Gunner - Sgt Donald M Tofflemire RCAF (R/187609), of Leeming, Ontatio, Canada. Injured.
434 Squadron historian Mr Alan Soderstrom has kindly supplied me the photograph of F/O Robert Davis shown here.
William Whitton was later posted to 433 Squadron. After receiving commission he was killed flying in Lancaster PA219 on 5th February 1945 when the aircraft collided with another aircraft crashed in Belgium. He was twenty two years old and is buried in Hotton War Cemetery, Belgium. He was the son of George and Lily May Whitton, of Paris, Ontario, Canada.
Little is known about any of the other members of this crew other than Donald Tofflemire ended the war as a screened air gunner on the books of 433 Squadron. He died in 2007 at the age of eighty six years old.
