Halifax LL173 at Croft airfield.
On the night of 11th / 12th March 1944 this 431 Squadron aircraft was used to fly an operational flight to lay mines in the sea off Brest and took off from Croft airfield at 17.33hrs. The crew were unable to pinpoint the dropping area so did not release their mines, bringing them back to base. On the approach to land at Croft the undercarriage was lowered and the crew saw the green lights illuminating which indicated all was correctly lowered and locked down. Once the undercarriage was lowered the hydraulic system then failed so the crew had to hand pump the flaps down. The landing time is given in the squadron records as being at 22.30hrs at Croft. After landing the starboard undercarriage leg then collapsed at 00.53hrs. The location given in a No.6 Group flying control log is at the runway intersection of runway 27/09 and 15/33 though this gives the time as being 01.15hrs (though could be when they received notification rather than the time of the event). The cause of the hydraulic failure was not ever understood, it was the second of such a nature in a short period of time at Croft involving this variant of Halifax. The remaining Croft-based aircraft still in the air managed to land on another runway at Croft.
Pilot - F/O Norman Graeme MacLeod RCAF (J/25178).
Navigator - F/O Lazar Peters RCAF (J/24058).
Air Bomber - F/O H Yellen RCAF (J/27147).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt T Clements RCAF (R/225107).
Flight Engineer - Sgt George Thomas Richardson RAFVR (1477899).
Air Gunner - Sgt D H Ayres RCAF (R/182496).
Air Gunner - Sgt M G Grant RCAF (R/197721).