During the early hours of 17th June 1944 the crew of this aircraft were one of 424 Squadron about to fly an operational flight along with 424 Squadron and 433 Squadron aircraft and crews who were also based at Skipton on Swale in support of advancing D-Day troops. The weather on this night was poor, low cloud was down to ground level across the airfield and in the process of taking off one aircraft, Halifax LW370, swung off the runway in use and then became bogged down just off it blocking other aircraft from taking off. Because of this the runway in use was quickly changed to try to allow the other waiting crews to take off and keep up with the bombing force. The waiting crew were already lined up along the third runway that ran across the southern side of the airfield, as the runway was changed they had to taxi around from facing west to facing east. A line of Sandra Lights was placed on what was initially the left side of the line runway they were to taxi down to allow pilots to see the direction they were to travel, this line was fine when the aircraft headed west because the pilot's seat was on the left side of the fuselage. Once the aircraft had managed to turn around the line of lights was still visible but the pilot's field of vision had to then change to see them as they would need to look across to the right side of the aircraft. The crew of Halifax LV911 had managed to turn around, taxi and had stopped to await their turn to take off. The crew of 424 Squadron Halifax LW119 had also turned around and taxied behind LV911 but in trying to keep view of the lighting their forward vision was reduced. The burn time of the Sandra Lights was limited and they began to go out before all the aircraft had taken off. Unfortunately at 01.30hrs Halifax LW119 taxied into the back of Halifax LV911 and sadly the rear gunner in his turret in LV911 received fatal injuries.
Pilot - P/O Joseph Rodgers Hollinger RCAF (J/86077).
Navigator - Sgt W N Sheridan RCAF (R/151469).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Louis Walton McPhie RCAF (R/197742).
Air Bomber - F/Sgt L M Hill RCAF (R/137706).
Flight Engineer - Sgt T H Semmons RAFVR (1836499).
Air Gunner - Sgt F E Pitcher RCAF (R/256042).
Air Gunner - Sgt A A Plato RCAF (R/256050).