Halifax LW194 at Skipton on Swale airfield.
There is an AM Form 1180 that states at 15.09hrs on 12th September 1944 Halifax MZ356 of 424 Squadron was stationary on the perimeter track at Skipton on Swale with the crew awaiting the order to take off for an operational flight (to bomb Dortmund) when it was struck by Halifax LW194. This, on the face of it is a simple accident to document. Unfortunately the 424 Squadron orb makes no proper mention of this incident and furthermore it lists both aircraft as flying the operational order on this date, with both taking off slightly later than other 424 Squadron aircraft. It does state that one aircraft failed to take off owing to a taxing accident but does not then go on to list the aircraft involved. Around this period No.6 Group HQ had a number of problems with errors in the 424 Squadron records and letters in the squadron records prove this. The squadron records states that MZ356 "P" was a borrowed 433 Squadron aircraft but this is not correct; MZ356's AM Form 78 gives this aircraft as being a 424 Squadron aircraft. "P" of 433 Squadron at this time was Halifax NP937. What I think happened is that LW194 was indeed damaged at 15.09hrs. It's crew then exited and were allotted the spare 424 Squadron Halifax and used that to fly the sortie. I do not know which aircraft this was. "Halifax LW194" is listed as then taking off for the operational order at 15.47hrs which was probably a different aircraft and would give the crew time to change aircraft. This problem I cannot offer any other suggestion to rectify the squadron records.
(probable) Pilot - F/O W R Whetham RCAF (J/37112).