Halifax LW595 suffered engine fire, landed at East Moor airfield.
On the night 1st / 2nd May 1944 the crew of this 432 Squadron aircraft were tasked with bombing a railway yard at St.Ghislain. They took off from East Moor at 22.07hrs but outbound to the target the aircraft suffered a fire in the port inner engine. This was reported at, or just before 22.55hrs and the crew appear to have been ordered to jettison the bomb load off the Yorkshire Coast. An early return made to base on three engines but apparently with the bombs still on board. The aircraft landed safely at 00.09hrs and required an engine change.
Pilot - F/Sgt Howard John Menzies RCAF (R/157627).
Flight Engineer - Sgt John Clarke RAFVR (1300857).
Navigator - P/O John Gouinlock RCAF (J/24556).
Bomb Aimer - P/O Donald Elliott Rutherford RCAF (J/26725).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt Walter Scott Rowan RAFVR (1344656).
Air Gunner - Sgt Thomas Findlay McClay RAFVR (1795998).
Air Gunner - W/O Herbert Henry Rogers RCAF (R/57959).
Howard Menzies was born on 25th June 1923 at Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada and was the son of Howard Patrick and Benva Florence (nee Smith) Menzies. His father was British and had emigrated to Canada via the USA. The family lived in Manitoba until 1926 before moving to Ontario, because of his father's job as a senior manager with the Crosse and Blackwell food company they appear to have travelled to the UK and in 1930 his father gained a Royal Aero Club Aviators' Certificate in the UK. His parents later split up and his father started his own business. He moved to Vancouver with his father in 1931 while his mother appears to have remained in Toronto. After leaving college in 1941 he began working as a salesman for his father's business. He enlisted for RCAF service on 10th March 1943 in Vancouver and after basic training in Canada he was awarded his pilots' flying badge on 18th March 1943. On arrival in the UK he was immediately posted to 425 Squadron without posting to any other training unit but was soon posted out to follow the normal training course to become an operational pilot. He later trained at 15 (P)AFU, 18 (P)AFU, 82 OTU and 1659 HCU before posting to 432 Squadron on 18th February 1944. He flew his first operational flight with 432 Squadron six days later and received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 4th May 1944. I credit Des Philippet with the photograph of his grave shown above.
Halifax LW595 was built to contract ACFT/C4/C by English Electric Co.Ltd. at Samlesbury and was delivered directly to 432 Squadron at East Moor on 8th February 1944. The aircraft's AM Form 78 has some gaps in it and I have gone through all the other available records to try and give what I believe is an accurate account of it's service life. The aircraft was damage by friendly fire during a training flight on 15th March 1944 over Hull that must have seen only a Cat.A/FA damage assessment with a repair on site being made. Any higher damage would have seen the assessment recorded on the AM Form 78 and it was not. The aircraft was next used operationally by 432 Squadron on 9th April 1944. It suffered minor damage on 1st May 1944 because of an engine fire and Cat.A/FA damage would have been the damage assessment. Again, this damage is no on the AM Form 78 so cannot have been any higher. The aircraft was repaired on site at East Moor and was next used by 432 Squadron operationally on 7th May 1944. It remained in constant use by 432 Squadron on operations until 6th July 1944. Two days it had been replaced by NP693 as "-Q". What I believe happened then is that with the move was planned to bring 415 Squadron from Bircham Newton in Coastal Command to East Moor and to join Bomber Command, Halifax LW595 was one aircraft allotted to join 415 Squadron when the unit arrived in Yorkshire so it was taken off 432 Squadron charge but was not taken on charge by 415 Squadron until they arrived. The date of the arrival of 415 Squadron is slightly unclear, their own orb states it was 26th July 1944 but the East Moor station orb states that they begun training flights on 18th July 1944. The aircraft received minor damage on 17th July 1944 when the escape hatch fell off and struck a wing. On this flight it was being flown by two 432 Squadron pilots who were both new to 432 Squadron. The 432 Squadron orb stated that on this date that they flew two fighter affiliation exercises and I believe that while LW595 was allocated to 415 Squadron it was being used by 432 Squadron on 17th July 1944. I unfortunately have no proof of this. The AM Form 1180 and the AM Form 78 for this incident both state that it sustained Cat.Ac damage. A repair on site was carried out and it was returned to 415 Squadron on 25th July 1944. The aircraft was recorded as missing (Cat.E(m)), on 29th July 1944 following an operational flight when it crashed in Germany. It completed thirty four operational flights with 432 Squadron but was lost on its first with 415 Squadron.
On 28th May 1944 Howard Menzies, John Clarke and Thomas McClay were killed when Halifax LK811 failed to return from Op's to Bourg-Leopald when the aircraft came down near Budel, Holland. F/Sgt Menzies is buried in the Canadian Cemetery at Groesbeck but Sgt Clarke and Sgt McClay have no known grave and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. F/O Gouinlock and F/O Rutherford evaded capture. Sgt Rowan became a PoW. Jack Gouinlock recorded an interview regarding his time on the run in Europe following 28th May 1944 which is viewable on YouTube.
