Halifax NA576 at Elvington airfield.
During the evening of 12th December 1944 this 347 Squadron aircraft was used to fly an operational flight to bomb Essen and took off from Elvington airfield at 16.24hrs. The crew released their bomb load onto the target at 19.39hrs from 21,000 feet. On their return to Elvington the aircraft landed at 22.31hrs but swung off the runway. The pilot may have partly regained control by applying some power to the engines on the side the aircraft swung to but in doing so the aircraft was travelling too fast for the brakes to stop the aircraft and it crossed the grass, ran over the perimeter track and the port wheel struck a heap of soil. This caused the undercarriage to collapse and a fire broke out in the starboard outer engine which was subsequently put out when the crew operated the automatic Graviner fire extinguisher.
Pilot - Lt R Georgeon FFAF (001550).
Navigator - Cap Robert Brachet FFAF (000718).
Air Bomber - Lt C Habez FFAF (000720).
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - Sgt R Rigade FFAF (15534).
Flight Engineer - Adj M Humbert FFAF (C.3175).
Air Gunner - Sgt Robert Memin FFAF (1438).
Air Gunner - S/G Robert Paul Malterre FFAF (1418).