Halifax NA601 at Marston Moor airfield.
During the morning of 25th September 1944 this 578 Squadron aircraft was flown on an operational flight to bomb a target near Calais. The aircraft was piloted by F/O Angus Frew Forrest RAFVR (172771) and he and his crew took off from Burn at 06.25hrs. Prior to reaching the target the Master Bomber ordered all crews to abandon the mission. On their return to Yorkshire the aircraft was diverted to land at Marston Moor and the crew landed there without incident at 10.53hrs. At 15.11hrs a transit flight back to Burn was to have been flown with a different pilot at the controls, the aircraft swung on take off from Marston Moor in a gusty crosswind, the pilot over-corrected the swing and the aircraft came to rest with the undercarriage collapsed. The pilot appears to have had the unfortunate nick-name "Pranger Millard" based on the number of aircraft he had damaged. Oddly, in his Bomber Command losses book William Chorley lists the pilot (F/O Forrest) and crew who flew the aircraft on the operational sortie as being in charge of the aircraft rather than the pilot named on the AM Form 1180, maybe they were on board?
Pilot - F/Sgt Douglas Percy Millard RAF (658483).