On the evening of 5th March 1945 the crew of this 466 Squadron aircraft took off from Driffield airfield at 16.49hrs to undertake an operational flight to bomb Chemnitz. Due to unforecast freezing fog clouds that occurred soon after taking off a large number of the No.4 Group bombing force suffered problems due to their aircraft icing up, some crashed with fatal results. This aircraft entered the cloud, iced up and the pilot began to loose control. The pilot must have have had some degree of control because he was able to ensure that the bomb load was jettisoned in the Bridlington area, possibly off-shore. He then ordered his crew to bale out, which must have been over land. He remained at the controls and descended below the freezing cloud level and the icing problem disappeared. With control being regained at just 800 feet the pilot flew to and then landed the aircraft at Carnaby airfield at 17.38hrs. The aircraft appears to have been undamaged. Unfortunately the wireless operator sadly drowned as a result of landing in the sea in the Bridlington area.
Pilot - F/O Ronald Stanley Swain RAAF (422911).
Bomb Aimer - F/Sgt Reginald E Roff RAF (641559).
Navigator - F/Sgt Colin Brian Harrison RAFVR (1622423)
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - F/Sgt Frederick Charles Henry Ray RAAF (434011), aged 21. Buried Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery, Yorkshire (H/K/4).
Flight Engineer - F/Sgt Edward George Richard Gates RAF (650149).
Air Gunner - Sgt Leonard Jeffrey Bocking RAFVR (3031629).
Air Gunner - Sgt Frank Bristow RAFVR (3032225).
Frederick Ray and his grave at Harrogate Stonefall Cemetery. He was born on 7th January 1924 in Cairns, Queensland, Australia and enlisted for RAAF service in Brisbane. He and the rest of this crew were posted into 466 Squadron during November 1944. I cannot locate his death in the English deaths index possibly suggesting that he landed in the sea, drowned and was later washed ashore at Bridlington.
Ronald Swain was later awarded the DFC for service with 466 Squadron, Gazetted on 6th November 1945.
Edward Gates received a commission to the rank of P/O on probation on 19th March 1945 and rose to F/O six months later.