Blakeney Point

The airplane departed RAF Grafton Underwood on an operation to Saint-Omer. The crew had been warned about the possibility of being attacked while taking off or landing. Consequently, the machine guns were charged. When the pilot banked the aircraft during the Group assembly, the right waist gun discharged about 50 rounds resulting in the aircraft's right horizontal stabilizer being shot off and cutting the control cable to the right aileron. The tail gunner and a waist gunner had been wounded by this action. The damage was so severe, the aircraft was very difficult to fly but was brought back over base where six crew bailed out. The pilots then took the aircraft towards the coast where the bombs and armament were jettisoned over The Wash, then turning back over land so that the bombardier and navigator could bail out safely near King's Lynn. Next, the pilot and copilot took their crippled plane back out to sea to ditch it away from built-up areas. They both bailed out somewhere off Blakeney, Norfolk. The copilot was picked up by an RAF rescue launch. The pilot had been in the freezing North Sea for some time before the Sheringham Lifeboat found him, unconscious. He did not survive.
Crew:
Cpt Derrol W. Rogers, pilot +9.

The airplane departed RAF Lakenheath at 2346LT on June 5 on an operation to Essen. While returning to base the following night, it collided with a Luftwaffe Me.110 over Rijkevorsel (Antwerp). The collision resulted in the rear turret of the Stirling to be torn away and its occupant, Sgt Roderick, was killed. The bomber was successfully ditched at 0315LT into the North Sea off the Belgian coast. At 1400LT, the survivors were sighted, Rescue was effected at 1815LT in the shape of an air sea rescue launch out from Ramsgate. The body of Sgt Roderick was found in a field on June 15. The crew of the Me.110 bailed out and landed safely.
Crew:
F/Sgt E. W. Whitney,
Sgt R. Shields,
F/Sgt F. C. Jones,
Sgt B. G. Cheek,
Sgt W. L. Martin,
Sgt Keith Roderick, air gunner. †

The airplane departed RAF Linton-on-Ouse at 1840LT on October 20 to bomb a Škoda factory located in Pilsen, Czechoslovakia. While returning to base, it ran out of fuel and ditched off Blakeny Point, Norfolk. All five crew members were rescued by the lifeboat Foresters Centenary.
Crew:
P/O A. Wilding,
F/O J. A. Champness,
Sgt London,
Sgt Hogg,
P/O H. F. Welte.