Date & Time:
Apr 17, 1943 at 0406 LT
Type of aircraft:
Handley Page H.P.57 Halifax II
Operator:
Registration:
HR663
Flight Phase:
Flight
Flight Type:
Bombing
Survivors:
Yes
Site:
Plain, Valley
Schedule:
Pocklington - Pocklington
Country:
France
Region:
Europe
Crew on board:
7
Crew fatalities:
1
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
0
Other fatalities:
0
Total fatalities:
1
Circumstances:
The airplane departed RAF Pocklington at 2049LT on April 16 on an operation to Plzeň. While returning to base the following night and flying over France at an altitude of 9,000 feet, it was shot down by a German fighter and crashed in Eppe-Sauvage. An air gunner was killed, four crew members evaded and two others became PoW.
Crew:
S/L Wallace Ivor Lashbrook, pilot,
F/Sgt Douglas Charles Knight, flight engineer,
F/O Kenneth James Bolton, navigator,
F/O Alfred Martin, bomb aimer,
Sgt Robert William Laws, wireless operator,
Sgt Lawrence Irving Neill, air gunner,
F/O Graham George Williams, air gunner. †
Crew:
S/L Wallace Ivor Lashbrook, pilot,
F/Sgt Douglas Charles Knight, flight engineer,
F/O Kenneth James Bolton, navigator,
F/O Alfred Martin, bomb aimer,
Sgt Robert William Laws, wireless operator,
Sgt Lawrence Irving Neill, air gunner,
F/O Graham George Williams, air gunner. †
Probable cause:
Shot down by a German fighter.
