6 Group Unavailable
The aircraft received minor flak damage to the rear fuselage shortly after leaving the target area while over Germany. On the return to the general area of their base at Linton on Ouse, it entered the landing circuit and later made radio contact with the ground controllers. It was given landing instructions but this was not acknowledged and the aircraft later found to have flown into the ground at speed around 200 yards North of Flawith at 21:45. It had passed through a number of hedges and a row of trees causing the aircraft to break up and a fire develop when it came to rest in a turnip field. Visibility was not perfect at the time of the crash but it did not prevent other returning crews landing at Linton on Ouse that evening. While five of the crew were killed two survived. The survivors later stated when the aircraft was in the landing circuit the pilot transmitted on the aircraft's intercom that he had lost sight of the runway at Linton on Ouse and requested that the navigator go from the rest position at the back of the aircraft to the cockpit. Soon after they then received an instruction over the intercom to put on parachutes and immediately afterwards the crash occurred. They did not learn why this order was made by the pilot, the surviving navigator assumed there was a radical problem which had effected the pilot controlling the aircraft. A detailed examination of the wreckage took place and although the control mechanism was destroyed by fire it was thought highly likely that loose equipment within the aircraft had fouled the elevator controls causing the pilot difficulties and the eventual crash. (Aircraft Accidents in Yorkshire) Source: John Jones
P/Os D J Stevens, H.E. Reynolds, T.J. Hunt, J.N. Atkinson, and Flying Officer G.I. Hopper were killed. Two other Canadians, Flying Officer Rae and FS Murray were injured.
