Lancaster at East Moor.
At around midnight on the 28/29th January 1944 this aircraft took off from East Moor for Ops to Berlin. It was the aircrafts 11th Op.
with 432 Sqdn. The aircraft was hit by flak and sustained minor damage to cockpit area. The pilot suffered facial cuts. He was able to keep
control of the aircraft and they landed safely at East Moor.
The aircraft was built to contract ACFT/239 by Armstrong Whitworth Ltd at Baginton and delivered directly to 426 Sqdn
at Linton on Ouse in September 1943. It was transferred to 432 Sqdn at East Moor in mid-November 1943. In the incident detailed above it
was recorded as suffering Cat. A/FB damage. Repair on site were completed in a couple of days.
DS829 completed one further Op with 432 Sqdn before it was transferred to 426 Sqdn
at Linton on Ouse on 9th February 1944 and carried the coding "OW-W". It was lost as Cat. E(m) on 16th March 1944 when it
failed to return from Op's to Stuttgart after it was abandoned after total engine failure. The seven became PoW but one sadly
died of TB before the end of the War.
Pilot - P/O Jack Esdale RAFVR (160680), of Tottenhem, London. Facial injuries.
FEng - Sgt Harry Ibbotson RAFVR (176482), of Leeds, Yorkshire.
Nav - P/O K D'Eye,
AB - P/O G Goom,
WOp/AG - F/Sgt G Middleton,
AG - Sgt J Peterson,
AG - F/Sgt A Pigeon.
This was P/O Esdale's 10th and final Op. with 432 Sqdn.
F/O Jack Esdale completed his Tour and was later posted to instructional duties with 1662 HCU.
He was sadly killed on 2nd September 1944 whilst flying Halifax LL362 on an airtest the aircraft developed a fault in the ailerons and the
port outer engine overheated. The aircraft crashed into tree tops near Swanland, near Hull. Sadly he and another member of the crew were killed.
F/O Esdale is buried in Tottenham Cemetery, London,
On 9th May 1944 P/O H Ibbotson was lost when Halifax LW594 of 432 Sqdn was on Ops to Haine-St.-Pierre. It was shot down by
a night-fighter and crashed at 03.32 hrs at Grand Reng, Belgium. P/O Ibbotson is buried in Gosselies Communal Cemetery.