Wellington damaged by a night-fighter / returning to East Moor airfield.

On the 8th of October 1943 this Wellington took off from East Moor in the evening for Ops to Hannover in what would be one of the heavy attacks on the German city in the whole of the War. On their return at 01.35hrs the aircraft was attacked by a Ju88, the Wellington shook off the attack but it was again attacked later by another which damage was sustained. The rear gunner of the Wellington returned fire and scored hits. It was seen to crash with fire coming from its port engine. The Wellington was able to return to East Moor and damaged was declared as Cat B/FB on the 9th October 1943.

The aircraft was built to contract 92439/40 by Vickers Armstrong's Ltd at Blackpool and delivered to 431 Sqdn at Burn in April 1943. On as yet unspecified date in 1943 it was subsequently transferred to 466 Sqdn at Driffield and 300 Sqdn at Ingham before arriving at 432 Sqdn East Moor in mid September 1943. In the incident detailed above it sustained Cat. B/FB damage. It was repaired in works and on completion of repair it was issued to 84 OTU at Desborough in January 1944. It was written off in a Cat. E2/FA crash on 27th January 1944 when it dived into the ground on a training flight at Arthingworth, Northants. The aircraft completed 3 Ops with 432 Sqdn.

Pilot - F/O William C Turner USAAF (T-0190910).

Nav - Sgt G Harmon,

B/A - Sgt P Turmeau,

WOp/AG - F/Sgt Montague A T Brudell RAAF (413340), of Sydney, Australia.

Rear Gunner - W/O Raymond Kenneth Saunders RAAF (406814).

On the 16th December 1943 and on his 9th Op. F/O Fisher and W/O Saunders were lost when Lancaster DS831, of 432 Sqdn failed to return from Ops to Berlin. Their aircraft was shot down by a night-fighter (piloted by Oblt Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer) and crashed between Wijtgaard and Weidum, 7 km S of Leeuwarden, Holland. Those who died were buried in Leeuwarden (Huizum) Protestant Churchyard but F/O Fisher now rests in the Ardennes American Cemetery at Neupre, Belgium. F/Sgt Brudell baled out and became a PoW. The same raid saw a number of other Lancasters crash in Yorkshire on their return.