428 Squadron

PNorthGJ1605.jpg
PNorthGJ1606.jpg
PNorthGJ1605-1.jpg

Title

428 Squadron

Description

A squadron group of Royal Air Force personnel sitting and standing in rows in front of a Wellington. There are two men standing up through the cockpit roof of the aircraft. On the reverse the title '428 Squadron 1943, Dalton, Feb 1943'. Statements on the location of members of Geoffrey North's crew including himself (eighth from the right in rear standing row). A story concerning the commanding officer who was not supposed to fly.

Members of the crew of Halifax DK229 NA-W hit by anti-aircraft fire on the 10th July 1943 have been identified by their family members.

Date

1943-02

Temporal Coverage

Type

Format

One b/w photograph

Rights

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

Identifier

PNorthGJ1605, PNorthGJ1606

Transcription

SIXTH FROM LEFT IN FIRST STANDING ROW F/SGT HALL. EIG [DELETED] HT [/DELETED] TH FROM RIGHT IN REAR STANDING ROW, SELF.
SEVENTH FROM LEFT FRONT ROW SGT PADDY JOHNSON, BOMB AIMER, MARRIES DAUGHTER OF BAKERS SHOP IN THIRSK. SHOT DOWN P.O.W.
[drawn line with two arrows connects this line with the first line] TAKEN OFF FLYING HEAVY AIRCRAFT FIT FOR OPS (THANK GOD!), CREW DISPERSED AMONG OTHER CREWS.

428 Squadron. Dalton Feb. 1943

RAF C.O. WAS NOT ALOWED TO FLY DUE TO EYESIGHT, BUT HE DID INCLUDING GOING ON OPS! ON NIGHT LANDINGS HIS BOMB AIMER HAD TO CALL OUT “IN GREEN” “IN YELLOW” “IN RED” AS HE WAS COLOUR BLIND TOO! HIS PLANE WAS FITTED WITH HIDDEN SWITCH TO CUT OFF NAVIGATION LIGHTS, WE DIDNT [sic] KNOW AND ONE NIGHT COULDNT [sic] GET THE LIGHTS TO COME ON, DAMN NEARLY PRANGED BY HALIFAX IN TOPCLIFFE CIRCUIT WHEN WE WERE IN DALTON CIRCUIT, TWO CIRCUITS OVER LAPPED! HE LEFT SQUADRON FOR NON FLYING [sic] DUTIES FEB/MARCH 1943. WHAT A MAN, MUST HAVE BEEN 50 YEARS OLD. RESPECTED BY ALL THE STATION.

Citation

“428 Squadron ,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed December 12, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/8254.

Item Relations

Item: 428 Squadron Dalton Late 1942 dcterms:relation This Item