'P for Peter', a No. 460 Squadron Lancaster, damaged beyond repair when it crash landed at RAF Binbrook after a night operation to Germany sometime in 1943–1944. The crew for that raid was a substitute crew, and they forgot to lower the undercarriage when landing. Many bombers crashed in England on the return from operations and a few were shot down close to home by enemy action. One who died that way was RAAF Pilot Officer John Ryan, flying as a pilot with No. 44 Squadron RAF. As Lancaster ME442, captained by Ryan, was returning over England and approaching its base at RAF Spilsby, Lincolnshire, at 1 am on 4 March 1945, it was attacked by a German fighter 'intruder' and shot down, crashing at the Brocklesby Estate, near Grimbsy. This was the famous 'Night of the Intruders' when 200 German JU88 night fighters flew, largely undetected, across the North Sea in pursuit of the bomber stream. At that stage of the war a degree of complacency had set in and the English defences were caught largely unaware. Nineteen bombers were lost and twenty-five JU88s destroyed. [AWM P05155.012]
Copyright expired - public domain