Have you ever seen a shot-down Halifax bomber before?

What I love about this Halifax is it shares part of its story with my old squadron, 635 VGS which was based at Burtonwood, Samlesbury and then RAF Topcliffe. This particular Halifax was built at Samlesbury in 1942 and was assigned to 102 Squadron at RAF Topcliffe, before being detached to RAF Dalton in North Yorkshire. The aircraft would then be ferried to RAF Linton-on-Ouse for upgrades, which was home to another Volunteer Gliding Squadron – 642 VGS.

In April 1942 the aircraft was ferried up to RAF Kinloss in preparation for the attacks on the German battleship Tirpitz, which was residing in Norwegian waters and was a grave threat to Allied shipping convoys traversing the Atlantic. On 27th April the aircraft took-off from Kinloss on her first operational sortie as part of a 31 strong force of Halifaxes, with the aim of attacking the defences near Trondheim, where the Tirpitz was moored. The force was joined by 12 Lancasters and shortly after midnight the aircraft entered a shallow dive to 200 feet to release a number of mines. A smoke screen obscured the Tirpitz and the aircraft was struck badly on the starboard wing. Realising he’d be unable to return to base or to neutral Sweden, the pilot opted for a belly landing on the frozen surface of a nearby lake from which all of the crew survived. The aircraft then sank through the ice and left untouched until 1972 when it was discovered by members of the RAF Sub Aqua club.

Once surfaced the aircraft was floated to a nearby beach and dismantled. Interestingly when connected to a battery, some of the instruments still lit-up and some of the engines could still be turned by hand!

This aircraft is now on display at the RAF Museum at Hendon. The only other Halifax bomber we know about is up at the Yorkshire Air Museum. If you know of any others, please let us know in the comments.