Facts

The Lancaster takes off at 11.41pm from Bottesford. Shortly before the objective, German fighters attacked him and fatally struck him. Two engines were on fire and the pilot, Fl / Sgt John Maxwell Parsons, RAAF, turned around as the aircraft lost altitude. He gives the order to drop the bombs and the rockets and, understanding that they will not be able to return to England, orders to evacuate the plane.
John Parsons, mechanic Sgt Bernard Spencer and rear gunner Sgt Thomas Chalmers will be killed. All three are buried in the Schoonselhof cemetery in Antwerp. Three men will be taken prisoner practically immediately: the bomber Sgt Norman Jardine Vaulkhard, the radio operator Sgt J. Frank Selman, RCAF (who lands in a tree in the middle of a German army maneuvering ground) and the back machine gunner Sgt RA Hunt.
John Egan, whose 59th mission in two years, jumps and at the opening of his parachute, is cut from neck to ear by the straps. As he descends, he sees the plane disintegrate in flight, with Parsons and Chalmers on board. He lands on his back in a wheat field near a wood. He buries his parachute and his harness and sets off for the West.

Artwork painted on the nose of ED768 (which was named after Ned Kelly, the famous Australian outlaw). It was drawn for me in 1990 by Cliff Allen, who was the groundcrew engine fitter on this Lancaster (Courtesy Vincent Holyoak)