Took off from its base at Little Staughton. Köln- to attack the Gremberg railway yards. This raid went badly wrong. The force was split into three formations, each led by an Oboe equipped master and a similarly equipped Mosquito reserve master.
Improved weather meant that the crews could bomb visually and the order was given. Tragically, the order did not reach S/L R A M Palmer's aircraft and they carried on unawares, being hit by flak on their approach but dropping their bomb load nonetheless. Soon afterwards they were set about by fighters and the aircraft was downed in the target area. S/L Palmer was posthumously awarded a VC for his valour.
Miraculously, both F/O Parratt and F/S Shirley survived despite being trapped in the bomber. The rest of the crew was done POW, which could allow to thing that the aircraft is perhaps falen in Germany, Belgium being in Decembre 1944 liberated.
Only the Flight Engineer P/O K.W. Hewitt was filled in the accident. He rests in the Heverlee War Cemetery.
