Flight Sergeant James Flannigan

On the evening of 14 July 1941, James's crew was tasked with bombing the railway station at Hanover. Their aircraft was damaged by flak over the target. Returning to northern England in the early hours of 15 July, the aircraft — and at least one other — was diverted to land at Linton-on-Ouse because of bad weather and poor visibility.

On approach, the flaps would not lower properly. At around 04:30 hrs the aircraft floated as it was about to touch down, and landed too far along the runway. The pilot applied the brakes to avoid an overshoot, then swerved to avoid the airfield boundary hedge, and the undercarriage collapsed. The crew were unhurt.

On the night of 29/30 August 1941, James's crew took off from Middleton St George at 21:13 hrs in Halifax L9518 for a bombing operation against Frankfurt. The target was bombed successfully. On the return flight, over the Finningley area, both starboard engines failed through fuel starvation, and as a third engine began to fail at around 2,000 feet, the pilot ordered the crew to bail out.

James Flannigan was among those who got out safely. The rear gunner, Sgt George William Duckmanton, delayed leaving the aircraft and was killed, too low for his parachute to deploy fully. The pilot, S/Ldr Richard Bickford DFC, was also killed, thought to have been struck by a windmilling propeller as he escaped through the aircraft's top hatch, his parachute then fouling the tail. The unmanned aircraft crashed near Pocklington, Yorkshire, at approximately 04:15 hrs.

James's own log book records the entry plainly: “Ops. — Brest. Baled out at 03:35 hrs N. Bedford.” His crew took off from Middleton St George at 01:35 hrs on 14 September 1941 in Halifax L9567 for a bombing operation against the German warships at Brest. On the return flight the aircraft suffered engine failure, and the crew baled out north of Bedford at 03:35 hrs.

The pilot, P/O Ronald Edward Hutchin, did not get out with them. The aircraft continued on and came down in a wheels-up belly landing in a field near Water End, in the parish of Renhold, just east of Bedford, and Hutchin was killed. He was 23, the son of Ronald F. and Dorothy A. Hutchin of Burnham-on-Sea, Somerset, and is buried in Burnham-on-Sea Cemetery. One other crew member was injured, likely in the bale-out itself; James and the rest of the crew came through unhurt.

On the night of 30/31 October 1941, L9602, with code MP-N, took off at approximately 19:17 from Middleton St George for a bombing operation over Dunkerque, France. The aircraft failed to return to base, and is believed to have crashed somewhere in the North Sea. It was lost without trace.