Crew Members of Halifax JN954

In the photo above the names are I believe correct, except possibly for P/O Dujay. I have found no photos of Sgt. Rigden and it is possible that could be Rigden. I think since there are five members in the photo the sixth was taking the photo while at No. 24 OTU.

Sgt. McIvor and crew were posted to 419 squadron on December 13th 1943 and while their first mission they were set upon by an ME-109. This occurred on a Gardening Operation off the coast of Brest on Jan 6/7th of '44.
With a half moon sky clear of cloud and no flak or searchlights the sky provided little protection from attack. And so it was that during the run to place the mines in the late hours of January 6th (21:11hours) the ME-109 came up out of dark section of night,

With the tail chaser radar "Monica" out of action the crew were fortunate that the rear gunner had spotted the fighter coming at them on their port quarter. While the McIvor took evasive maneuvers Sgt. Dujay managed to fire a short burst at the fighter before the guns all stopped working. Dujay was unable to correct the problem in the mean time the fighter broke off to the Halifax's starboard side. Given the signal to continue on course, pilot McIvor resumed the mining run.

Coming out of the run another or same ME-109 jumped them again, and again Dujay spotted the enemy aircraft and a corkscrew action was taken which threw the night-fighter off the attack. With no damage done they were able to return to base.

On the night of April 27/28th of 1944 the story was a tragic difference, P/O McIvor and crew left Middleton St.George at 2326 hours headed to Montzen. Attacked and brought down by a night-fighter near Heer in the suburbs of Maastricht.