Crew members of Halifax LW321

On October 23 1943, Sgt. William Hunter and his crew arrived from No.1664 Conversion Unit at Croft. The crew were to only fly two operations together. This was Hunter's fourth operational sortie, he flown as second pilot on two unsucessfull operations. The first one was the day of his arrival which seems very soon after getting to a new squadron, on that operation to Kassel the port engine had a serious oil leak and they had to return to base. Hunter's second trip as Second Dickie saw a failure with the gun turrets which they knew of shortly after take off but still continued. When it became apparent that the guns could not be repaired in the air the aircraft returned to base.
On their second operation and last together they were part of a force of seventeen aircraft from 419 joining up with 740 other bombers setting out to raid Berlin. The 419 contingent was soon down to thirteen when four of the aircraft had mechanical problems ranging from severe icing to the cap being left off the petrol tank of one them.
F/S (later WOII) Lesage was with the squadron for nine months and had been on 25 sorties when he took the place of the ailing rear gunner on VR-F for this operation.
The Navigator F/O Newman was also on his fourth operation, the four remaining crew men were only on their second operation when they were lost.
The details are few on what exactly happened, only that they were shot down by enemy night fighters at around 1900 near Diever, which is located N.W. of Hoogeveen Holland. All the crew members were buried in the local cemetery at Diever. A marker now stands where the aircraft came down, with some of the details and the names of the crew men, a small tribute to a young crew who included an 18 year old and a 19 year old.