Date:	Saturday 18 April 1942
Time:	03:57 LT
Type:	Avro Manchester Mk I
Owner/operator:	50 Sqn RAF
Registration:	R5782
MSN:	VN-
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 2 / Occupants: 7
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Glasmoor, Norderstedt, Schleswig-Holstein -   Germany
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire
Destination airport:

Narrative:
The aircraft was coned by searchlights and hit by heavy (schwere) Flak based at Glashütte (Norderstedt), while engaged in an operation to Hamburg.
However, it has been suggested that engine failure during evasive action, not enemy fire, was the cause of the crash.

They took off at 23:40 hours from RAF Skellingthorpe and crashed at 03:57 hours on the southern edge of the Tangstedter Staatsforst, 3 Km southwest of Tangstedt.

The crew were:
Pilot: 116830 Plt Off Gordon Baker - Hamburg Cemetery Joint grave 4A. D. 15.
Pilot:402920 Flt Sgt C. B. Mackenzie RNZAF PoW Camp 357 Stalag Kopernikus. PoW Number 169
Observer:R/78258 Sgt F. J. S. Pearce RCAF PoW Stalag Luft 4 Sagan & Belaria. PoW Number 39630
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner:749512 Sgt R. B. Dawson PoW Stalag Luft 3 Sagan & Belaria PoW Number 151
wireless Operator/Air Gunner:642466 Flt Sgt A. T. Griffiths PoW Stalag Luft 6 Heydekrug PoW Number 159
Air Gunner:1301435 Sgt S. Crawford PoW Camp 357 Stalag Kopernikus PoW Number 147
Wireless Operator/Air Gunner:1171442 Sgt Harold Knight - Hamburg Cemetery Joint grave 4A. D. 15.

The two crew members killed were buried in Utersen cemetery. They were later moved to a British Military Cemetery at Ohlsdorf, Hamburg Joint grave 4A. D. 15.
Their grave is No 5, Row f, Plot No IV
The graves were later renumber and it is now: Grave No15,Row D, Plot IIV

- Air Britain: RAF Aircraft P1000 - R9999, published 1996
- First hand report from F.J.S. Pearce, 2008 - Pearce did not recall being hit by enemy fire, but the engine bursting into flames during a steep bank to evade enemy anti-aircraft fire.
RAF Prisoners of War
CWGC
50 Sqn ORB's
Nachtjagd Combat Archive The Early Years part two
Google Maps

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

25 March 1942	L7486	50 Sqn RAF	0	RAF Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire, England		w/o
Bounced on landing
9 May 1942	L7489	50 Sqn RAF	1	Marienborg estate, Stege, Sjælland		w/o
13 May 1942	L7519	50 Sqn RAF	5	near Thurlby, Lincolnshire, England		w/o
6 June 1942	R5833	50 Sqn RAF	6	near Ile de Quiberon, 30 km SSE Lorient,		w/o
26 June 1942	L7289	50 Sqn RAF	7	Burg-Grambke in Bremen		w/o

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
08-Jan-2012 05:53	Uli Elch	Added
18-Nov-2012 06:46	connie	Updated [Departure airport, Source, Narrative]
19-Jan-2014 20:32	tharrison	Updated [Source, Narrative]
08-Dec-2017 16:36	Red Dragon	Updated [Cn, Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
08-Dec-2017 16:42	Red Dragon	Updated [Source, Narrative]
08-Dec-2017 16:46	Red Dragon	Updated [Other fatalities, Narrative]
12-Nov-2018 20:53	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Departure airport, Destination airport, Operator]
18-Apr-2020 11:34	TigerTimon	Updated [Time, Aircraft type, Other fatalities, Location, Source, Embed code, Narrative]