Instrument Panel from Halifax Mk III bomber LV792 of 158 Squadron RAF

Handley Page Halifax heavy bomber instrument panel, painted flat black, consisting of main panel, blind flying panel attached to left face, and lower angled secondary panel attached at base. Complete with instruments except bomb steering indicator (upper left), DR compass repeater (lower left), air temperature gauge (lower left) and DF indicator (bracket present, upper right).

This pilot's instrument panel was recovered from Handley Page Halifax LV792 (coded LP-E) of 158 Squadron RAF after it had been written off following a raid on the railway yards at Trappes near occupied Paris on the night of 2/3 June 1944. Captained by 421635 Pilot Officer (PO) Bruce Bancroft, RAAF and navigator 423092 P/O Charles Fripp, RAAF, the Halifax was one of 128 aircraft on the raid, which was intended to produce maximum disruption to German transportation prior to the D-Day landings only 3 days later. The bombers were engaged by German night fighters which destroyed 15 Halifaxes and one Lancaster.

A German Junkers Ju 88 raked PO Bancroft's Halifax from end to end from below using Bancroft's combat report appeared in Air Ministry Bulletin No 14233:

"He set us alight in the bomb bay as well as inside the fuselage, just in front of the rear bulkhead. There was a hole in the floor from one side of the aircraft to the other, three feet wide. Halfway up, the fuselage had been riddled with machine-gun bullets. There was a great hole near the wireless position and the inter-com had been shot to pieces. One of the port petrol tanks was leaking. One compass was smashed, another 90 degrees out. In the starboard side of the cockpit there was another big hole. Both turrets were useless. All the hydraulics were gone and, as a result, the flaps dropped. The undercarriage was only held in position by the locks, and the bomb bay doors fell wide open.

"I had no idea how much petrol we had left. The gauges were useless - one said 10 gallons, enough for only five minutes, but that tank kept us going all the way home. Another showed 140 gallons but that tank was empty.

"My rear gunner was jammed in his turret. He hacked his way out with an axe, jumped over the hole in the floor of the aircraft, and went forward - he had heard nothing from us on the inter-com. When he saw us he went back, got parachute and two fire extinguishers and tackled the blaze. The flames were leaping high and he soon used up the extinguishers. Then he beat out the fire with his feet and hands. The navigator and the bomb aimer put out the fire in the bomb bay by squirting another extinguisher through the inspection panel.

"The starboard inner engine had also caught fire. I switched it off and feathered the propeller and the fire went out. Then I restarted the engine and it went all right. The whole aircraft was full of fumes and I had to open the window, even though there was that great hole not far from my head. When we got to the French coast we flew right over a town at 3,000 feet without a single gun fired at us. We crossed the sea at 2,000 feet, expecting to have to ditch at any moment. But somehow we made it and got down safely, though I found when we landed that the tail wheel had burst. The Halifax slewed in a half circle but I managed to pull it up safely."

Halifax LV 792 did not manage to return to its base but crash landed at Hurn, near Bournemouth. It was believed at the time that this aircraft was the most heavily damaged British Commonwealth bomber to return to the UK from a sortie.

Analysis post-war of German Luftwaffe records indicates that the Ju-88 night fighter pilot who engaged with LV792 was Hauptmann Paul Zorner, commander of III./NHJG5) near Evreux at 0117 hours. Source : Theo Boitens Naachtjagd War Diaries Vol 2.

158 Squadron contributed 23 aircraft for the Trappes sortie, losing five to enemy fire. LV792 being the sixth lost after it was completely written off after its crash landing.