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| With a large red Maple Leaf for Nose Art and smaller leafs for bomb tally background, the Halifax was truly “Canadian”. | The panel somewhere in Ottawa, never seen by the Canadian public. |
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| With a large red Maple Leaf for Nose Art and smaller leafs for bomb tally background, the Halifax was truly “Canadian”. | The panel somewhere in Ottawa, never seen by the Canadian public. |
With a large red Maple Leaf for Nose Art and smaller leafs for bomb tally background, this Halifax was truly “Canadian”. From a batch of 25 Halifax Mk. III aircraft, LK828 was built on the first day of assembly and delivered to No. 431 [Iroquois] squadron on 20 March 1944.
She flew the first operation to Noisy-Le-Sec, France, on 18 April 1944, pilot F/L J.M. Hill. In the next 39 operations 20 different crews flew in “Jake Sent Me”. On 12/13 June 44, WO2 F.M. Skeaff flew her to Arras, where the mid-upper gunner destroyed one enemy night-fighter, which was painted on the nose art. The Skeaff crew flew LK828 on six operations, the most in the squadron, and surly gave her the nose art name. Her last operation, [#40] came on 27 September 1944, to Sterkrade, pilot F/O D.L. Hagar.
On 29 September 44, the proud Halifax was transferred to No. 1659 Heavy Conversion Unit for training duties. The aircraft survived four short weeks. On 27 November 44, while practicing three-engine landings, she overshot and ended up in a ditch at Topcliffe, a Cat. “B” accident. Patched-up she was flown to Handley-Page repair depot on 23 December 1944, where she remained until the above photo was taken by F/L Lindsay in 1945, roll #2, print #6.
Lindsay selected this panel as one to save and return to Canada. The Halifax was scrapped on 5 June 1945.