Simon Glancey has submitted the following:
Pilot Officer Crossley was the Flight Engineer aboard Avro Lancaster X KB782 NA-H of 428 (R.C.A.F.) Squadron, which was lost on a mission to Dusseldorf. Of the seven crew, three were killed in the crash.
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1944; W.R. Chorley; 1997; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 91 1, page 471
The four survivors, including P/O Crossley, were captured and taken to Solingen. There they were attacked by members of the local population whilst under an armed escort, and the four P.o.W.s were murdered. Four men were tried for murder, but their fate is unknown.
Ernest Crossley is remembered in Aykley Heads on A41.02 , in Durham on D47.150 and at Hebburn on H93.15
