Sgt T J Baston was the pilot of Armstrong Whitworth Whitley V Z6479 MH-M, that was intercepted by Luftwaffe night fighters on return from a mission to Cologne. One was down by the Whitley’s tail gunner, F/Sgt D J F Jefferis, but the second, flown by Ofw. Reinhard Kollack, shot the Whitley down. It crash-landed at 02.26 hours on heathland near Houthalen, Belgium. Of the five crew, only the navigator P/O K N Holland survived, ending up as a PoW. Eyewitnesses reported seeing another airman being led away from the crash site, understood to have been P/O C E Crichton, but no trace of him was ever found.
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War: 1941; W.R. Chorley; 1993; Midland Counties Publications; ISBN 0 904597 87 3 page 67
Acknowledgments: Simon Glancey
He is remembered at Warkworth on W16.01, W16.04, also at Alnwick on A11.17 and A11.53
