LV907 NP-F

Handley Page Halifax B.III · "Friday the 13th"

Code lettersNP-F
SquadronNo. 158 Squadron
MarkB.III
FateSurvived the war

Notes

No. 158 Squadron at RAF Lissett had lost seven successive ‘F-Freddie’ Halifaxes, so when LV907 arrived to take the letter the crews defiantly marked it with a black cat, an upturned horseshoe and the name ‘Friday the 13th’. Far from unlucky, it flew a reputed 128 operations — among the highest tally of any RAF heavy bomber of the war — beginning with the Nuremberg raid of March 1944, and survived to the war’s end before being scrapped. A Halifax restored in its markings is displayed at the Yorkshire Air Museum.

Photographs

Royal Air Force Bomber Command, 1942-1945. Close up of the nose insignia on Handley Page Halifax B Mark III, LV907 'NP-F' "Friday the Thirteenth", of No. 158 Squadron RAF, after returning to Lissett, Yorkshire, from its 100th operational sortie, a night raid on Gelsenkirchen, Germany, flown by Flight Lieutenant N G Gordon and crew. LV907 was so named because it was delivered to the Squadron on 13 January 1944, and was accordingly painted with depictions of various unlucky omens. However, it completed 128 successful sorties before being struck off charge in May 1945.
ⓘ licence & creditRoyal Air Force official photographer / Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons — https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Royal_Air_Force_Bomber_Command,_1942-1945._CH14589.jpgView source & full licence →

No sorties recorded for this airframe yet.

Source: Yorkshire Air Museum — Friday the 13th →