BLACK THURSDAY was the name by which the tragic occurrences of 16/17 December 1943 came to be known. Late on the 16th and in the early hours of the morning of the 17th, the RAF lost numerous aircraft due to a thick fog blanketing England. Squadron Leader Deverill and five members of his crew lost their lives, as did forty-four other Pathfinder aircrew, all of whom had returned from an operation against Berlin.
Now that we have acquired the Deverill collection, it has been moved to our partners at the Pathfinder Collection, Heritage Centre, RAF Wyton, where it forms the centrepiece of a small exhibition on Black Thursday.
It is intended that a much larger exhibition will be in place by the 75th anniversary of Black Thursday. It is planned that material in the exhibition will include items of aircraft wreckage from the crash of various PFF Lancasters that night, including that of the Deverill crew.