A SECOND World War pilot has revealed how his Halifax Bomber and its huge payload of explosives came within yards of York Minster after developing engine trouble during take off.

Flight Lieutenant Alan Cresswell, now 91, told The Press he thought he was “for the chop” when he and his crew took off for France from Linton-on-Ouse, only to discover their landing gear was stuck in the down position and there was a drop in oil pressure in one of the four engines.

The bomber had been due to attack a submarine base in the French port of Lorient.

Looking back to that February night in 1943, Flt Lt Cresswell, said: “There was no way I could turn back because there were bombers queuing up behind me. I had to throttle it back, otherwise it would have caught fire.

“We just managed to clear the fence and I just had to fly on and see what happened.”

Managing to climb to only 60 feet, Flt Lt Cresswell and his crew faced the dangerous prospect of finding somewhere to land with a full fuel tank and a load of bombs, while avoiding heavily populated York.

“The main problem was the bombs,” he explained. “I had incendiaries and I had high explosive bombs which were designed to go off if anyone tried to defuse them, so there was no way I could drop them over England. We just flew on with our fingers crossed.

“That was when I saw York Minster go past me. The tower was slightly above, out of the starboard window.

“We were very low, but what could I do? There’s no point in panicking – I knew I was just maintaining altitude and I was very lucky. I thought I was for the chop – that was as near as I came.

“Shortly after that I saw Marston Moor runway; I didn’t ask permission. I just went in. We were very lucky.” Engineers later informed him just how lucky, or skilful, he had been. The maximum permissible landing weight of the famously flimsy Halifax undercarriage had been exceeded by 15,000 lbs.

“The Halifax was notorious for swaying during take-off and landing or even the undercarriage giving way completely. I just managed to land it very carefully,” Flt Lt Cresswell said. His tour of operations continued with raids over Nuremburg, St Nazaire, Berlin, Hamburg, Stuttgart, Kiel, Duisburg, Frankfurt, Dusseldorf, Dortmund, Stettin, Bochum, and finally, in May 1943, Essen.

His career then saw him posted to RAF Church Honeybourne to become a flight instructor on Whitleys.

After the war he put in for a posting to fly Sunderland aircraft in Scotland, hoping air time on machines similar to those used for civilian airlines would help toward a career as an airline pilot.

However, the Air Ministry declined his request on the grounds that “Flight Lieutenant Cresswell is too useful in his present position”.

He now lives in Bourne in Lincolnshire with his son, Tony.