I am indebted to Geoff Easton, Arnold's son, for sending me these photographs and copies of his logbook.  Reading through his meticulously written and maintained logbook has been fascinating, giving an unprecedented insight into squadron operations.  Extracts from the logbook will be added below as this page is progressed. 

Arnold Easton served as a navigator in 467 squadron at a critical time in the bomber war against Germany which included the "Battle of Berlin" amd the notorious Nuremberg raid.. He was consistently assessed as an above average, and even exceptional navigator, a fact that must have inspired enormous confidenece from his crew since most appreciated that the navigator was its most important member..

He joined the squadron on 19 February 1944 with the crew of F/O Marshall and became operational on 1st March with a raid on Stuttgart.  On this particular night, 557 aircraft including 544 Halifaxes and Lancasters took off from Lincolnshire and East Anglia.  Bad weather over Europe and indecision by the Nachtjagd controllers meant that the bomber stream were almost unmolested en route to their target.  When it was finally discovered that the target was Stuttgart, a limited number of nachtjagers were diverted there, though many were low on fuel. Arnold's logbook reveals that they were attacked by an Fw190 whose cannon shells blew a hole in their starboard wing putting the flaps out of action.  Bomber Command lost only five aircraft, 35 aircrew, on this night, but by the end of the month a further 1845 aircrew would fail to return.

A Lancaster Mk I at dispersal at RAF Waddington.