Almost one year after an appeal was made, new information on a missing World War Two bomber and its crew has come to light.

In March 2019, historian David John Eason asked the people of Whitehaven for details on Richard Henry Moyle, who disappeared along with his five crewmates and their Wellington bomber during a Nickel Flight – a propaganda leaflet-drop – over France in 1944.

The crew was made up of Flying Officer George David Coldwell-Horsfall, mid upper gunner Richard Henry Moyle, navigator Henry Daly, bomb aimer Nicholas Clayton Rushton, wireless operator/gunner Kenneth Thomas James, and air gunner Norman Walters.

Richard, from Moor Row, left behind his wife, son and unborn child on the night he vanished, aged just 20.

And while his youngest son, also called Richard, came forward with details about his father's family life when the appeal was initially made, the crew's fate remained a mystery.

But now, a distant relative of 22-year-old Flying Officer Coldwell-Horsfall, Nigel Horsfall, has revealed that, although the flying officer was listed as a prisoner of war on his military file, raising questions as to the entire crew's fate, this was simply a mistake and "admin error".

"It is true and an interesting anomaly that George Coldwell-Horsfall was listed as a captured POW in his military file," Nigel said.

"There had been a mix up in the documentation at some point and this is documented on a couple of places on the internet, although Ancestry.co.uk lists the MIA information against him as well as death records."

He added: "The Officer Commanding of RAF Chipping Warden reported 'considerable enemy air activity in the Channel and Portsmouth areas during this night'.

"My assumption has been that they were shot down over the English Channel, more likely nearer the English coast than the French, on their outward bound journey."

He added that "no land-based crash in either UK or France has been identified as theirs", suggesting the bomber now lies in the sea.