There was no room for complacency for Allied aircrew as the war approached its end. Sixty years ago today, the Luftwaffe cooked up an upleasant surprise and hit them at their most vulnerable point - their home bases. Mark Foster reports.

THE crews of the Allied bombers returning to their base 60 years ago today were alert but relaxed. The worst of their mission was over and soon they would be touching down on friendly ground.

But this was the Night of the Intruders, when the Luftwaffe belatedly deployed a tactic, which, if used earlier in the war, could have neutralised the operations of Bomber Command.

The final run to home ended in tragedy for many servicemen on both sides, including the crew of the last German aircraft to crash on British soil during the Second World War.

The Bomber Command mission scheduled for that evening was a dual attack, involving more than 500 aircraft, on a synthetic oil producing plant at Kamen and on the Dortmund-Elms canal.

The mission ran smoothly - until the return, when they ran into trouble in the form of the Luftwaffe's Operation Gisela.

About 200 Junkers JU88s of the Nachtjagdeschwader Gruppen - night fighter destroyer group - were waiting to intercept the bombers returning to base at their most vulnerable point, just before landing.

The night was clear and some of the returning aircraft had inexplicably switched on their navigation lights earlier than usual, despite warnings of the dangers of possible predators. The circling intruders were given an enticing target.

Hauptmann Johann Dreher had already claimed two Halifaxes that night and set his sights on a French 347 Squadron Halifax, returning to RAF Elvington, near York.

At 1.50am, as Capitaine Notelle approached Elvington in his Halifax, he received warning of the attack, just as the airfield lights went out. He pulled his aircraft up and headed north for Croft, near Darlington, narrowly escaping being shot down.

The nightfighter continued its attack on Elvington and strafed a passing taxi. But circling for another pass at 1.51am, the JU88 was too low. It clipped a tree and crashed into Dunnington Lodge, a farmhouse on the outskirts of the airfield. Machine gun fire from the fighter had strafed the farmhouse, before the aircraft crashed through one section of the building.

Inside, farmer Richard Moll and his wife, Helen, 60, were awake, having been startled by the gunfire, and their daughter-in-law, Violet, 29, was making her way to their bedroom when the aircraft struck.

Her husband, Fred, saved the life of their three-year-old son, Edgar, by scooping the child up in one arm and, with a fire extinguisher in the other, fought his way through flames and debris to the outside.

Tragically, both his wife and mother died as a result of their injuries. Richard Moll survived initially, but had suffered severe burns and died later.

The JU88 ended up in a field at the junction of the Elvington and Dunnington roads. Hauptmann Dreher and his three crew all died.

Meanwhile, on the way to Croft, Notelle's Halifax was attacked again and was shot three times by the JU88 of Feldwebel Gunther Schmidt.

Notelle managed to successfully belly-land his burning bomber at Rockcliffe Farm, at Hurworth, near Darlington.

Amazingly, all his crew escaped, although some reports suggest that two civilians were killed by the skidding aircraft.

Intervention by British Mosquito fighters brought the Night of the Intruders to an end, but only after Bomber Command had lost 19 aircraft in addition to the nine reported missing on the raids themselves. The Germans lost 25 fighters.

Elvington is now the home of the Yorkshire Air Museum and director Ian Reed said: "If the tactics used by the Luftwaffe in Operation Gisela had been introduced earlier, the effect on Bomber Command could have been catastrophic and altered the course of the war.

"The fact Elvington is the site of the last German fighter to crash over Britain is of national significance - and adds to the unique history on which the museum is based."