Ellis was navigator, Phil Mack co-pilot on ' Village Flirt' 16th November 1942 when the 91st BG was scheduled to bomb Norway for possibly the only time in World War II. Target - a suspected heavy water plant. In the event the target area was unidentifiable due to a heavy covering of snow and the mission aborted. 'Village Flirt's' No 1 engine had developed an oil leak en route and turned back some fifty miles short of the Norwegain coast. As they limped home after the rest of the Group they were fired on by British ack -ack and then picked up and escorted back to base by an RAF Beaufighter. When Ellis returned to his quarters at Bassingbourn his personal belongings had already been packed up, the crew reported MIA.



He was - on a later mission - credited with destroying an FW 190 and was awarded the DFC.