The weather at B.80 Volkel was a tad questionable on Wednesday 24th January 1945. 174 Squadron put up two operations, one of which helped the Army take a village that had been causing trouble.
For RB396 and Plt Off Frank Johnson, there was only a 15-minute air test of the aircraft. Given the nature of the previous two days of operations, it is logical to think RB396 needed a repair that required a check flight.