On the night of March 19/44 my Dad and his crew took off from Tholthorpe on an operation to Frankfurt. For some reason , on the return trip, they were redirected to Tholthorpe Abbey a USAFF airbase. While taxiing at the unfamiliar airfield, Dad had an accident and the outer prop on his Halifax Mark III made contact with the tail of another Halifax ( piloted by Flt Lt Vanexan I believe ) . The damage to Dad's Halifax was just to the prop. They returned to their home base the next day.
My question is : Would the Halifax , without a bomb load, be capable of taking off with just 3 engines? Or must the damage ( replacing the prop) have been fixed by the American mechanics at Tholthorpe Abbey?