1944 Grafenberg Wald Avro Lancaster shootdown
Memorial plaque at Lindenplätzchen near the main parking lot on Rennbahnstraße | |
| Occurrence | |
|---|---|
| Date | 12 December 1944 |
| Summary | Shot down by German night fighter after bombing raid on Essen |
| Site | Wildpark im Grafenberger Wald, Ludenberg (Düsseldorf), Nazi Germany |
| Aircraft | |
| Aircraft type | Avro Lancaster |
| Aircraft name | ND342 |
| Operator | Royal Air Force |
| Registration | PH-U |
| Flight origin | RAF Wickenby, England |
| Destination | Essen, Germany (target) |
| Crew | 8 |
| Fatalities | 5 |
| Survivors | 3 |
The 1944 Grafenberg Wald Avro Lancaster shootdown occurred on 12 December 1944 during World War II when an Avro Lancaster bomber of the Royal Air Force was shot down by a German Luftwaffe night fighter and crashed in the Wildpark im Grafenberger Wald, in Ludenberg, a district of Düsseldorf.
Mission
On the afternoon of 12 December 1944, an Avro Lancaster bomber (serial number ND342, squadron code PH-U) took off from RAF Wickenby in eastern England.[1] The aircraft belonged to either the No. 12 or No. 626 Squadron. Its mission was to bomb the Krupp steelworks in Essen. A total of 540 bombers took part in the raid, which resulted in the deaths of 463 people, including 99 Soviet prisoners of war and a German non-commissioned officer, who were buried when a shelter at the former Zeche Graf Beust collapsed. A war grave site now exists at the location.[2]
Shootdown
Shortly after dropping its bombs over Essen, the Lancaster was intercepted and shot at by a German night fighter of the I. Gruppe of NJG 11 and caught fire. It crashed near Düsseldorf. The attacking aircraft was a Messerschmitt Bf 109 G-6 (serial number 166455, call sign "Red 4") piloted by Leutnant Gustav Mohr.[3]
Crew
Four crew members managed to bail out several kilometers before the crash:
- Sergeant William Stevenson – flight engineer (RAF)
- Flight Sergeant Jack Kenworthy – bomb aimer (RAF)
- Flight Officer Harry Parry – navigator (RAF)
- Flight Lieutenant Bertram Edward William Hall – wireless operator (RCAF)
The first three were taken prisoner and survived the war. Hall landed in Erkrath-Unterfeldhaus, where he was reportedly given first aid but was later picked up by local NSDAP official Heinrich Thiele and died that same evening under unclear circumstances.[4][5]
The following crew members did not survive the crash itself:
- Flying Officer Reginald Veitch – pilot (RNZAF)
- Sergeant Leslie Hunt – mid-upper gunner (RAF)
- Pilot Officer John Richard Patterson – rear gunner (RCAF)
Another unidentified crew member exited the aircraft but was found dead about 2.5 km from the crash site with a partially deployed parachute. Two more died near the crash site in the Wildpark. One of them was Reginald Veitch.[5]
Research
Between 2010 and 2014, people from the LVR Office for the Preservation of Monuments in Landschaftsverband Rheinland carried out archaeological surveys of the crash site. Numerous small fragments of the aircraft were recovered from the red deer and wild boar enclosures in the park.
Memorial
On 12 December 2014, the 70th anniversary of the crash, a wreath was laid at the site. Attendees included John Patterson from Canada, the nephew of rear gunner John Richard Patterson.[6]
A memorial plaque was unveiled on 5 April 2017 at Lindenplätzchen near the main parking lot on Rennbahnstraße.[7]
References
- ^ Squadron Operations Record Book 1944, RAF Wickenby
- ^ Dr. Martin Bach: Die Kriegsgräberstätte für sowjetische Zwangsarbeiter der Zeche Graf Beust in Essen, Essen 2014
- ^ Traditionsgemeinschaft Boelcke e.V., Neuss: Flugbuch Gustav Mohr
- ^ Nicole Palmieri, Lokal Anzeiger Erkrath, 9 Dec 2014 & 10 Jun 2020
- ^ a b Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Investigation Report 4 M.R.E.U./906/951, 14 Dec 1946
- ^ Sabrina Zink: Ein Zeichen der Versöhnung, Neue Ruhr Zeitung, 12 Dec 2014
- ^ Marc Ingel: Erinnerung an britische Soldaten, Rheinische Post, 8 Apr 2017
Further reading
- Werner Baumeister: Castrop-Rauxel im Luftkrieg 1939–1945, Castrop-Rauxel, 1988
- Patrick Bishop: Bomber Boys: Fighting Back 1940–1945, London, 2010
- Jonathan Falconer: RAF Bomber Crewman, Oxford, 2010
- Thomas Boller, Peter Schulenberg: "Aircraft Wreckage in the Grafenberger Wildpark", in: Archaeology in the Rhineland 2012, pp. 256–258, Darmstadt, 2013
- Stuart Hadaway: The British Airmen of the Second World War, Oxford, 2013
- Sean Feast, Marc Hall: Missing Presumed Murdered, Stotfold, 2018
- Thomas Boller: Jump, friends – we’ve been hit, Düsseldorf, 2020