Lancaster Crash near Antwerp

[III/JG53_Johann]

Oke, first of all, if i make mistakes in my Englisch it is common for me becouse i am bad at it..

But, i have some stories from my famely en frends of my famely who all are not umong the living becouse they are from the period of WW2. My grandpa was one of them. But he dit not see the war in belgium but in Germany. Captured to do forced labour.

Oke the story i'm going to tel today.

Lier, a city where i live. Is aprox 15 - 20 km from Antwerp -> belgium. One night there was a raid, most common becouse one of the main bomber routes was above my head. Lier was also a city with a smal populated area. but with a railway station of importance and mutch more. So a lot of strategic targets as wel. So now you have an idea what the location is like.

And one night, a bomber raid was over our region. With an aggressive flak resistance from the Germans. A Lancaster was hit, and he was going down.. Engines on fire.. he was faling towards te beloved city of Lier. I know they where others city's not so lucky in the war. But the pilot managed te regain controle of his aircraft. A controled crash.. lets say..

He ordered his crew to Jump, so they dit. But he remained in the aircraft.

The brave pilot turned away his aircraft from the city where there was living innocent people. The aircraft was stil getting hit by flak. And was losing bits and peaces.. 2 different persons also comfermed the same story that a resident of Lier was looking outside and was decapitated by schrapnel en debris. How it happend, just crazy.. he was looking outside to the battle from his roof window. And wile the lancaster was crashing was flying over. He had explosions.. and so dit this happend.

Now, like i was saying the aircraft was badly damaged and going down. So the brave pilot who turned away the lancaster of the city of Lier dit not get the time to bail out himself.

The aircraft Exploded and crashed near the place where my granddad was living after WW2. in a field.. debris dispersed of a large area.

My mother when she was a child played on the wing of the lancaster who laid down the field for more than 30 to 35 years After the war. When i was born.. several years later they removed it. So i dont remember a lot of it.

I do remember that i went looking for several times when i was a kid. Exiting as it was for me i never found it. -> logically it was removed.. but yeah.. i was just a kid. Hoping to find something.

Now we have a small memorial, but to me the memorial looks really bad. badly constructed by a local 'artist'.. yeah.. 'artist' a clown. nothing more nothing less.

What i don remember is the crew-members of the bomber.. camed over and visited the crash-site and memorial. what a horrible night it was.. i can only imagine.

greetings

Johan

 

[Marcel]

Thanks for the story. Do you know what they did with the wing? Here in Holland, many a/c parts were just scrapped until very recently. Nowadays, we have a foundation that rescues these parts and partly display them in a museum.

 

[Njaco]

If you have a date you can check this site...

Airwar over Denmark by Søren C. Flensted. Air War over Denmark

I wouldn't call the artist a clown. Many graves don't even have a memorial.

 

[III/JG53_Johann]

i can try to look it up. but it wil be somthing i do next year.. (almost new year)

i'm telling stories of the old days. the story's my grandfather and famely told me. So i'm making it like immortal now.

The wing was removed, thats for shore. one of my oncles wasn't that satesfied that the wing layd down his land. (the bad uncle of the famely)

he deserves a spaking! my wing! goddamnet

 

[III/JG53_Johann]

Oke i found an update. 17 June 1943 above the city of Lier the Lancaster ED840 from the 156 Pathfinder Squadron Exploded. It was going for a bombraid to Colonge (keulen) 3 men bailed out. the other died. the survivors where captured. Squadron leader MacKintosh (no joke-> not the computer). a veteran from the known Sylt -Raid was barried @ schoonselhof in Antwerp. The Sylt raid was bombed on 19 march 1940. On this island on the waddenzee (holland) was used for bombing raids with Ju 88 on England.

I thaugt that the survivors where with the memorial day. BUT i was wrong. they where death by natural causes. The famely was present.. (year of memorial was 1996).

Died: Squadron Leader J.C. Mackintosh, Flight Sergeant T.R. Dobson, Flight Sergeant P. Woodcock, Pilot Officer E. Monk

Survived: Sergeant T.R. Drinkwater, Sergeant E. Weare, Sergeant L. Ledamun.

The rest of the story i stil conferm.. my oncles told me that the plane was burning heavily and was falling on the city of Lier. The plane was loosing altitude and was turning away from Lier then it exploded. (eye witnesses) Later on the rumor was that Squadron Leader macintosch dit order the bail out order. And tried evryting to evade resident area. One of the wings was located where whe grow our crops.