This is the landinggear after cleaning up.
Based on the location and serial information found on the landinggear we are now pretty shure it belonged to No 158 squadron Wellington Mk.II W5482 NP-X. Their mission was a nickkeling raid on Lille. This was the first unsupervised mission of Pilot Sergeant Walter David Amos and the first mission this crew flew together.
The plane crashed 8 kilometers outside Ostend. All crewmembers died.
Pilot: Sergeant Walter David Amos ( RAFVR 1377677) Age 20 Nieuwe Oosterbegraafplaats Amsterdam
Observer: Sergeant Ian Mactaggat MacKirdy (RAFVR 1161197) Age 26 Oostende New Communal Cemetery Plot 9 row 4 nr 18
Wireless Operator / Airgunner Sergeant Douglas Harold Till (RAFVR 934087) age 21 Oostende New Communal Cemetery Plot 9 row 4 nr 19
Wireless Operator / Airgunner Sergeant Basil Edwin Whitbread (RAFVR 923920) age 22 Runnymede Memorial Panel 96
Airgunner Sergeant Anthony Frederick Davies (RAFVR 977122) age 21 Runnymede Memorial Panel 81
We put the gear in display in our Museum (Bevrijdingsmuseum Zeeland) and on an Info sign we put some information about the Plane and Crew
This picture shows still a bit work in progress..
The base plate on which we mounted it would be paint black and we put the parts that felt of during the cleaning inside in a bed of sand. covered by glass. Still have to go to Ostend to take some pictures of the graves