Lancaster I LL950 crashed Vesterlund 22/5 1944

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Lancaster I LL950 crashed Vesterlund 22/5 1944.

The aircraft belonged to RAF 630 Sqn Bomber Command and was coded LE-Y.
T/o 22:18 East Kirby. OP: Gardening Forget-Me-Not (Kiel Bay)

The Lancaster was flying at 4700 metres over the Jylland peninsula when it was attacked by a German night fighter from 10./NJG 3 piloted by Unteroffizier Heinz Koppe.
The Lancaster started burning and came down in great circles. It broke up in mid air and crashed at 02:00 hours just south of the railroad line west of the small village of Vesterlund.
The tail fell to the ground some five kilometers away,a little to the east of the village of Dørken.

In the wreckage near Vesterlund were found four bodies and in the wreckage east of Dørken were found two bodies. A third body with an unopened parachute was found in a nearby field.

The dead flyers were left lying where they were found until the evening of 24/6 when the Wehrmacht from Give collected the bodies and took them to Esbjerg where they were laid to rest in Fovrfelt cemetery on 27/5 1944.

They were: Pilot P/O Ronald W. Baily, Flt. Engr. P/O Jack M. Whiting, Navigator F/S Charles H. Richardson, Navigator F/S James M. Henderson, W/Op F/O Albert E. Truesdale, Air Gnr. Sgt James Lindsay and Air Gnr. Sgt Martin E. Murton.

(David Whiting)