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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 had crossed over the Small Belt heading southeast and was flying at 4700 meters when it was
attacked by a German night fighter from 10./NJG 3 piloted by Unteroffizier Heinz
Koppe. The load of mines were dropped and fell in a forest near Middelfart while
the Lancaster tried to get away.
The Lancaster started burning and came down in great circles before it broke up in mid
air and crashed at 02:00 hours local Danish time 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 24/5
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 Walter Bailey, Flt. Engr. P/O Jack Maxwell Whiting, Navigator
F/S Charles Henry Richardson, Air Bomber F/S James Mitchell Henderson, W/Op F/O
Albert Edward Truesdale
(Bertie), Air Gnr. Sgt James Lindsay and Air Gnr. Sgt Martin Ernest Murton.
(David Whiting)
Flt. Engr. P/O Jack M. Whiting
(David Whiting)
Flt. Engr. P/O Jack M. Whiting
(Niels
Vestergaard)
Navigator F/S Charles H. Richardson
(Cliff
Truesdale)
F/O Albert Edward Truesdale (Bertie)
(Cliff
Truesdale)
F/O Albert Edward Truesdale (Bertie) in his flying gear.
The below early pictures of the graves kindly made available
by David Whiting was send to he mother by a Danish farmer.
(David Whiting)
(David Whiting)
(David Whiting)
The memorial at the crashsite.
(Niels
Vestergaard)
(Niels
Vestergaard)
(Niels
Vestergaard)
(Erik Jensen)
At the crashsite.
(Ib Lødsen)
(Niels Vestergaard)
(Niels Vestergaard)
From the 50 year ceremony.
Sources: BE, LBUK, Report Vejle police, TW, Ole Kraul, Bob Cobley.
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