|
Home
Allied:
1939-1940 Updated
2/10-08
1941 Updated
18/12-07
1942 Updated 8/7-08
1943 Updated 19/7-08
1944 Updated 2/10-08
1945 Updated 15/7-08
German:
1939 Updated
3/8-05
1940 Updated 1/8-08
1941 Updated
18/12-07
1942 Updated 8/7-08
1943 Updated
20/5-06
1944 Updated
28/4-08
1945
Sources
Contact
Links
Search this
site by entering search words:
|
Halifax II MZ355 crashed near Knaplund 14/2 1945.
The aircraft belonged to RCAF (RAF) 427 Sqn. Bomber Command and was coded ZL-W.
T/o 18:01 Leeming. Op: Gardening in
the Kadett Channel.
On the return flight MZ355 was attacked by a German night fighter flown by
Oberleutnant Herbert Kock of
1./ NJG 3 while flying at 12.000 ft. The Halifax received one burst of bullets
which the crew believed was flak. Pilot F/Lt William B. Britton did evasive
action and windows were dropped.
Almost immediately the bomber received another burst that set fire to the port
inner engine, the port main plan and port side of the fuselage.
The engine was feathered and fire button pressed and Flt. Engr. Sgt Philip De
Metz RAF and Mid Upper Gunner P/O Everett M. Ford was ordered to fight the fire
in the fuselage with hand extinguisher. They were unable to put the fire out and
Brittain ordered the crew to bail out.
Five members of the crew got out of the aircraft before it at approximately
22:30 hours crashed at Dyrvig Mark near Knaplund.
The remains of the two gunners, namely P/O Everett M. Ford and P/O John F. Peak
were found in the wreckage and buried next to it by the Wehrmacht.
In December 1945 their remains were disinterred and given a proper Christian
funeral at Hoven Cemetery by Vicar Bøgebjerg Andreasen and a English Field Priest.
The graves at Hoven
W/Op P/O Raymond W. Dallin left through the front hatch and landed safely. He
went to a farm and hid in the barn. When he was found in the morning the farmer
took the flyer to the house and called members of the resistance, among them
Vicar Bøgebjerg Andreasen, for help. The Wehrmacht however was searching the
area, and they arrived at the farm before Dallin could be moved. Dallin was
captured.
Brittain broke one leg when he landed and hid in a ditch. He was found in the
morning and laid in a Danish ambulance to be taken to the hospital in Tarm. The
Germans however stopped the ambulance and made it take Brittain to the German
Field Lazarett in Horne instead.
Driscoll and De Metz both landed safely and were independently of each other
captured by the Wehrmacht 4-5 kilometres from the crashsite at 23:30 hours and
taken to Skjern.
How F/O H. McKay was captured is not known.
It is not known to which POW camps the crew were sent.
Sources: Quistionaire for returned aircrew, Vicar Bøgebjerg Andreasen, LBUK.
Back to 1945
Top of page
|
