|
My 7 Flying Heroes Preface During the Second World War in August 1944 an English bomber crashed on a field belonging to my grandfather Svend Andersen. This plane crash would take up a lot of space in my grandfather’s life, because after the War and up to his death in 1995 he would have a lot of contact with the relatives of the airmen of the crashed bomber. Today the undersigned is the owner of the farm where the bomber crashed. During many years I have listened to my grandfather when he told about this event, and I have inherited quite a lot of material as regards this matter including many letters written to him by the relatives in order to get information of their loved ones. Furthermore several other people had an unforgettable experience in connection with the crash of the bomber, among them, those who came to the crashsite early in the morning on the 27th August 1944 and the gravedigger at the cemetery in Gl. Rye. All the information I have gathered and written down is in order to tell and save a chapter of our local history from the war years, but first of all I do it in order to remember the 7 airmen and honour them for their brave effort.
August 1944 During the summer of 1944, the Royal Air Force makes a great effort before, during and after the D-Day landings in Normandy on the 6th June by bombing the German weapons industry, supply lines and military capability. " See greeting from General Montgomery to Royal Air Force airmen here " The air war was fought with increasingly sophisticated technology and growing cruelty by both the Allies and the German air forces. The air war was an exciting history of extreme technological, tactical and strategic development. On the night between the 26th and the 27th
August 1944, Bomber Command in England sent 531 bombers on 3
missions. 327 bombers were sent to Kiel and 174 bombers to
Köningsberg. Furthermore 30 bombers were sent to Kiel and the Bay of
Danzig on a mine laying mission. The Crew A Lancaster has a crew consisting of 7 men. LM694 has a mixed crew consisting of four Englishmen and 3 Canadians. The pilot first: He is Frederick James Dee from Wales, 29 years
old, married to Ann in 1943 and unknown to him about to become a
father as his wife is pregnant. The engineer of LM694 is Jack White from England, 26 years old. The engineer is placed next to the pilot and he makes sure the engines and all the systems are working properly and is able to stop an engine, turn off the fuel supply and feather the propeller in case of an engine fire. It is also his job to check the fuel levels and the fuel/air mixture for the engines. If this is wrong, you may get a lower performance and thus a lower speed causing you to decend. A wrong setting may also cause flames out of the exhaust pipes which would make the aircraft a bright target for enemy fighters in the night sky. The flight instruments are constructed in such a way that everything is OK when all the pointers are in vertical position.
The bomb aimer is George William Palmer from England, 29 years old, married and father or stepfather to Sheila. Palmers ’ place is in the “nose” of the aircraft. Approaching the target area the bomb aimer takes over the steering of the aircraft until the bombs have been dropped, after which the pilot takes over the steering again, setting the course for England. If the bomb sight was fed with the right numbers for altitude, course, wind direction and speed, it was very accurate.The bomb aimer is also the front gunner. In the nose above the bomb sight there are two Brownings .303 machine guns. The navigator is James Balfour Russell from Canada, 30 years old. His place is behind the pilot at a little table. The navigator’s work is very important as they mostly fly during the night in all kinds of weather, sometimes without seeing anything else but dark clouds or darkness. " See newspaper article by James Russell "The radio operator is William Alexander Holt from England, 20
years old. Besides having radio contact with England and the other
Lancasters and the master bomber, the job of the operator is also to
locate both friendly and enemy aircraft by using different forms of
electronic equipment. The mid-upper turret gunner is Jacob R. Schafer from Canada, 19
years old. He is sitting in the turret on the top of the body behind
the wings looking out through a transparent perspex cupola in which
there are two Brownings .303 machine guns. The mid-upper gunner can
see all that is going on above the Lancaster. All the bullets used in the machine guns in the Lancaster are not identical. Every 5th bullet is armour-piercing and at other intervals there are tracer bullets to make the gunner able to ‘trace’ the bullets to the target. On day missions the setup of the bullets is different, but at night they use many more tracer bullets.
The rear gunner is John Ernest Fitzgerald from Canada, 19 years old. The rear gunner is the eye in the neck of the crew. He sits with his back towards the flight direction looking to the rear and operates four Brownings .303 machine guns. The keen eye of the rear gunner is important, he has to be aware of attacking fighters sneaking up from behind. It is also the rear gunner who can see if the bombs hit the target. The rear gunner sits alone far away from the rest of the crew in a little room with very limited freedom of movement. His place is very cold, -20 to -30 degrees centigrade, and it is not getting warmer because often the Perspex has been removed, in order to be able to see better, any enemy fighters before they get too close. The mid-upper and the rear gunner are wearing electrically heated flying suits to try to keep them warm.See more about John Ernst Fitzgerald on Canadian site " The Canadian Letters and Images Project " For this crew it is mission number 20 from Kirmington, they arrived at the base on the 13th June 1944. According to a letter written to my grandfather in 1946 by the mother of the pilot, Frederick Dee, this their last flight will be mission number 27 for the crew. Furthermore the mother writes that they all hoped to manage three missions more, thus having done a total of 30 missions, called a ‘tour’ after which they would have had half a year’s leave from active war duty. Thus one may conclude that this crew would have flown 7 missions from another air base and squadron before Kirmington. " See battle reports "Having done 30 missions, airmen would get half a year’s leave after which they had to do an additional 20 missions. If an airman survived these two ‘tours’ , being 50 missions in total, the RAF and the military could never make claim for active service of him again. However, few airmen got so far. Beyond a good education, good equipment and exemplary interpersonal skills among the members of the crew, you would be extremely lucky to survive – usually many a crew had not sufficient luck. Having survived the first five missions, you were experienced. The greatest loss happened during the first missions – a new crew had not the necessary experience to avoid anti-aircraft artillery and enemy fighters. If a crew was getting on for 30 missions, you often saw heavy losses among these due to the fact that you over estimated yourself and underestimated the enemy. Another reason could be that you had frayed nerves and made silly mistakes.
The Lancaster Bomber The Lancaster bomber LM694 is brand-new. This aircraft was delivered to Kirmington Airbase on Monday the 22nd August and had only 15 hours in the air before the mission the 26th of August. The fifteen hours of flight is a single bombing raid to Rüsselheim thursday, Angust 25th and training and test flight during the week. The Lancaster aircraft was produced from September 1941 to February 1946 and they became one of the most famous and most successful bombers during the Second World War, only surpassed by the American B-17 bomber. At the time the Lancaster had extremely good flying capabillities, taking the size and the weight into consideration. You could manouvre this aircraft very fast having an enemy fighter behind you. The aircraft was primarily used for night missions, but day missions were undertaken.During 1952/53 fifty-nine Lancaster bombers were overhauled by the manufacturer and delivered to France. These were flown until the mid-1960s by four squadrons in France and New Caledonia for maritime reconnaissance and search-and-rescue purposes. The Lancaster was driven by four Rolls Royce Merlin 38 engines, each with 1,480 HP, in all 5,920 HP – corresponding to the power of 40 big tractors! Wing span: 102 ft 0 in. (31.10 m), wing area: 1,300 ft2 (120.49 m2). Length: 69 ft 5 in. (21.1 m), height: 20 ft 0 in. (5.69 m). Weight: Empty 36,900 lbs. (16,705 kg). Weight: Maximum Takeoff 68,000 lbs. (31,750 kg). Bomb load: Maximum normal 14,000 lbs, modified 22,000 lbs (6,360 / 10,000 kg). Maximum speed: 240 knots (280 mph, 450 km/h) at 15,000 ft (5,600 m). Time to climb to 15,000 ft: 60 minutes. Service ceiling 23,500 ft (8,160 m) Armament, 0.303 in machine guns: Front turret 2 pcs., mid-upper turret 2 pcs., rear turret 4 pcs. During the active duty of this crew they flew six different Lancasters; five of these are lost during the war and the last one a few days after the end of the war. Kirmington The crew concerned belongs to 166 Squadron and are based at Kirmington in North Lincolnshire. On Saturday morning the 26th August 1944 the pilot Frederick J. Dee and the 6 men of his crew knew that they during the coming night should take part in a bombing mission together with four other bombers from Kirmington. In the morning they went down to their aircraft, LM694, to talk with the aeroplane mechanics and other ground personnel. An aeroplane mechanic, a metalworker and an electrician are permanently attached to each bomber. The ground personnel know how much fuel that has been put in the tanks and which type of bombs or mines the bomber has been loaded with. The quantity of fuel indicates the distance to be flown, and the bomb type tells what type of mission they would be on, and with this information the airmen and the ground personnel could guess the probable destination of the mission. Later on in the day, when the ground personnel have finished their work with the bomber, the airmen test the aircraft to make sure that everything is set correctly and working perfectly. Before the airmen have finished their tests, the army chaplain and the Wing Commander drop in and wish them good luck on the mission. At RAF Kirmington it is a tradition that the army chaplain and the chief wish good luck to everybody going on a mission that day or the coming night.
The Last
Missions The crew with Frederick Dee at the controls left at 21:15hrs. for Stettin Bay. The weather was good at first but became very cloudy and foggy after passing over the German North Sea coast. At 01:18hrs. the payload of six 1,500 pound mines were dropped from 11,000 feet in the target area. Up to this moment there had been no hostile resistance at all, but having just left the target area, Frederick Dee and his crew were attacked by a German night fighter (JU 88). The rear gunner, John Ernest Fitzgerald, opened fire at the fighter and after the first volley the fighter is seen to catch fire and dive into the sea and explode. At five o ’clock in the morning the crew arrived back at Kirmington whereupon it was time for a mug of tea with a drop of rum in it before being debriefed, and after the debriefing it’s time to go to bed. The next day there is no fixed meeting time, and incidentally, there is no strict discipline. You are responsible for yourself being ready and keeping your equipment in order. That is the best life insurance you can get as an airman. Strict discipline happened only occasionally in periods when the weather had been bad for flying for a long time and the airmen got on each others nerves due to boredom.After this mission the rear gunner Fitzgerald was recommend for a bravery medal for his excellent marksmanship. On the 25th August 1944 Frederick Dee and his crew went on a mission to Rüsselheim. Here they were attacked three times by a JU88 night fighter which had to retire, burning. The trip was the first bombing raid with LM694. The Last Mission On Saturday the 26th August 1944 late in the afternoon, five crews at Kirmington are taking part in a briefing for the upcoming mission. It is disclosed that this is a mining mission to Danzig Bay. The route is shown by means of a red thread on a large map of Europe. Take off times, routes, altitude from which the bombs were to be dropped etc. are announced here. Furthermore they are informed of the places where flak and attack from enemy night fighters might be expected. Later, after the briefing, each man of the crew gets his flight equipment and his escape parcel. Among other things the escape parcel contained photos for false passports and other documents, a razor and ointment for painful feet, pills to make ditch water drinkable, maps and a compass. Furthermore money for the over flown countries is distributed, apart from German money because one did not consider it to be possible to escape from Germany. The airmen’s parcels also contained caffeine pills. Particularly the mid-upper and the rear turret gunner need these to keep up concentration on long missions. It is also possible to get biscuits and coffee with them and that was real coffee. However, they can not have the coffee until they are back over England where the risk for enemy fighters is negligible and the altitude is low enough to remove the oxygen masks. The airmen put on their flight dress which is comprehensive is for the gunners. They have several layers on, including electrically heated underwear and gloves because they are sitting in unheated surroundings in which the temperature is -20 to -30 degrees centigrade at 20,000 feet. This time the payload is mines as mentioned earlier, five pieces in all, three Mk. VI and two Mk. IX. The mines have to be dropped from 14,000 feet. Flying from the base the bombers take off at intervals of one
minute, and they all join up in a holding pattern like a big
triangle until all of the bombers are airborne. When all bombers are
airborne, they set the course for the mission target. Before the main body arrived at the target, a pathfinder squadron has been there and dropped target indicator bombs in order to ensure precise bombing. In cloudy weather the indicator bombs are dropped on parachutes above and in the clouds to mark the bombing targets. On their way home to England the weather has changed. There was a
report of ice-formations and electrical storms so the bombers were
redirected to Lossiemouth Airbase on the north eastern coast of
Scotland.
The Crash LM694 crashes in flames on my grandfathers field by Aastruplund. The other three bombers from Kirmington return undamaged and land between 06:00 – 06:35hrs. after a mission of more than 9 hours. The Lancaster had a blind spot underneath. The crew on the
Lancaster had some difficulty in looking down from the aircraft. In
the summer 1944 the Germans had found out that by mounting machine
guns in their fighters tilted upwards at 70 degrees, they could
sneak up below the bombers and open fire. This method of attack was
in German named Schräge Musik. The preferred targets were the fuel
tanks. However, this method was only used by the German
nightfighters when the bombers were on their way home having dropped
their load of bombs. This kind of attack would have been pure
suicide for an attacking fighter pilot if a bomber was loaded with
bombs. At half past three in the morning LM694 crashes in flames to the ground and explodes. Some local people are soon at the crashsite. They have got up early that morning because of the heavy thunderstorm or they had got up due to the unusual level of flying activity, one can not know. That night the Braedstrup area was passed over by quite a lot of bombers returning to England, and it is said that there were many violent aerial combats with German night fighters.Several people tell of a burning aircraft or fire ball coming from the north, passing the farm “Marienlyst” at low altitude and crashing to the ground south of the road “Sandvej” resulting in a tremendous explosion. On the 25th June 1946 my grandfather wrote a letter to England in which it is said that the crew died in the fire before the crash.
Immediately after the crash some local people hurry to the
crashsite. Somebody is looking for weapons and ammunition, other
people would like to have a parachute from which they could make new
shirts for the children – you were short of everything during the
last of the war years. Maybe somebody was just curious to see what
had dropped from the sky. Soon after the crash German soldiers from Braedstrup under the
command of Hauptfeldwebel Hein arrive at the crashsite, after which
the area was cordoned off in a big circle. Nobody else but the
German Wehrmacht was allowed admittance. In the morning German
soldiers go out to the nearest farms to search for survivors,
however, they did not make a real search of the houses. During the day many people who were curious came to the crashsite. One of them was Gunnar Viby Mogensen from Braedstrup who was 11 years old at that time. Gunnar biked down the road Aavej towards Bredstenbro and continued along the track that started at No. 39. He went up to a group of people where he stopped and saw two black horrifying lumps lying on the ground. It was two halves of the same very burnt person. Now Gunnar quickly biked homewards again. The Same Night over the Water Tower on Brokhoej Gunnar Viby Mogensen has written an article in a yearbook (in Danish), ”Aarsskrift 2008” in which you can read what a Braedstrup boy saw during the Second World War. It is a very exciting reading which I can recommend. Gunnar writes that the water tower north of Braedstrup just had been equipped with a flak gun, and this was frequently in use against the Lancaster bombers returning from their targets in Germany during the night between the 26th and the 27th August. The flak gun in the water tower had hit one of the aircrafts and another bomber had turned around and had dropped some bombs in an attempt to hit the water tower. Instead of the water tower they hit a farm at which the blackout curtains were not very effective. It was not unusual to find that bombers had saved a couple of bombs for the trip homewards. These were intended for the neutralizing of annoying flak that made life so dangerous for the bombers. However, this was not allowed by the Bomber Command, in fact it was strictly forbidden which is why they never told their chiefs at home at the air base when they made their reports. This incident about the water tower in Braedstrup described by
Gunnar, matches well with some maps which I have received from
Frederick Dee’s nephew Stuart Matthews. On one of the maps you can
see the crashes that happened in Denmark on the night in question.
On this map it is also shown that a bomber was attacked and hit
north of Braedstrup, and it appears that the bomber did not crash
but was able to continue the flight to England. "
See the map here " The Funeral On the evening the 27th August an ambulance came and collected the paper bags containing the bodies of the airmen, and they were driven to Gl. Rye where the Germans had an airfield.
Early in the morning the 30th August German soldiers closed off the churchyard in Gl. Rye. However, the gravedigger and another man from the village sneaked up into the church tower from where they saw German soldiers kick some bags into a grave. There was no vicar present. A few days after the funeral the Germans placed a white wooden cross with an inscription on the burial plot. After the capitulation the burial plot was laid out at the expense of the parishioners. As the RAF had made a number of violent attacks during the spring
of 1943 on many German cities, both Göbbels and many other Germans
became indignant. The enemy aeroplanes got the name ”terror
aeroplanes”. In July 1943 the German General Headquarters published
new directives concerning the funerals of allied airmen. Now you
could omit clergy co-operation, salute of honour or wreath-laying
ceremony. The Death Certificate in the Parish Register The German death certificate received by the vicar in Gl. Rye the 6th September reads thus, translated: Death certificate for English crew members from the crash. From the English bomber shot down the 27/8 1944 in Traeden, the type of which it has not been able to establish, three unidentifiable bodies and some individual charred body rests have been saved. The identifiable bodies are: Body No. 1 Sergeant Jack White Strongly charred It has not been possible to identify the rest of the body parts. Cause of death was burn and injuries." See the Death certificate here " How the name Sgt. F. B. Lewis came to be listed as one of the identified crew will probably remain an unanswered question.
The Memorial Cross The crashsite was closed off by the Germans for roughly 14 days. The soldiers had been accommodated at a farm down by the river Gudenaaen. They stayed in the barn at the address of Magnus Petersen, Aavej 44 and the German officer in charge stayed at Bredstenbro Inn. Magnus Petersen had during his youth been in service in Germany and had learned German so he could talk with the soldiers. The Germans gathered all the wreckage and brought the metal to the station in Braedstrup from where it was all sent to Germany to be melted down and recycled. Outside of the cordon my grandfather had seen a long spar from
the bomber. He decided he would really like to get hold of this
spar, so one day when the farmhand Rasmus Due Andersen was out
getting feed for the animals, he picked up the spar and placed it at
the bottom of the carriage and placed the feed on top of that.
Driving homewards with the feed, a German soldier followed Rasmus.
In all probability it caused quite a lot of nervousness. Fortunately
the soldier turned back before the load came back into the yard.
Medal of Courage to the Rear Gunner On the 3rd of October 1944, more than two months after the crash, the rear gunner or rather his family received The Distinguished Flying Medal ( D.F.M. ) for the shooting down of a German night fighter. The recommendation sounds as follows: FITZGERALD, Sergeant John Ernest (R215210) - Distinguished Flying Medal - No.166 Squadron (missing) - Award effective 3 October 1944 as per London Gazette of that date and AFRO 2637/44 dated 8 December 1944. Born in New Westminster, 1925. Was in Army and Air Cadets before enlisting, Vancouver, 21 January 1943. Trained at No.3 BGS (graduated 12 November 1943). Killed in action with No.166 Squadron, 26/27 August 1944 (Lancaster LM694); buried in Denmark. This airman has participated in many sorties as a rear gunner. He has displayed the greatest keenness and has proved himself to be a most dependable member of aircraft crew. One night in August 1944, Sergeant Fitzgerald participated in a minelaying mission. Shortly after leaving the target area, this gunner sighted a Junkers 88. He opened fire and his first burst struck the enemy aircraft which went into a steep dive with both engines on fire. One more than one occasion his vigilance and good shooting have contributed materially to the safe return of his aircraft. After the war the family in Canada have a mountain named after their son and brother in memory of him. The mountain is named Mount Fitzgerald and was dedicated to him on the 28th March 1967. This is a volcanic mountain in the south-west of British Columbia in Canada, 84 km east of Rivers Inlet and 4 km east of Mount Silverthrone. The co-ordinates for the mountain are 51° 31`01.9 N 126° 03`56.2 W. English Officers On the 5th of February 1946 my grandparents are visited by a Captain Adams and two other English officers from the RAF. They were travelling around in order to gather information of missing airmen. The visitors were given all the information my grandfather had, and the identity of the bomber and of the crew was cleared up. At last the families of the crew could know the fate of their loved ones. In the period from August 1944 to the spring of 1946 the only information the RAF had been able to give the families was that the Lancaster and their sons were reported missing. In the spring of 1946 it comes to my grandfather’s notice that somebody, maybe one of those who were at the crashsite on the night of the crash, has a ”dog tag” from one of the airmen. This identification tag belongs to the airman Jack White. My grandfather gets hold of the identification tag, and together with a photo of the memorial cross he sends it back to Jack White’s mother Mrs. White in England with whom he has contact.Mrs. White in return sends information on the names of the other victims and the addresses of the surviving relatives. The metal plate of the memorial cross is now engraved with the names, and the photographer Joergensen in Braedstrup takes photos of the cross and sends them to all the surviving relatives of the crew. Throughout the years my grandfather has written and received many letters from the s urviving relatives. Also some of the surviving relatives, both from England and from Canada, have made many visits here.The visit that made the greatest impression, and a visit I remember well, was in June 1976 when Mrs. White and her daughter Marian, the mother and the sister of Jack White visited my grand parents. The mother, Mrs. White was 82 years old, and her last wish was to see her son’s grave. Throughout 30 years, she had in the letters to my grandfather, expressed a wish to see the last resting place of her son. It was very emotional to see the 82 year old Mrs. White pause by her son’s grave. This visit made a strong impact of my grandfather. The visit also made a strong impact on Mrs. White and her daughter, Marion. At the request of Mrs. White and her daughter, my grandfather receives a RAF coat of arms as a thank you for his work with the memorial cross. Today this coat of arms, received by him in 1976, is hanging in my home in my best room.
Postscript My grandfather was not a member of the resistance or in any way active in the war. His war effort was to contact the surviving relatives of the crew. Finally I will quote him for saying as follows (translated into English): ”We, having been most closely, will never forget it. They spent their lives so that we could live in a free country” My grandfather is no longer alive, but we are still in contact
with two families of the airmen. The one is Jack White’s family who
every year since 1946 have sent money for a Christmas wreath to be
placed at the memorial cross. Aastrupgaard the 27th August 2008 Anders Lund
See more around Lancaster LM694 - a part of the website Allied Airmen 1939-45 DK
Sources: Police report, Horsens 27. august 1944 Gunnar Viby Mogensen ”Skidthoegen” by Henry Pedersen “Natbomber” by Andreas Moldt Battle Reports and Operations Record Book Various press cuttings Local witnesses to the crash http://www.bomber-command.info/sitemap.htm http://lostbombers.co.uk/bomber.php?id=2978 |
