During our recent holiday in the Vosges, we photographed this monument to a downed Lancaster. The aircraft, with a Canadian crew, came down at Hohrodberg, near Munster in January, 1945. Perhaps someone has some details about this aircraft and the mission during which it was lost.
I believe (but haven’t verified) that the aircrew are interred at a Commonwealth War Graves site in the municipal cemetary at Munster.
The monument includes some aircraft components. I thought they might be part of the tailwheel assembly, but you folks would probably know for certain.
Bob
By: ian_st - 11th June 2011 at 21:39
Here is the entry on “Lost bombers”
NN766 – This aircraft was one of 100 Lancaster Mk.1s ordered from Austin Motors (Longbridge) and delivered from Mar44 to Feb45 with Merlin 24 engines except for the last ten (NN807-NN816) with Merlin 22 engines. NN766 was delivered to 103 Sqdn 11Dec44. No info. on operational history. NN766 was one of two 103 Sqdn lancasters lost on this operation. See: NF999. Airborne 1823 7Jan45 from Elsham wolds. Outbound, crashed into high ground near Hohrodberg (Haut-Rhin), 4 km N from the small town of Munster. Initially, the crew were buried by local nuns about 25 metres from the impact site, but they have been subsequently re- interred in the communal cemetery at Munster. a memorial, however, has been placed at the crash site. F/O Lougheed was the son of Dr. M.S.Lougheed of Winnipeg. P/O W.J.McArthur RCAF KIA Sgt R.P.Candy KIA F/O R.J.Lougheed RCAF KIA F/S M.greenstein RCAF KIA WO2 M.H.Horne RCAF KIA F/S D.J.Mcaulay RCAF KIA F/S D.F.Campbell RCAF KIA “
By: JT442 - 11th June 2011 at 13:37
Undercarriage components and what looks like a piece of the spar boom.
The centre item is the bottom of one of the legs where the axle attaches. You can see the tie-down point.
The item on the left looks like the knuckle joint for the drag brace. I’d guess that this is the upper of the two main pieces of the drag brace
http://data3.primeportal.net/hangar/dave_kitchel/lancaster/images/lancaster_013_of_106.jpg
partially hidden by the mass of the downlock mechanism on the right hand side of the picture. The tie-down point can be seen on the bottom left also. The mainwheel is different because this is an airworthy aircraft – neither PA474 or the Canadian one use wartime pattern wheels.
The Spar boom piece could be lower rear spar, for which the joint (visible on your photo) is immediately behind the undercarriage bay. Here it is in situe (right hand side). The black strut on the left is the outboard drag brace for the stbd undercarriage
By: Black Shoe - 11th June 2011 at 13:33
Here is an additional photo.
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June 11, 2011 at 1:27 pm