The pilot’s seat and a shattered propeller blade root, all that remains of this Halifax which crash landed at Landvetter, south of Gothenburg, Sweden, on the night of 13 January 1945 are part of a new display in the Aeroseum at Gothenburg. The display was officially opened this evening, 13th January 2009, 64 years to the day after the crash, by the British Honorary Consul to Gothenburg.
This 58 Sqn aircraft of RAF Coastal Command had taken off from Stornoway at 14:45 with the task of patrolling the Skagerrak and Kattegatt between Denmark and Sweden, and also to attack any German shipping it might find.
By 19:40 the aircraft was about 30 km north west of Gothenburg where it was shot at by anti-aircraft fire from shipping. A fire broke out on board and one of the four Rolls-Royce Merlin engines stopped. The pilot dived down and tried to evade the flak at a low height. The aircraft could not maintain height and hit the water before bouncing back up, after the H2S radar and tailwheel were torn off and the elevators were damaged. After once again being hit by flak another fire started on boardand several of the instruments stopped working. Another engine was damaged and the aircraft was in such a bad state that the pilot decided to try to land at the nearest Swedish airfield, Torslanda near Gothenburg, but failed to find it. He then told the crew to bail out, which six of them did, but the flight engineer stayed on board.
The aircraft crash landed at Skällared near Landvetter and ended up lying across a stream in a ditch, where it broke up. The pilot only suffered minor injuries but the flight engineer, Dennis Boweren, was trapped under water and drowned. He was the only fatality, and left his wife and her 3 day old baby.
The remaining 7 crew members were soon back in Britain. Dennis Boweren was buried with full military honours in Landvetter churchyard, but his remains were later moved to Kviberg churchyard in Gothenburg.
By: Cees Broere - 18th January 2009 at 11:52
Hi PL
No, unfortunately i didn’t, could you please try again?
broere01 AT ziggo.nl
Cheers
Cees
By: Papa Lima - 17th January 2009 at 14:38
Cees, did you get my dimensioned photos via E-mail?
PL
By: Cees Broere - 17th January 2009 at 13:53
Thanks for the pics Daniel,
Looks to be a very fine display.
Cheers
Cees
By: daniel-k - 17th January 2009 at 13:45
Some photos from the new display “in the rock”, Aeroseum in Gothenburg.
The display is set in one of the ammunition caves inside the underground hangar.
Compass box etc.
From the left, Aeroseum chairman Roger Eliasson, display producer Anna Jolfors, British Honorary Consul Lars Wiklund, display producer Ann Pettersson
Crash site photo.
Part of a propeller and the collapsible seat (the boxes are not from JP329…)
Photo of the remaining crew dining, and the funeral of D. Boweren.
/Daniel K
By: Cees Broere - 16th January 2009 at 07:38
Thanks Papa,
Will do that when I get home.
Cheers
Cees
By: Papa Lima - 15th January 2009 at 23:09
Please check your PMs Cees, the pictures are now ready for you!
By: Cees Broere - 14th January 2009 at 18:11
Hi Papa,
Yes, that would be great, you can also wrap the seat up and send it to me:cool::eek: Oops sorry where are my manners;)
Seriously, If I can help with information just let me know.
Pics and measurements will be a great help.
Cheers
Cees
By: Papa Lima - 14th January 2009 at 16:40
Hello Cees, thanks for that information on the seat, I will have to get the Aeroseum to correct the display captions now! The tailwheel was trawled up by a fishing boat and has now unfortunately been “lost”. Rumour has it that it was swapped for something by the Swede who found it to a British person, so it may be somewhere in the UK now. We would love to have it back!
Do you want me to take detailed photos with a ruler in each picture so you can obtain the dimensions etc?
By: Cees Broere - 14th January 2009 at 09:47
Hi Cees!
Ask and ye shall receive!
See here: http://www.planesandchoppers.com/picture/number7566.asp
(I used up my photo quota on this site long ago! The above site has over 600 of my aircraft photos on it, by the way, most with extensive captions.)
Hi Dad:D
Thanks for the pic, I would kill to have that seat in my cockpit project.
By the way,it’s not the pilot’s seat but the collapsible seat for the Second Pilot (if in use as second dickey) or flight engineer. I do have one bad drawing for it (heavy sigh)
Cheers
Cees
By: Cees Broere - 14th January 2009 at 09:45
Cees
Did my French friend contact you about the Halifax bits?
Hi Andy,
Yes, we talked about for an hour but he cannot help with cockpit parts unfortunately.
Cheers
Cees
By: Papa Lima - 14th January 2009 at 09:07
Hi Cees!
Ask and ye shall receive!
See here: http://www.planesandchoppers.com/picture/number7566.asp
(I used up my photo quota on this site long ago! The above site has over 600 of my aircraft photos on it, by the way, most with extensive captions.)
By: Arabella-Cox - 14th January 2009 at 08:15
Cees
Did my French friend contact you about the Halifax bits?
By: Cees Broere - 14th January 2009 at 07:45
Any pics of the seat or the display?
You know I am curious about this;)
Cheers
Cees
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January 13, 2009 at 9:12 pm