Just on the Australian ABC radio news, and here on ABC’s website.
Remains of WWII airmen buried in Germany
Four Australian airmen have been buried with full military honours in Germany’s Hanover War Cemetery, more than 60 years after their Lancaster bomber was shot down.The men died when their aircraft went down during a bombing raid on the German town of Geissen in December 1944.
The remains of three aviators lay undiscovered at the site until last year, when historians searched it.
The discovery also meant that a set of unidentified remains of another crewman who had been found and buried soon after the crash could finally be named.
Relatives of three of the four men travelled to Germany to bid a final goodbye.
By: Kansan - 15th September 2005 at 22:21
Sobering/spooky thought
Have you noticed that this is an aircraft from the same raid as the one mentioned in the thread (by Pathfinder) about .50 ammunition on RAF bombers?
http://forum.keypublishing.co.uk/showthread.php?t=47802
Also – and here’s a spooky / sobering thing. If you look at a map of Germany and see where Torgau is – carry on Southwest and just to the south of Gotha is the little town of Gossel where the unidentified wreck with the .50 ammuniton is. I assume they were both on their way back when they were shot down.
And there were how many others missing from that raid alone?
I just checked again and the answer is 72 – 44 Lancasters and 28 Halifaxes. 504 blokes (assuming 7 in the crew).
It’s suddenly gone very quiet in my room.
Rob / Kansan
By: allan125 - 15th September 2005 at 18:34
Here is another Bomber crew who have been traced
The crew of an RAF Halifax bomber shot down in 1944 will be buried with full military honours in Berlin on 1 September 2005, sixty-one years after they disappeared.
The remains of the crew were found at Torgau, south of Berlin, two years ago amid the wreckage of their aircraft – Halifax LW430. The aircraft was one of 72 shot down during a 1000-bomber raid on the German capital on 24 March 1944.
Halifax LW 430 took off from RAF Leconfield, North Yorkshire at 1906 hrs. It was to prove the second worst night of losses Bomber Command suffered during the war. Unexpected high winds blew the formation far off course and night fighters, along with heavy ground fire, took their toll. LW430 crashed in flames in a field at Torgau, some two hours drive south of Berlin.
The aircraft and its crew lay undisturbed until September 2003 because excavation of World War II crashed aircraft was effectively prohibited during the Cold War. Then a German team from the “Arbeitsgruppe Vermisstenforschung” (Missing Persons Research Group) discovered the wreckage during a dig on 27 September 2003.
They recovered the remains of at least five of the crew although it has not proved possible to identify them individually. Local people then revealed that two of the airmen had been buried at Annaburgh Churchyard nearby.
The likely site was exhumed in May 2005 but nothing was found. The MOD believe it probable that two of the crew are buried somewhere in the cemetery. Sue Raftree, casework officer with the RAF Casualty Section said:
“A number of bodies are discovered every year, often as a result of building excavations. Often identifying the air crew is very difficult. Although RAF members were given tags, they were made of plastic and were often burned or thrown off. In this case it was quite easy because we could identify exactly which aircraft it was.”
Relatives of the seven aircrew have been traced and many will attend the funeral service in St George’s Church, Berlin, and at the graveside in Berlin Military Cemetery on the morning of Thursday, September 1 2005. The previous afternoon they will attend the unveiling of a plaque at the crash site by the man who led the recovery operation, Herr Jens Bechler.
The crew of LW 430 were Pilot Officer William Collins McLeod, the pilot (from Glasgow); Sgt Norman Leslie Cooper, navigator (Taunton); Sgt Sidney William Wheeler, air bomber (Bristol/Swindon); Sgt John Charles Burdett, wireless operator/air gunner (Basildon); Sgt Angus Phillip Webb, flight engineer (Whitstable); Sgt Jack Northwood Boston, air gunner (Bideford, Devon); Sgt Ronald Archibald George Turner, rear gunner (Monks Risborough, Bucks).
By: STORMBIRD262 - 15th September 2005 at 01:48
Seen it on last night’s new JDK.
A very moving service it was too.
Great that the boy’s are no longer MIA, and have been finally laid to rest.
With the HUGE list, of those never found after WW1 and WW2, It has alway amazed me just how many went POOF! and just dissapeared, only a few number’s left on a list, and in the memory’s of their rely’s.
WAR…. What is it good for…….
By: Ron Cuskelly - 15th September 2005 at 01:33
I always find such events deeply moving. It fills me with admiration that 60 years after the event there are still dedicated individuals who do what they do so very well.
By: Jim C - 14th September 2005 at 19:19
In a week where the cricket has made such big news,isn’t it sad that a story like this has been unheard?
Does anyone have any more details such as names,squadron,etc.?
Whoever these brave Aussies were,we salute them,and may they rest in peace.
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September 14, 2005 at 2:08 am