Whitley_project,

The date was actually the night of 5th/6th September 1943, this is the info from BCL 1943,

9 sqn Lancaster I, R5744, WS-E, Op: Mannheim.

Sgt R A Knight, Sgt T W Bradford, Sgt G A Munro RCAF, Sgt D G Connor, Sgt C A Davis RCAF, Sgt J W Noble, Sgt R G Nelson – all killed. T/o 20.27 Bardney. Crashed at Rheingonheim on the W bank of the Rhine, some 4 km S from the centre of Ludwigshafen, where all where buried. Since the cessation of hostilities, their bodies have been exhumed and transferred to Durnbach War Cemetery.

Another 9 sqn Lanc was also lost that night, ED666, which crashed at Ludwigshafen. All the crew were killed, and are now buried at Durnbach.

R5744 had previously served with 49 sqn.

Geoff.

P/O Nathaniel ‘Nat’ Barry, a South African pilot serving with 501 sqn lost his life on the 7th October 1940. The squadron was based at Kenley, whilst his aircraft crashed at Darenth, Kent, and yet he was buried at Finghall, N Yorkshire. It turned out that a relative lived there.

I would suspect that your man was buried where he was, so that he would be close to a relative or family friend, either alive or dead.

Perhaps the local paper might have an account of the funeral which might mention the reason he’s there, or there might be a clue in any list of those who attended the funeral, ie ‘Mrs J Bloggs (sister)’ etc. What about the Parish magazine of the time? It would also be worth putting an appeal in one or more local papers to see if any current residents are aware of a local connection

Geoff

Ant,

I’m told that the Hurricane that Ray Holmes bailed out of on the 15th September 1940 is to be excavated during March (not by us I should add), and that the cost could run to £1,000,000. Ray himself doesn’t think that there’s anything much there to be found, and bearing in mind the location, he could well be right. I suppose there might be some small bits there overlooked by the wartime recovery crew, unless the road was such a priority that they just filled the hole in with the remains of the Hurricane at the bottom?

Geoff.

Snapper, I’m not the only one :p
Mentions no names 😉

Geoff

This is I, with the armoured bulkhead from a Bf109E, just after it had been recovered during one of the museum’s excavations last summer.

Geoff.