Yes, I got the same when I enquired about any archive that might be available for perusal.

Being a child at the time, I wasn’t interested in the company, it was only when adulthood and my interest in vintage aviation grew that I wanted to delve deeper into the whole area.

Even my father’s papers are very reticent about the actual workings of the company abroad, they consist mostly of the usual pension, insurance, and other emploer/employee stuff. Even I have more documents about my employers so far than he did!

And my lovingly collated photo collection of my life (and the planes) in Sudan and Nigeria mysteriously failed to survive the journey home by sea along with the rest of our stuff.

Once again I rue not persuading him to change his mind about not putting his life story down on tape/minidisc or paper. Too late now.

Right, a little digging and from the Bomber Command losses 1941 by WR Chorley we get;

November 8/1941
49 Squadron Hampden I P1206 EA-K
Op: Intruder

Took off 1714 Scampton on an intruder sortie in the Bocholt area. Shot down by a night fighter and crashed at 2107 into the Ijsselmeer. Both pilots are buried in Bergen general cemetery: their crew have no known graves.

W/O C A Saunders DFM +
Sgt. J M D’Arcy +
Sgt. S G Mullenger +
Sgt. J E Kehoe +

MULLENGER, STANLEY GORDON
Initials: S G
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sergeant
Regiment: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Unit Text: 49 Sqdn.
Date of Death: 08/11/1941
Service No: 1251152
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 49.
Cemetery: RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL

SAUNDERS, CHRISTOPHER ARTHUR
Initials: C A
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Warrant Officer (Pilot)
Regiment: Royal Air Force
Unit Text: 49 Sqdn.
Age: 28
Date of Death: 08/11/1941
Service No: 562617
Awards: DFM
Additional information: Son of Henry Robert and Gertrude Saunders; husband of Frances Evelyn Saunders, of Morden, Surrey.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Plot 1. Row E. Grave 27.
Cemetery: BERGEN GENERAL CEMETERY

D’ARCY, JAMES MARCUS
Initials: J M
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sergeant (Pilot)
Regiment: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Unit Text: 49 Sqdn.
Age: 26
Date of Death: 08/11/1941
Service No: 1288762
Additional information: Son of M. H. and Maude D’Arcy, of Halkyn, Flintshire.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Plot 1. Row E. Grave 28.
Cemetery: BERGEN GENERAL CEMETERY

KEHOE, JOHN EDWARD
Initials: J E
Nationality: United Kingdom
Rank: Sergeant
Regiment: Royal Air Force
Unit Text: 49 Sqdn.
Age: 20
Date of Death: 08/11/1941
Service No: 551389
Additional information: Son of Edward and Ellen Kehoe, of New Ross, Co. Wexford, Republic of Ireland.
Casualty Type: Commonwealth War Dead
Grave/Memorial Reference: Panel 46.
Cemetery: RUNNYMEDE MEMORIAL

Although the family are adamant that they were shown a wooden cross marking the spot where the plane crashed and that that is on the land of a Mr.Schilder and not in a river, an alternative version has it sinking deep into marshy ground.

Just found that out!

He is buried, according to the family friend I’ve just spoken to, with Sgt. Stanley Mullenger, RAFVR, who is on the CWGC records as being commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.

Sgt.Keogh was 19 and died, indeed in a Hampden, on the 8th of November ’41.

However, the two men are said to be buried beside each other in the cemetary in Berkhout with a simpel cross marking the grave. But if, as you say, the men are still in the remains of their aircraft, that’s anothe rthing entirely.