| the following was extracted from the notes conference on
flying. Its a rather long but interesting account of
airmen shot down over Holland in 1945.
<<< VMSZOO::DISK$NOTES:[NOTES$LIBRARY]FLYING.NOTE;1 >>>
-< General Aviation >-
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Note 5011.0 Recovery of Halifax LK885.(Long story!) 3 replies
JGODCL::CLEEUW 530 lines 1-MAR-1995 02:25
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As it has been a bit quiet over the last few months in these notesfiles I
thought it would be a nice change to get back some 50 years and post the story
on the recovery of a RCAF Halifax that crashed in may 1944.
I took part in this recovery doing the field work because I live in the area
and due to this I was able to fill in some blanks of the story.
I wrote the story from the info I had received from a number of people in
europe and Canada and together we were able to almost fill in all the gaps
there were at the time we started our research.
I hope you enjoy reading this as much as I did writing it.
Cees van der Leeuw
===============================================================================
A flight that covers almost 50 years.
------------------------------------
This year it is five decades ago that from a British R.A.F. base at Snaith a
Halifax Mk III LK885, callsign MH-Z took off for a mission into German
teritory.
The plane was destined not to return from its mission for over 50 years.
This story roughly tells what happened to the plane and it's crewmembers as far
as we could reconstruct it from letters, photographs, archive material and
verbal information. One has to keep in mind however that stories and details
get blurred over the years and it is very hard to tell what exactly happened in
that period.
Cees van der Leeuw
Veldhoven January 1994
Friday august 20th 1993.
The last shovel of soil is moved back into the hole where it came from. The
only evidence that something special happened on this spot in the city of
Eindhoven - located in the south of the Netherlands- is the fresh earth that
has been moved. The excavation that took place was the result of a research
that took almost two years. The story begins 50 years ago during the winter of
1943/1944 when the future crew of Halifax LK885, callsign MH-Z for "Zebra", was
formed at 24OTU (Operational Training Unit) Honeybourne, Gloustershire, England.
They spent almost three months training as a crew. From there the next station
was the 1659 HCU (Heavy Conversion Unit), Topcliffe, Yorkshire learning to
handle the Halifax III. This took six weeks and the crew finally got to Snaith,
Yorkshire becomming part of the 51 squadron based there. At that time the crew
had six members: Carroll "Carl" Lawson (pilot), Joe Hooks (bomb-aimer), Stan
Beech (rear gunner), John Noel (navigator), Bruce Fraser (mid-upper gunner) and
Ken Minifie the wireless operator. The last member of the newly formed crew was
the flight engineer, Wilf Gosnay, the only Englishman in the crew (the rest
were Canadians). Gosnay joined the rest of the crew at Snaith. The other six
would not get the time to know Wilf very well.
For the night of may 24/25th a major raid was planned on a number of European
targets and the crew of LK 885 would take part in it, having the eastern
railway yards in German city of Aachen as their target. In the morning of may
24th, the crew reported to their individual sections in order to get briefed
on the mission for that night. At 10 am John Noel was sitting in the navigators
rest room when the Navigation Leader came in and told him that operations was
on that evening. He then placed the skippers names on the board of crews that
were flying that evening. John picked up his navigation equipment and whent to
the flying-lockerroom where he met the rest of the crew. Together they went out
to inspect their plane, 'Z' for Zebra, that only had done one operation before
flown by Carl Lawson. They had confidence in the plane as it had good speed and
climbing abilities and was awfully easy on the controls.
When they climbed out the armourers were loading up the plane with the haviest
load the crew ever had (8 x 1000 lbs and 7 x 500lbs high explosive bombs).
They placed cartoons on the bombs - Carrol wrote a few comments and drew a
picture of Adolf and lastly put on "One from Orillia". They laughed and
remarked what a Queen Victoria day for Jerry. They all went back for lunch and
a nap. Afterwards they fooled around, wrote a few letters and wasted time.
Briefing was at 19:45 and the whole crew sat at one table.
The Squadron Commander gave them their target for that night, Aachen in
Germany, called the skippers' names to see if all their crews were present,
called Carroll and made a comment on Carroll's mustached of which the Commander
was a little jaleous. The Intelligence Officer, Meteorology people, Wireless,
Nav. Leaders and the Gunnery Leaders gave their usual precautions. The crew
then went to the locker room but Carroll stayed behind while John showed him
the track across the target and how they were to fly there going across the
North See. Carroll made a remark on the load they were carrying saying, "boy
I'd better hold it down until we get enough speed to take off". He then also
whent to the locker room followed by John twenty minutes later.
One hour before take-off the crew went to the aircraft to get things ready for
the flight. Carroll run up the engines, starboard-outer coughed but came along,
checked his own instruments and crossed his instruments with Wilf, the flight
engineer. John checked his Master Unit Compass with his own and with Carroll's.
Carroll then closed down. As there were still fourty minute before take-off the
crew left the aircraft again and had a smoke and some light conversation as
everyone was nervous as you know what was to come and you're running over it in
your mind and wish to get started and time goes slow. The flightcommander came
around and had a chat. When he left he fell off his motorcycle so they all
laughed and that broke the tension. Soon they heard other aircraft starting up
so they boarded "Z" for Zebra again and started her engines.
At 22:15 she rolled out to the taxi strip and five minutes later she was
airborne. In big circles over the aerodrome the plane gained height and course
was set down England at 22:30. They left England over the North sea and soon
crossed the Dutch coast. Stan and Bruce, the gunners, reported flak and enemy
fighters attacking another bomber. The target was reached at 0:55 and Joe
Hooks,the bomb-aimer in the perspex nose, operated the bombsight and gave
Carroll directions for the run up. At 0:55 Joe said, "ahoi skipper, bombs
gone!" Carrol replied "great stuff Joe, keep an eye for enemy fighters eh".
Course was altered to fly up Germany to avoid other bombers that came in and
descending from 13.000 to 10.000 feet. At 01:10 course was altered again to fly
back over the Netherlands and to descend even further to 2.000 feet. The
aircraft was gliding down when she was hit by flak (at 0:14) in the front wing
and one engine caught fire. Carroll shut down the engine and told Wilf , the
flight engineer, the feather the engine to prevent the propellor from
windmilling and thus doing more damage to the engine. He no sooner said that
when the aircraft was hit twice more. Carroll said quickly but quietly "prepare
to abandon aircraft !".
John pulled up the escape hatch in the nose and placed his parachute on. They
were going down fast ! Carroll remarked "I can't pull it out. Flak hit our
controls !" and in the same breath, "ahoy boys, you'd better go !" John sat
over the hatch and had to stow his seat first before he could open it. He
looked at Joe and jumped first because the otherwise would have blocked the way
for theothers. Joe had difficulties in finding his parachute so Ken decided, in
contradiction to procedures, to bail out before Joe because he already had his
chute on. The last words Ken heard through the intercom came from Stan, the
tailgunner, saying "can you hold it for me skipper" and then he was gone.
Joe found his chute soon thereafter and he got out aswell. Carroll was very
calm and cool when fighting the controls as John later wrote in a letter to the
Lawson family. Carroll died at the controls af the aircraft giving the others
the chance to bail out. If he hadn't fought the controls to keep the aircraft
out of the dive none of the crew would have survived it as the aircraft would
have plunged straight down. When floating down Ken saw John's chute below him
and shortly afterwards he landed in a plowed field. They burried their chutes
and moved from the area in the dark as soon as possible. It was realy dark and
they came to an area that looked like a road but turned out to be a canal.
Moving along the canal they crossed over a bridge and continued to walk as
rapidly as possible from the crash site.
When Ken floated down he noticed a large explosion and assumed it was his
aircraft so they wanted to get away from the site as fast as possible. Ken and
John ran all night and when daylight came they decided to hide in a wheat field
where they only could be spotted from the air or by dogs but it was a chance
they had to take.
They stayed in the field all day and when the evening aproached they walked
into a town as casually as possible, passing enroute some German soldiers who
did not notice them, and tried to get in contact with the Dutch underground.
As they proceded it became apparent to some of the civilians that they were
RAF, although they had destroyed all insignia. A couple of dutchmen took them
into an alley and tried to switch clothes with them, but in the process two
Dutch policemen appeared and took them to a house where they phoned the German
officials. The Germans took them to a temporary jail where they stayed until
taken to Frankfurt interrogation centre. A few days in solitary to soften them
up proved unfruitful. They were then put in a cattle car to Stalag Luft 7, at
Bankau in upper Silesia, near the Polish border. For their time of being a
P.O.W they had a P.O.W. number: 92 for John and 90 for Ken. When they were two
months in Prison camp Bruce came in and they got some hope that the rest of
the crew would have survived aswell. (Bruce ended up as P.O.W. number 358).
Bruce had managed to get away from the crashsite aswell and ended up in a small
town called Waalre, some 10 km south-west of the crashlocation, at the house of
the mother of Frans van Dijk. Duncan MacFayden, who had crashed during the same
night, was already at that house.
(Note: in september 1994 I met two other crew members of Duncans crew and
visited their landing zone. Their plane is still not found).
Together with two others they were transported by car to Tilburg where they
ran into a German roadblock which had been put up as a part of some field
maneuvers of a German Army Group. Since neither Bruce nor Duncan spoke Dutch
or French and both carried two sets of papers aswell as their RCAF
identification tags they were quickly separated from the others and they never
saw them again. Being handed over to a nearby Luftwaffe unit they were
transported the next day to an interrogation center at Venlo. During their stay
at Venlo, lasted for a number of days, they were taken one day, by train, to
the Gestapo Headquarters at s'Hertogenbosch. After been there 10 - 15 minutes
they were taken back to Venlo. Again no questions were asked. Next stop on
their journey would be the main interrogation center at Frankfurt were they
were separated.
In january 1945 the Russians advanced rapidly and the Germans marched the
P.O.W. of Stalag Luft 7 to Potsdam , near Berlin. They were on the road for a
couple of months in the middle of winter, marching nearly everyday. It was not
the most pleasant journey but sleeping in barns and eating potatoes they
managed to survive although a number did not. In April 1945 they were
"liberated" by the Russians but they did not let them go to the American lines
for at least a month, even if the American trucks were outside the fence ready
to take them back ! One day they got so fed up with this that they jumped the
fence and drove to the Elbe river. They had some difficulty getting a boat, all
bridges were gone, to take them to the otherside of the river. They finally
made it and reached "American" soil. A few days later they were flown back to
England and from there to Canada.
Joe Hooks finally found his chute and bailed out aswell. One way or the other
he lost his highboots, containing a flashlight and a knife. He hid his
parachute and Mae West in the dark, bleeding badly from his mouth. Joe thought
he was hit by part of the plane as pieces of it were falling all around him.
When in england crews were told to walk away from towns if they had to bail out
in enemy territory and Joe started to walk north in the direction of a wooden
area were he hid until dawn. In the morning he met a man that spoke english and
asked Joe if he wanted to surrender but Joe replied that he had the intention
to get back to England. Joe was told to hide again in the wood for the day and
the next night. From here the story is not clear. Joe's report tells that this
man returned the next day with food and a coat and Joe was brought across a
canal to another wood. The man arranged for a motorcycle but as it broke down
he guided Joe along a canal to the sixth bridge into the small town of Oirschot
where two men met him. These two men were Mr.Giel Blankers and Mr.Frans van
Emst.
They told me that Joe was picked up between the villages of Best and Son.
(Geographically seen the three villages are on one line from west to east :
Oirschot, Best and Son).
But lets go back to the morning of may 26th. The message that an allied airman
was hiding in the woods near Best reached Giel Blankers around noon. The
messanger told Giel that this man could be picked up on the bridge across the
"Wilhelmina" canal in Son. Giel asked him if he was out of his mind because
this was far to dangerous for the airman but esspecially for the people of the
dutch underground movement. (If the airman was cought he would end up in a
P.O.W. camp but the underground people would be shot). Giel told the messanger
to find out if the man that gave him the message could be trusted. The reply
was that he did not have the time to investigate this. Giel's reply was very
short: "Then forget it !".
Giel later passed a message that they would pick up this airman the next day at
ten o'clock at the location he was hiding (in a small forrest between Son and
Best). The area Joe was hiding in was directly between a number af fake German
aerodromes and the Eindhoven Aerodrome so Germans were present in larger
numbers then usual).
Giel and Frans cycled the next day, with one extra bike for Joe, to Joe's
hiding place. From Joe's report this must have been on a friday morning).
At first they could not find Joe but when Frans started to wistle "It's a long
way to Tipperary" they finally found Joe who was cold and frightened. The three
of them then headed on the north side of the "Wilhelmina" canal towards
Oirschot. In the village Joe gave his companions a fright by turning left,
towards the market place, instead of right ! Giel managed toget Joe back very
fast and they continued their dangerous trip to Frans's home in Oirschot.
Joe's mouth needed medical treatment so the same evening, around 10 o'clock,
Frans and Joe cycled to an MD Dr.Hagemeijer. Joe would stay with Dr.Hagemeier
until White Monday. Frans was also hiding another Canadian, Jim Frame, that was
shot down the same day as Joe. Jim was one of the crewmembers of a Lancaster
III ND 526 "M" flown by Sq/Ldr Gordon Bennett who was killed in the crash.
On White monday Frans van Emst was called by Anton Vingerhoeds who told him
that the transport of the two men was delayed for a few hours.
Around four o'clock in the afternoon of the same day, four men (Frans, Joe, Jim
and Charles Geerlings) left Oirschot on bike beginning their dagerous trip to a
village called Veldhoven. For Joe and Jim two extra bikes were arranged.
In those days the bike was the main transport vehicle. Normally this trip would
take an hour but as the shortest route was going via the aerodrome area it was
far to dangerous to use it for this special transport. But just as they were
going down the mainstreet of Oirschot they came across a German soldier. Joe
and Jim thought that everyone would recognise them for what they were, inspite
of their new suits, but they passed the soldier without any problems.
So it seemed that, when not called upon to talk, they could pass as Dutchmen.
A detour was made via the villages of Oostelbeers, Vessem, Wintelre and Oerle
before Veldhoven was reached. In Oerle Near a pub called "De Kers (the Cherrie
- it still exists today) they were accompanied by Tjeu Klein. At a safe
distance they followed Tjeu to the house of the Schats's family in the centre
of Veldhoven.
Frans and Charles then returned to Oirschot and the two bikes used by Jim and
Joe were picked up the next day.
Note:From here on the story could not be picked up again because the people
involved could not betraced or were no longer alive so we only have the story
of Jim Frame.
From the Schats's residence a dutch policeman (Mr Boekhoud ?) took Joe and Jim,
by car, to ahide out in a forest in a thinly settled area. The car stopped near
a a large grove of pines that were flanking the raod. Carrying blankets and a
box of food they were crawling on handsa and knees through the woods so they
would leave as less as possible traces of their presence. After a hundred yards
crawling through the woods they relaxed and stood on their feet again. Progress
was much faster on their feet and half a mile furhter they came to a small
clearing. Their guide preceded them and was clearing some of the pine needles
from the ground , uncovering a trapdoor. Raising it they looked into what would
be their home for the next 8 days: a man made cave.
The time passed fairly quickly. An old men was taking care of the two and
brought them cold tea every moring and together with the bread, brown sugar
and sausage from their food box suplied their meals. It rained almost every day
and their refuge was far from waterproof. A week underground and the two looked
like real cavemen needing a shave badly but when trying to explain this to the
old man he did not understand what they wanted. They however understood that
the policemen would come back the next day. Next morning the old man came back
ealrly, with hot tea and some cakes for the two. His first words were:
"invasie!...invasie!..invasie come!" This was june 6th 1944. They fired a lot
of questions to the old man but he could not answer one of them leaving the
boys very exited.
The polieman came shortly before noon and was able to answer some of their
questions. They also had their badly wanted shave. He also told them he had
found another place for them where they could stay for about two weeks before
they would be put on the so called pilotline towards Belgium.
But faith decided it would not happen that way: a part of the pilots line was
out of action because the people that operated it were captured by the Germans.
At about ten o'clock that evening they met Andr� Schats at the fork of a road.
(from the caption on Andr�'s photograph: "In the evening of june 6th, 1944 I
have said to you, 'Follow me' and to the day of the liberation you have
followed me". It must have been june 6th 1944 when the two were transferred to
Zeelst.) The policeman had told them to follow the man that was waiting at the
fork of the road and so they did, the policeman took the other road and they
followed Andr�
When they came into the vilage of Zeelst, Andr� approached a house from the
rear (this house still exists today) and it's backdoor was open: in it stood
Mrs. Willy Tendijck welcoming them to her house. They were moved in to the
livingroom where they met Greetje Bazelmans ("Maggie" as the two would call
her). The five of them then sat down and had supper. This was the beginning of
their three and a half months period hiding for the Germans. They had to get up
at five in the morning to go up to the attick taking with them enough food for
the rest of the day. That the situation was realy dangerous aswell for the two
airman as their helpers may become clear from the area they were in: they could
directly look at the Eindhoven aerodrome seeing the German planes take off and
landing. The next building to the west of their hiding place was (and still is)
a pubb, visited by German soldiers. Their safe house was in the main street of
Zeelst. So the smallest mistake could have had serious consequences for all
involved.
A few days after the arrived in Zeelst, Maggie called them down and told them
that the Gestapo was doing a house to house search to see what they could find.
Willy had gone outside to see what was going on and when she returned she told
the boys to go out through the garden into the narrow street behind, over the
hedge and to the wheatfield beyond. This is what they did but the hedge was
seven feet high and to thick to crawl through. The solution to this problem was
quit simple: Maggie and another woman (Saar Pekelharing) grabbed the boys by
their legs and just threw them over the hedge. The situation was quit funny but
a few shots in the streets brought back reality very fast. Around eleven that
night the stayed in the field until Andr� came back to get the boys.
He threw an old coat over the hedge holding it on his side and told them to
climb over the hedge.
When they got back to the house they heard that the Germans had held one of
their manhunts for forced labour. A few doors from the safehouse they found a
man and handcuffed him and marched him through the door. The Dutchmen waited
until the last German behind him was in the door, knocked the gun from his hand
and ran off down the street. The two other soldiers shot at him but he got away
safe.
Joe and Jim also met Johan and Saar Pekelharing and because both could speak
english then had some more people to talk with. Johan brought the two almost
everyday a written report of the day's news. They also met Jan Tendyck, Willy's
husband, who was wanted by the Gestapo for being an officer in the Dutch army.
Jan spent most of his time away from home, hiding. Joe and Jim were already
hiding for nine days in Jan and Willy's home before Jan learned about it.
Willy was afraid Jan would want the boys to move out but the only comment Jan
gave was that he wished he had the nerve to do more himself (Jan was not a
member of the underground). He cautioned the boys against making any noise and
whent about his business.
Andr� visited them almost every evening and it seemed he always had to do
something. He had a butchershop in Veldhoven (the house where he used to live
also still exists). So Andr� could "organise" some of the food the two needed.
Because Maggies father owned a sigar factory she was able the arrange for items
normally hard to find by trading them for sigars. Andr� also managed to get the
boys a radio (it was so small it could have fitted into a pocket) and they soon
learned how to get the news and pick up some of the American stations. With
maps of France, Belgium and Netherland they were able to follow the progress of
the allied forces so they could now tell their Dutch friends of it.
As on the food situation: the local people had a hard time to get the food they
neded as almost everyting was on ration cards. Most of the food locally
produced was confiscated by the Germans as a supply to their military forces so
little was left for civilians. The local people gradualy got "used" to a food
supply that became less and less. Then there were two allied airman that came
out of the blue sky and were not used to the limited rations.
The resistance people did what they could but, as it later turned out, Joe ate
as little as he could because it seemed he was aware of the food situation and
did not want to eat the foodrations of the civilians. Maggie told that the boys
had enough to eat, seen through her eyes and I suppose she is right but these
were two young man that were not used to these limited rations.
The boys stayed in Zeelst untils the end of september 1944. After sept. 17th
first the Scottisch and later the Canadians arrived in the Zeelst.
Willy stopped a jeep and told the soldiers of the two men hiding in her house.
The two men were told to stay in the house and around sept 21st then were
brought, by civilian car, and two soldiers to the local aerodrome called
"Welschap". There they found men at work cleaning up the mess but none of them
could give them any information. Finally they managed to find the C.O of the
place and after they answered all kind of questions to the C.O., to satisfy him
as to their identities, he told them to stay close to a small airplane. The
boys had seen this airplane landing at the field earlier that day . This plane
would leave for Brussels but the two had to talk their way into the plane to
get a ride. They got their ride and a good look over the country over which the
battle front had lately moved: wrecks of all kind were strewn over the full
distance. At their arrival in Brussels they had to prove their identity again
but they had little or no papers to prove who they were. The only thing was
Joe's watch having his name and number on the back of it.
Until the next day they were given a guard as a precaution when they were
interrogated again. They were told to hunt a ride on a transport plane for
England. They were lucky and with seveteen other chaps they arrived in England,
on sept. 24th 1944, exactly four months after their departure. Joe ended up in
a hospital for malnutrition. Joe's nerves were very bad when he returned.
He feared not for himself but for the Dutch family who would have been shot
had he been found with them.
The story continous, some 48 years later, in may 1992. During that period I
got a request from a friend of mine (Mr. Ger Boogmans from Amsterdam) to look
into the case of a plane that apparently had been crashed near Acht in thew
south of the Netherlands. We already had heard rumours for several years of
such a crash but could not get any confirmantion of it. Luck was on our side:
in that same period there was an article in a local newspaper about a lady that
was taking care of the grave of an alied airman called Wilf Gosnay. Also Ger
received a report on a Halifax that had crashed on may 25th 1944 . One of the
names in this report was Wilf Gosnay !
So we had a date and the names of the crewmembers aswell as the type and
registration of the plane: A Halifax Mk III LK885 MH-Z from 51 squadron at
Snaith, UK. Now we could start our investigations: Ger was going to do the
archive work in British archives and I would do the local search in Eindhoven
and it's surrounding area's. The archives in Eindhoven did not bring us
anything new simple because there was nothing there on may 25th 1944, no
police reports nor any reports of the "Lucht beschermings dienst" (Air Raid
Precaution Department). Then luck was on our side again: Ger received a letter
from Canada and it was a request to look into the case of a lost Canadian
airman. The request came from friends of Bruce Lawson - the brother of
Caroll Lawson. In the meantime we also got in contact with Michael Leblanc
from Acton , Ontario and he already had gathered a lot of information on this
crash. From one of his letters I got some of the names from the people related
to this story and was able to find Mr.Frans van Emst and Mrs. Margaretha
("Maggie") Bazelmans. From them we got a lot more details on what happened
between may 25th and sept 24th 1944. All these little bits of information led
us to a man in Eindhoven and he gave us the possible location of the crash.
When inquiring in the area around it we got in contact with Mr. Theo van Acht,
the farmer that worked the land, and he confirmed that he had found several
pieces of material that could have been from an aircraft. On one rainy sunday
in mid 1992 we did a search on the site and what we found convinced us that
this was a crash site. We found some bundles of small aluminium stripes (the so
called "window" used by the allied air forces to the jam the German radar) , a
gyro wheel from one of the flight instruments and a fuel indicator of the
number three tank (188 Gallons). Some smaller pieces of jute, still smelling
like jute does, concluded our findings. (Note : we had the permission of the
owners of the land to conduct our investigation).
Now we where certain there were remains of an allied World War II bomber in the
earth beneath us. During our investigations we were in close contact with
Captain John van de Berg, head of the Royal Netherlands Air Force Recovery
Team, the only group of people authorisied to do the recovery of WWII wrecks.
(Civilian groups are not allowed to do recovery works although this is still
happening today, but as the local authorities do not know how to handle such
situatiuons these groups often get away with it with all consequeces of these
actions). We were in close contsct with him to keep him informed about our day
to day progress. As we were pretty sure of our findings I wrote a letter to the
mayor of the city of Eindhoven telling him about our findings and requesting
him to hand in an official request to the RNLAF recovery team to do a
pre-investigation. It took almost three months before I got a reply to my
request and that was because some mayor construction work had to be done at the
crash site. So we were just on time with the request. The RNLAF group got their
request from the Mayor and the outcome was positive: larger metal parts had
been identified deeper in the soil and together with the information we had
gathered it seemed almost certain that there was wreck at that spot. Some
important pieces of evidence was found : a watch of the type that was used by
allied airmen in that time - with a little imagination the time of impact could
be read from it, even if the hands of the dial were broken off: 1.15 - and a
major part of one of the engines. Also 8 small CO2 bottles were found.
In the meantime a RAF sergeant, Neil Henshaw , provided us with some aerial
photographs of the area made a few days after the crash and this was the final
piece of information that convinced us we had a crash site located. (all
investigations so far were located some two kilometers more to the south).
But was it the crash site we were looking for? Only the recovery of the wreck
could give us that certainty.
On monday 16th of august 1993 the final episode of the story begun. The
equipment needed to do the digging is transported to the crashsite (a special
digging machine with armoured glas in it !).
On tuesday 17th the digging starts with investigating the soil that had been
removed during the pre-investigation : this is done by taking a shovel of soil
and investigating it by hand removing all metal parts from it.
This took a few hours and did not bring us any important evidence but just
smaller pieces of metal. Next step was the removing of the top layer (the first
two feet) to cleanup the area from all smaller metal particles that could
distrurb the metal detector readings. All the soil of this top layer was
investigated by hand aswell. At about two feet of depth we found traces of a
huge fire: a black layers of some 4 inches thick containing burned material
like rubber and molten aluminium. During the digging just below the top layer
a few more CO2 bottles were found. Then we had our first mayor piece of metal:
the gearbox and the spinner of one of the engines.
It was 15:30. (this gearbox is the part of the engine that is inbetween the two
rows of cylinders of the radial engine and the propellor. The propellor spinner
is the center of the propellor assembly). The propellor blades however were
broken off. The whole thing was pretty corroded and its major shaft bend.
We all were pretty exited and the second gearbox with the spinner was found
just half an hour later. So far three of these units had been found (one during
the pre-investigations) so we we were pretty sure we would find more. In the
meantime a large crowd had gathered arond the place and due to the fact that
fences were missing these people became a menace to the recovery workers. So it
was decided to cal it a day and continue when fences were placed around the
site. During the night extra police attention for the area was requested but
this could not prevent some people taking all kinds of smaller pieces with them.
But there was another positive effect of this recovery works: a lot of
attention was given to it in the press and not only from the local press and I
think this contributed in a positive way to the work we had done so far. More
people became aware of the debt we, as Dutch people, have towards all these
young man who gave their lives to liberate us from the German occupation.
From the people that came to take a look at the digging there were some who had
been in the area during that faithfull night in 1944 and it was from them that
we learner that the day after the crash the whole area was restricted for
civilians and that there had been some recovery works before !
The first job was done by the Germans as we already had seen on the aerial
photographs. A second attempt was made in 1947 and a third one in 1953 !
At that time the war in Korea was going on and the price of aluminium was high
so the Dutch government gave concessions to people to dig out all these WWII
wrecks for the metal! One of the people told us that "boxes full of ammunition"
were recovered and this information explained why we did not find any bigger
parts so far. This was a pretty big disapointment to all of us after we had
such high hopes for this recovery. On wednesday and thursday only some smaller
debris was found but there was one piece that convinced us of the fact that we
actually had found a wreck of a Halifax MK III. On one assembly found we could
read the number and the first two digits of this number told us it was the type
of plane we were looking for.
The final result of the recovery was a big disapointment and left me with the
question of what we had done wrong in our research. We had found a wreck but
still we did not know what plane it was or who were in it. Looking at all the
facts we have we are pretty sure the remains of LK885 have been found but we
will never be 100 %.
Still this story leaves us with a number of questions.
From the story of Noel, Minifie and Fraser, the Germans told them some of the
other crewmembers died in the crash but only one (Wilf Gosnay) had been found
and had been burried at the cemetary at Woensel, some 5 miles from the crash
site. However there is evidence that the Germans found a second body but we
were not able to trace what happened with it (it is not registered in any of
the Dutch grave records). It however can be possible that it has been burried
as an "airman only known to god". We checked on this aswell but could not find
such a record for the 25th of may 1944 or a few days later.
This leaves us with the third missing crewmember. We probably will never know
what happened to him. Was he found by the Germans but not accounted for or was
he found during the recovery works in the period after the war? Perhaps he was
found, but the authorities were not told about it. These are some speculations
from our side and it leaves us with a pretty bad feeling that they were not
found inspite of our efforts.
So after almost fifty years the books about the LK885 are almost closed leaving
a mystery to all of us.
================================================================================
Now, almost two years later, we still have not found any more evidence of what
happened to the missing crewmembers of LK885 inspite of our efforts.
The only thing we found were two ladies that during the period of june
1944- sept 1944 had visited Joe Hooks and Jim Frame in their hideout in Zeelst.
We still have to write down the information they can provide us with.
================================================================================
Note 5011.1 Recovery of Halifax LK885.(Long story!) 1 of 3
NEWOA::GATHERN 33 lines 2-MAR-1995 12:08
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Great story...almost like a 50's film script.
Aircraft recovery was something that I always had a yearning to do,
but the closest I came to it was joining the Duxford Aviation Society
some years ago, with the aim of helping with restoration work. But I
had no transport then and my mebership lapsed after a few years.
A few years ago I videoed a programme on UK TV called "Some of our
airmen are no longer missing".
It was made, I guess judging by their clothes, in the mid 70's and it
detailed some of the work done by the RNeth.AF aircraft recovery team.
It showed how they traced the identity of the aircraft by the serial
no's of small components they found, and then backtracking through
official records to find out what plane/squadron/base/mission, etc.
The Dutch government were draining the inland sea and it was amazing
what came to light.
It showed a B24 Liberator that had crashed, and was discovered during
the drainage work. The recovery team built a road across the water to
the fuselage so that recovery work could go ahead. They were able to
get down inside the wreck, after much of the sludge was removed, and
some of the personal items found were sent back to surviving relatives.
There was also details of a B17 Flying Fortress, Short Stirling and I
think possibly a Halifax. They even mentioned that wreckage of a
WW1 German Gotha bomber was found.
Fascinating stuff.
Dave.
There was a mention in one of today's newspapers that a Wellington that
had crashed in 1941 was being recovered in Holland .
================================================================================
Note 5011.2 Recovery of Halifax LK885.(Long story!) 2 of 3
LJSRV2::BISMUTH "Wait and think." 27 lines 5-MAR-1995 22:01
-< I'll send your note to an old Halifax skipper ... >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Cees ...
Thanks for the posting. My father flew 43 missions in Halifaxes during
WW II before taking a bullet, after which he was put on liaison service
for the Free French. I will print out your posting and send it to him
as I'm sure he'll find it interesting.
He has always been bothered that there are no suriving, intact
Halifaxes in the world. Recently he learned that there is apparently an
intact, relatively well preserved Halifax (a Mk 6) located off the
shores of Sweden. Last week he learned that a salvage operation is
being mounted and the airframe might in fact be sold to the Canadian
Warplane Heritage for restoration.
Since he worked with them on their B26 restoration, he's already been
alerted as he's probably one of the few surviving Halifax pilots living
within 40 miles or so of their restoration hangar ...
If anyone in Europe hears new of the salvage, I'd sure appreciate a
note in the file!
Robert
N6046L
================================================================================
Note 5011.3 Recovery of Halifax LK885.(Long story!) 3 of 3
JGODCL::CLEEUW 46 lines 6-MAR-1995 01:27
-< There are two Hallibags left ! >-
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Re.1:
Dave you were correct on the B24. This was in the mid 70's.The B-24
they found still had some of it's crew members on board. The officer
that was in cgarge at that time was Gerry Zwanenburg. He started as a
civilian with a grat deal of knowledge on WWII wrecks and finally ended
up as an Dutch Air Force officer doing this kind of work for a living.
The program you saw orriginally was called "And then time stopped for a
moment" (or in Dutch : "en toen stond de tijd even still").
These recovery works still go on but became a lot more difficult on jan
1st 1994: the government then decided that the towns where the wreckwas
situsted had to pay 1.5 apound per head as a part of the costs to
recover the wreck.
We , who did a lot of archive work in our spare time to make this
recovery work possible (at least for a great deal) were angry about
this.
It would mean that cities said: just forget it and that the illegal
groups could do what ever they liked (in our country only the Royal
Netherlands Air Force Recovery Team is allowed to do the actual
recovery work - no one else is even if they say so) and this will mean
that a lot of crewmembers will never be found again due to their
"work".
Over the last few years we had several of such ocassions and it makes
me feel sick if I hear about these things.
Those people do not seem to realise what we ow to those men who risk
their lives for us and lost them.
The only thing we can do now is make sure they get a decent grave
amongsts their fellow airman.
Re.:2
Well there are some surviving Halifaxes at the moment:
one in the Royal Air Force Museum at Hendon (it came from a Fjord - if
you want more details on it I have a book that has'em just let me know)
and the second one currently is being rebuiltd at the Yorkshire Air
museum (if I recall the name correct). This plane is underconstruction
at the moment and currently they are working on the nose section. The
rest of the fuselage is almost complete.
The work used to be done in Elvington (York) but I'm not 100% sure if
it still is done there at the moment.
A friend of mine is working on it and I must admit I envey him for it.
Unfortunately I live in the Netherlands otherwise I would have loved to
work on this plane aswell.
If you want more details on this aswell just drop me a mail and I'll
help you further on this.
If you find out more on the plane you're talking about I would
appreciate it so I can try to find out more about it.
Cheers - Cees
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