Wellington LN451 432.Sqn 8./9. October 1943
 

Hallo,

looking for all Infos about the loss of Wellington LN 451 from 432. Sqn RCAF Skipton-on-Swale. Bomber took Part of Night Raid on Hannover on 8. / 9. October 1943. All five Crewmember died in the crash.
All kind of Informations are welcome.

Greetings
Streak98

Re: Wellington LN451 432.Sqn 8./9. October 1943
 

In W.R. Chorley's "Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1943" it has 432 Sqn Wellington X LN451 QO-W Op. Hannover Take off 22:54 Skipton-on-Swale. All are buried in Hannover War Cemetery. There is nothing listed as to what caused the loss.

Re: Wellington LN451 432.Sqn 8./9. October 1943
 

My 2 cents worth. This was the last Bomber Command Wellington operation over Germany; since the time of loss is not known this may (or may not) be the last Wellington lost over Germany.

Re: Wellington LN451 432.Sqn 8./9. October 1943
 

Hello All,
I have the ORB's for this squadron and these Wellingtons and looks like an error.
Last flight for LN-451 7/8 Oct and returned to base. Gardening - Rosemary. Pilot is VonLaufer. Coded QO-W.
Last flight 8/9 Oct and failed to return LN-457, Target Hanover, Pilot is D.C. Baker. Again coded W.

I have no problem with forwarding the ORB's, send me a pm with email address.

Alan

Re: Wellington LN451 432.Sqn 8./9. October 1943
 

Hi Dirk,

LN451 crashed in front of the church at Holtensen, removing portion of the roof of this building. The a/c did not explode on impact and therefore it was thought that the bomb load had been discharged prior to the crash.

The bodies of 5 were recovered from the wreckage and buried in the Village cemetery Holtensen.

regards

Stefan Ilsemann

Re: Wellington LN451 432.Sqn 8./9. October 1943
 

Dear Bill,


the last Wellington lost over Germany might have been NC539 of 69 Sqdn. crashing at Oeschebüttel on April 27 1945.

Cheers

Stefan

Re: Wellington LN451 432.Sqn 8./9. October 1943
 

Thanks Stefan. I meant to say "last Bomber Command Wellington lost over Germany". 69 Squadron was 2 TAF.

Re: Wellington LN451 432.Sqn 8./9. October 1943
 

Re: Wellington LN451 432.Sqn 8./9. October 1943
 

Hallo,

Thank`s anybody for helping !!!

regards

streak98

Re: Wellington LN451 432.Sqn 8./9. October 1943
 

Appears that ORB's are not a reliable source of information. Maybe the W/C wrote typo's and got his Wellington S/N's mixed up.
ORB's indicates following.
Failed to Return LN457, 8th/9th Oct 1943, Target Hanover, Pilot is D.C. Baker. 5 Killed.
LN451 7/8 Oct 1943. Gardening - Rosemary. Pilot is VonLaufer, a/c returned - did not fly again.