[RodM]

Regarding 75 Squadron Lancaster ME321.

1. Crashed at map grid square K.642528 (in an orchard near Vilt, at the rear of the farm of Mr J. Moessen. beside the road between Berg and Valkenburg). The Lancaster impacted with great force and all that was left on the surface were small fragments and a deep crater.

2. American personnel removed portions of human remains on the day following the crash, for burial. The British could find no evidence that a burial was made by the Americans at Margraten or Henri Chapelle American cemeteries.

3. Locals stated that some ramains were still at the crash site after the Americans left, although all the locals found to hand over to the British investigators were the dogtags of W/Op Sgt Clark, a small medallion, and a partly burnt photo. By the time the British investigators examined the scene of the crash, the crater left from the explosion had been filled in.

4. The British investigators visited the British Military Cemetery at Ophoven (i.e. Sittard) and viewed grave K.6 marked "3 UNKNOWN BRITISH AIRMEN". The Cemetery Registery, compiled by the Red Cross, recorded the date of death or date of burial as "1.1.45." (the British found the records to be ambiguous over date of death versus date of burial). Checks were made throughout the Sittard area to establish where the remains in K.6 came from, without success. The British investigators thought the remains possibly came from the crash site of ME321, but had no proof.

5. Grave K.6 at Sittard was exhumed, but yielded no evidence to positively identify the remains. Without other evidence to prove the remains came from the crash at Vilt, the Air Ministry decided the grave was to remain as "3 Unknown airmen."

6. A decision was made by the Air Ministry not to exhume the crash site crater at Vilt to look for further human remains, because the Americans had used the large crash site crater as a refuse dump, later filling it with 14 truck-loads of earth, before smoothing out the ground. The Air Ministry decided that digging operations would be useless.

7. The Lancaster was identified by serial numbers on control surface fragments found on the ground by the Americans (the American unit that initially reported the crash to RAF No. 85 Group was "4CATC"). Regarding human remains and salvage, the American signal, made on 5 January, states "(D) believed all killed - small portions wreckage. (E) still in crater. (F) not known guns A1B. No. (H) aircraft exploded on impact completely disintergrated. Engines and propellers buried in crater Cat E2 Burnt. (j) No. 2A 3 BRU Pass to Army salvage."

Cheers

Rod