Beck Row (St Johns) Cemetery

[dunc8543]

Hi all,

I visited the above war grave plot and noticed that there a number of RAF airmen buried there as unknown and who died on the same date 09/11/1943.

Can anyone help out with details as to how they died and also if the date is known , why they are buried as unknown?.

Thanks Duncan

[Leendert]

Duncan,

Perhaps related to an accident at nearby RAF Mildenhall?

Regards,

Leendert

[BC]

They are all crewmen from 90 Sqn Stirling III LK380 which crashed at Shippea Hill after a collision with Hurricane KW800 of the AFDU during a fighter affiliation exercise on 9 Nov 1943.
Ian McLachlan fully researched the details of this incident and the story was included in his 1989 book Final Flights (PSL).
The details on all the RAF men buried there can be found in The Airmen of St John's - Beck Row Roll of Honour (published privately by Peter Wilson 1987).
A memorial, listing the names of the crew buried as "unknowns", and including a propeller blade from the Stirling recovered from the site in 1975, was dedicated in the Church on 6 May 1984.

[dunc8543]

Thanks very much guys for your help.