Luftwaffe crash 15 May 1940 near Brussels, Belgium

[pointedeflèche]

Hi Luc,

Thanks for the information.

According to the publication "Mei 1940 boven Belgie" by Cynrik De Decker and Jean Louis Roba, Do 17 P, Wnr 2419, 6M + LK was lost over Mechelen (Malines). Pilot Fw Karsten was able to jump but two airmen of pilot Karsten's crew were killed, namely Uffz Fritz Höfer and Julius Deutschle (radio).

The account regarding the Wezembeek (Wesenbeek) crash can be found at : http://www.derand.be/derand/pdf/Gemeenschapskrantdekam200409.pdf

I have knowledge of another Luftwaffe crash that occured during that same period in time near the village of Wezembeek and I'm fearing that witness accounts concerning the fate of both crews got somehow mixed up. The second crash I'm refering to happened at Sint-Stevens-Woluwe (Woluwe-Saint-Etienne). Here also a German crew member was found dead near the castle Solvay. The account regarding the Sint-Stevens-Woluwe crash is the following: A German aircraft crashed in the back yard of Mr Ludovicus Brusselaers, situated in the street named Molenstraat number 127. Ludovicus Brusselaers ran towards the plane, but was mowed down by exploding ammunition (The Molenstraat forms the border between St-Stevens-Woluwe and Kraainem (Crainem) ). I haven't got a clue wether a German fighter or bomber crashed in Brusselears back yard.

More than half a century ago the names of the Flemish villages I mentioned were in most cases spelled differently from the way they are presently and in some cases they were even rendered in their French version. I therefore added the ancient Flemish and French spellings between brackets. This is often the way the names were spelled on maps and records dating from about the WWII period.

Information regarding both crashes is most welcome,

Dirk