Information about a plane crash on March 28th 1945 an english ( or canadian) plane crashed near Schoonrewoerd in the Netherlands

[Alex Smart]

Hello Peter,
Just to correct the spelling.
From FCL vol 3 by Norman Franks "Sgt S A Shepherd".
CWGC has as you record in the above post "Sheppard".
FCL also has him as "shot down by an Fw190 of JG26 in th late am. South west of Múnster".

From vol 2 of Donald Caldwell's JG 26 war diary.
"Oblt Dortenmann took a dozen Fourth Gruppe aircraft off the ground at 11.05. Dortenmann led part of his force in a bounce of No.56 Sqd. Tempests; one fell, claimed by Dortenmann and Uffz. Hein."[ claim times given as 11.35 and 11.34 hrs].

"Lt. Prager also claimed a tempest today, probably in this combat, but the claim was apparently not filed." [ no claim time].

"Lt. Crump and his wingman flew off alone. Near Múnster Crump spotted a formation fo between ten and twelve P-47's strafing a freight yard. Crump sent his wingman home rather than endanger the youngster in a dogfight with superior numbers of enemy aircraft. Crump used the sun and the clouds to sneak undetected into the attackers circle. He shot one P-47 down and zoomed up into the clouds".[ claim time 11.50 hrs].

"According to the American records , Lt. Vern Hendershott of the 406th Fighter Groups 512th Squadron was hit from behind at 3000 ft(900 meters) by Crumps quick bounce and spun out, still carrying his bombs.After two turns he got out of his P-47 and made a successful parachute decent into the rail yard".

"it appears that the Gruppe lost four pilots. East of Múnster at 1645, 15 Fw190's were bounced by 8 Spitfire XIV's of 130 Squadron. Uffz Reinhard Flakowski [ Osnabrúck-Laer], Ofhr Hans-Júrgen Hansen [ Osnabrúck-Hardenstetten] and Uffz Harry Kaps [ Osnabrúck area] were probably shot down by the Spitfires. Kaps was still missing in 1998; the remains of the other two pilots were not conclusively identified until the late 1980's. While making his escape at low altitude Uffz Otto Weigl hit a row of oak trees and crashed [ Vreden ]. Weigl's remains were not found until 1988".

So have all four of these Luftwaffe pilots now been recovered and identified ?

Alex