Loss of Halifax NA568 LK-Q 11 Sep 44

[Horst Weber]

Originally Posted by Icare9

Good point, Danny.
Where is the nearest church and cemetery to the airfield? Would they have any records of wartime burial of RAF crew? If it was the only bomber to crash in the locality, there may be photo's etc in local newspapers archives.

Good evening Mal & Danny !

The local newspaper trace would not work, since in this stage of war, no German newspaper was allowed to report about matters like that. The church and cemetary record idea would not work either, since the parishes were not allowed, to note graves officially of this particular matter in their records. Sometimes, but that is very rare, you find some notices in the priest's private diaries.

The best way to find some information is, to contact the town of Bottrop. In 1944, Kirchhellen was an own town with a regisration office. Postwar, the British Administration ordered, that the German local administrations had to register in their register-book of the local administration the death of British airmen, when a case like this occored.

In the German local-administration deseased-books, you can find a lot of entries in the years 1946-1949, confirming this with high or less accuracy.

In 1944, Kirchhellen was a town of its own and had his own registry office. In the 1970s, local responsibilities changed and Kirchellen became a part of the City of Bottrop. I am sure, the register-books of Kirchhellen are now at the local adminstration of Bottrop and you should contact them.

All the best !

Horst Weber