Loss of Halifax NA568 LK-Q 11 Sep 44

[mal_ridley]

Gentlemen,

Thank you so much for your contributions; I very much appreciate them.

I know a fair amount about the events leading up to the crash, as I've been able to meet two surviving crew members; the navigator and the wireless operator. The crew were on only their fourth or so mission, and were unable to positively identify the target at Gelsenkirchen on their first run. They went around again to re-attack, and were hit by AAA.

The pilot had control difficulties almost immediately, and a bale out seemed certain. However, my relative, Bert Ridley, the rear gunner, failed to answer on the intercom. The bomb aimer was sent aft to check on him, and found him dead - presumably from the initial effects of the AAA hit. After this, the crew bailed out successfully.

Bert was finally buried in the Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, where we will visit his grave next month.

Your clues as to the crash location are very interesting. As mentioned, the RAF records simply show 'Kirchhellen'; we intend to visit the town when we travel next month and have been trying to find any contacts in the town who might remember the event. In some ways the precise location is not critical, in that Bert was killed before the aircraft came down. However, it would be nice to know! It would also be helpful to know that no additional casualties were caused on the ground by the crash; there was enough suffering on both sides in those days.

Again; I can't thank you enough for your interest and help. I will follow up on your suggestions! I am an ex-RAF pilot myself (recently left), and I feel a great empathy with those involved in these events on both sides. It is important to do justice to their memory, I believe.

Best regards,

Mal

[mal_ridley]

Horst,

The two positions you mention are very close to each other, and all the other research I have done shows only one Halifax lost in the area. RAF records show the crash time as 1830, so it all seems to agree!

Thanks again,

Mal

[Horst Weber]

Good evening Mal !

Thank you for your good words. If you are planning to come to the place for gaining more information and you think, needing some aid concernimg the local administration, give me a note by PN, please.

Best regards,

Horst Weber

[mal_ridley]

Just to follow up on this thread...

I have now visited the area of this crash, especially two possible sites based on local research and memories. These are both close to the town of Kirchhellen, and do not match up with the records mentioned by Horst. However, understandably, there does seem to be doubt about some of the details.

Horst,

Would you say that the Luftkommando records are likely to be reliable, in your experience? My instincts tells me that they probably are, given that the locations are both so close to an active Luftwaffe airfield. What are your thoughts?

Best regards,

Mal

[batman50]

It is possible that the Halifax was shot down by Croats who were located there as a part of Flak Legion.My father, a Croat was AA 8.8 schwere FLAK gunner. I have his photo taken at a photo studio in the nearby town of Gladbeck in 1944. I found out that one of the defensive location of his unit was Kirchellen. Later on he was captured by the British forces at Hamburg in 1945 and was in POW camp for a while.He did not talk much about the war while he was alive. He died in 1987. I remember one of his war stories;namely that his 8,8 shot down an allied plane and that the pilot was keeping his plane airborne so long as to allow his comrades to bail out of the doomed plane.My father remembered seeing him wave his hand as a farewell to the others before he crashed.There could have been many of such stories...I am also trying to find out more about him and those years he spent in Luftwaffe in 1943-45.There were 4000-4500 Croats who were part of Flak Legion and maybe 1000 survived the war.They were trained in Wiener Neustadt and some were sent to the west front.