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14th MISSION IS THE FLIGHT TO
DEATH
FOR
THE HALIFAX CREW
It
is the 14. mission which the crew of the Halifax 111 Bomber stationed in
Melbourne (Yorkshire) flies – this is not a lucky number.
The British Bomber part of the 10. Squadron, Group 4, is trapped by
German radar and on 16.1.45 at 22.08 shot down above Foehrste by a Night Hunter.
The plane crashes on the Egge, a small wooded bit of land between
Roellinghausen and Hoersum. Pilot
Allan Marshall plus two more of the crew lost their lives.
The other members of the crew eject by parachute and end up as German
prisoners. Old inhabitants of
Horsum and Roellinghausen still remember the event that occurred 4 months before
the end of the war.
After
nearly 6 decades this occurrence is noted factually in the report of the Mission
of Bomber Command of the RAF as follows:- During
the major attack of 1238 British Bombers in the night from 16th and
17th January 1945 aiming at Wanne Eichel, Magdeburg, Mannheim and
Hamburg we lost 28 planes.
58
years later Lesley Hill together with her husband Patrick and her Son Jonathan
and Daughter-in-law Alison stands at the site of the crash.
The 59 year old British citizen is visiting the actual place where her
Father died. She wants to learn more about the crash and wants to thank the
people of the village who in spite of the war gave the crew members a Christian
burial and attended the graves next to the church with flowers.
The
59 year old Daughter never knew her Father.
She was only a few months old when the pilot of the RAF lost his life.
All she knows about the circumstances of his death is learned later from
letters that her mother had kept over decades in a little box and also from
discussions with the living crew members.
Her
Son Jonathan (31) is also seriously interested in the fate of his Grandfather.
Apart from other contacts he turns to the AZ.(Alfelder Zeitung)
We arrange contact with the Luebbrechtser Matthias Baars, who for example
last year cleared up the details of an US Airforce B17 Bomber which crashed in
Brunkensen – AZ reported. With
his help eye witnesses are tracked down so that the last minutes of the crash
can be reconstructed.
On
that frosty and clear winter night of 16.1.45 the British Halifax Bomber is on
the return flight after bombing Magdeburg.
Somewhere in the region of Kreiensen/Freden the German radar pinpoints
the heavy plane. A Night Hunter of
Type Ju 88 is scrambled. Above
Foehrste the German plane with pilot Oberfeldwebel Rudolf Mangelsdorf attacks
the Halifax from below and shoots it down.
At
the time in spite of heavy damage the 28 year old pilot Allan Marshall was
successful in keeping his plane in the air so that 4 crew members could eject.
According to eye witnesses the
plane then flies from the direction of Foehrste in a half circle over
Roellinghausen and turns in the direction of Horsum before a massive explosion
in the air rips the Halifax apart.
The
fragments are scattered in a radius of 1000 meters around the site of the crash.
The fuselage landed on the Egge. One
engine is discovered in the quarry near Roellinghausen.
Other pieces of the crashed plane damage an electric power line or are
found in Wambeck. Munition is found
everywhere and there is a smell of aviation fuel and rubber.
Two
bodies were recovered from the wreck. In
spite of serious injuries the pilot Allan Marshall survives the crash in the
first instance; he drags himself
out of the plane, later to be found resting near a border stone where he died of
his injuries. The dead flyers are
laid outside the Horsum Spritzenhaus.
The
gravedigger at that time in Horsum, Heinrich Boenig made sure that the British
flyers were not just dumped. As his
grandson remembers his grandfather acquired 3 boxes made up by carpenter
Heinrich Tegtmeyer in Horsum and buried the crew members in the left upper
corner of the former Horsum churchyard. He
also made sure that the graves were cared for and flowers were planted until
after the war when the bodies were transferred to a soldiers cemetery in
Hannover by the British authorities at the time.
Lesley
Hill and her family who on their visit in November placed three small wooden
crosses in remembrance of the crashed pilot and crew in the Horsum churchyard
want to return for the 6oth anniversary of the crash. Then she hopes, she will also be accompanied by Fraser Paxton.
The now 80 year old belonged to the 4 members of the crew that survived
the Halifax Bomber crash.
More
information about the Halifax and her crew is available on the Internet…..
PHOTOGRAPHS
All
named members of the crew of the Halifax 111 Bomber, naming apart from Pilot
Allan Marshall also Harry Griffiths and Jack Thornley as losing their lives in
the crash.
The
graves (arrow) of the British airmen next to Horsum church.
After the war their bodies were transferred.
Lesley
Hill, her Son Jonathan and Matthias Baars from Luebrechtsen at the site of the
crash.
ALFELDER
ZEITUNG details of HANDLEY PAGE –
HALIFAX MK111 BOMBER
The Halifax was a heavy Bomber of the British Airforce with a crew of 6-8persons. The Max speed is 426 Km per hour. The plane could fly at a max height of 22,800 feet and had a range of approx. 53,000 km. The Bomber was armed with upo to 9 heavy machine guns for self-defence and could carry 5897 kg weight of bombs. The first Halifax was introduced by the RAF in 1941. During the second world war the plane was used in Europe and the Middle East for various purposes; for instance as troop carrier and fithing submarines. All together 6177 different versions of the Halifax were built. The last planes of this hard-wearing Bomb