Memorial Crash B17 42-3436 & RAF Lancaster ME647

Memorial Crash B17 42-3436 & RAF Lancaster ME647 #3

In memory of the crew of the B-17F # 42-3436 of the 364th Squadron - 305th USAAF Bomb Group that flew from British base Chelveston. They crashed behind the former Julia coal mine on "Black Thursday," October 14, 1943, around 1:45 p.m. while on their way to bomb industrial targets in Schweinfurt.

The tail with the two dead side shooters in it ended up nearby. The nose with the bombs crashed just past the Worm in German territory. The navigator and bombardier were found dead near that spot. Five crew members survived. The copilot was never found.

A German Me-109 pilot who attacked this B-17 was shot from there and crashed near Chevremont. His remains were never found either.

Killed / missing
Donald P. Breeden - copilot - 22 - missing - his name is on the Walls of the Missing at the US Cemetery Margraten; his remains are buried with great certainty along with those of the navigator and / or the bombardier.
William J. Martin - navigator - 22 - buried at the US Cemetery Margraten.
Harvey A. Manley - bombardier - 23 - buried at the US Cemetery Margraten.
Leonard R. Henlin - left waist gunner - 32 - buried at the US Cemetery Margraten.
Robert G. Wells - right waist gunner - 20 - buried in Sturgis, Kentucky (USA).
Helmut F. Brinkmann - Me-109 pilot - 23 - missing and commemorated in Fredenbeck (D).

Survivors
Hosea F. Crawford - radio operator + 1990 - Sahuarita, Arizona.
Dominic C. Lepore - tail gunner + 1995 - Colonia, New Jersey.
Dennis J. McDarby - pilot + 2006 - Morristown, Indiana.
Arthur E. Linrud - top turret gunner / engineer + 2012 - Minot, North-Dakota.
Benjamin F. Roberts - ball turret gunner - Decatur, Alabama.

Let us never forget their sacrifice for our freedom. Because freedom cannot be taken for granted.

Eygelshoven, October 13, 2018

On 26 September 2019 - the day 75 years ago the first Americans arrived in Eygelshoven - a monument was completed at the Roman Catholic cemetery on the Rimburgerweg in Eyegelshoven to commemorate and honor the Canadian-British crew who arrived on Sunday 31 December 1944. crashed on their Boomasterskuilweg in their Lancaster. The country road that runs along the cemetery.

Seven young men aboard the Lancaster were on their way home; to a New Year's Eve party or a warm bed. They had another successful bombing. That afternoon from the shunting site in Osterfeld near Oberhausen-Germany. But they were brought down above Eygelshoven by a pilot of the German "Nachtjagdgeschwader 1".

The five Canadians and two British aboard the ME647 belonged to the 166th RAF Squadron and had set out on that Sylvester afternoon with 148 other Lancasters. Two of them did not return home. One of them crashed just behind our RC cemetery.

On the monument is the silhouette of the Lancaster ME647, the story of her crew on that fateful Sunday and the names of the seven young men who gave their lives for our freedom.

Flight Lieutenant James Anthony Sherry - RCAF - 22 - pilot - Windsor in Ontario
Pilot Officer Alexander Martin - RAF - 24 - flight engineer - New Stevens (t) on in Lanarkshire (UK)
Flying Officer Donald Howard Bennett - RCAF - 20 - air bomber - Stony Mountain in Manitoba
Flying Officer Michael Bernyk - RCAF - 21 - navigator - Windsor in Ontario
Flight Sergeant John Cletus Daze - RCAF -28 - rear gunner - Arnprior in Ontario
Flight Sergeant Kenneth Surman - RAF - 20 - wireless operator / air gunner - Merrow in Guildford (UK)
Flight Sergeant Clarence Young - RCAF - 20 - mid upper gunner - Cobalt / Cochrane District in Ontario