Memorial Sign Crash Location Lancaster JB280 LQ-K, 405 Squadron RCAF

Project Lost Wings '40 - '45 has placed Memorial Signs in the Municipality of Emmen on the places where airplanes crashed during the Second World War.

On Sunday 2 January 1944 at 00.23 Lancaster Mk III JB280 LQ-K of 405 (Vancouver) Squadron RCAF. took off from RAF Gransden Lodge, west of Cambridge. Part of a wave of 473 aircraft to participate in raids on the cities of Berlin, Hamburg, Witten and Duisberg, JB280 was tasked to proceed to Berlin. En route, the aircraft was attacked by a Messerschmitt Bf110G-4 of the IV.NJG1 Nachtjagdgeschwader fl own by pilot Lt. Friedrich Potthast, radio operator Feldwebel Karl Kunz and air gunner Obergefreiter Hans Lautenbacher. At about 02.10 at low altitude, the Lancaster exploded above the fi eld and all seven crew were killed. They are buried in the Commonwealth War Graves section of the Municipal Cemetery in Schoonebeek.

Crew Members:
Thomas Henry Donnelly RCAF KIA pilot
Leslie George Robert Miller RAF KIA flight engineer
Alexander Jerry Salaba RCAF KIA navigator
Brian Sidney James West RAF KIA wireless operator-gunner
William Leonard John Clark RCAF KIA bomb aimer
Ronald Everest Watts RAF KIA gunner
Ronald Zimmer RCAF KIA gunner

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Source

• Text: SLO Drenthe
• Photos: Rob Wethly, SLO Drenthe (1, 2), Chris Bonhof (3)
• Stichting Luchtoorlog Onderzoek Drenthe