Regional RAF Memorial Genk-Boxbergheide

Close to this location, an RAF plane crashed on August 31, 1941, killing three crew members. The monument is now in memory of all Allied pilots who died in the province of Limburg.

To know the story behind this monument from 1970, we need to move in time. We arrive at the R.A.F. base of Oakington England. It is August 31, 1941. At 5:30 PM Wing Commander Biggs leads the briefing for seven of his aircraft. They are given Cologne as the main target to target with their incendiary bombs. However, the weather above Cologne is terrible and only a limited number of planes can bomb Cologne.

11:28 pm: our twin-engined Vickers-Wellington R 1703 is caught in the west of Germany in the searchlights of the "HeNaJa- Flakscheinwerfer" (Heller Nacht Jagd). Oberleutnant Wilhelm Dimter of the Night Hunters is led to his prey by radio. After 9 long minutes the unequal battle is over. Wilhelm Dimter achieves his fourth victory and fatally wounded, the Wellington crashes down with on board:
Sgt Pilot John Ashton (+) - 22 years old
Sgt Observer John Redden (+) - Canadian - 20 years old
Sgt Radio Operator Ernest Lane (+) - 25 years old
Sgt John Hutton
Robert Wood (Canadian)
Leonard Warburton

Despite the heavy damage to his plane, Sergeant Ashton manages to stay in the air long enough for three crew members, Hutton, Wood and Warburton to save themselves with their parachute.
The Wellington crashed on fire on the Boxberg near the place where the primary school is now, then a heath where only a few houses stood. The German Wehrmacht is quickly on the spot and does not treat the corpses of the three killed airmen gently, according to eyewitness Gerard Thijs. In the morning, three coffins are brought in by the Germans, after which the three fatalities are buried on the spot. The Glowacki-Plocinnik family placed the first wooden grave cross at the site of the crash, in the middle of the heath. In the 1950s this was replaced by a concrete cross, which is still integrated into the monument.

Hutton and Warburton managed to escape from the Germans thanks to the help of some farmers from the neighborhood. From here they moved to Hasselt, where they found shelter with the Colaris-Bové family until 6 September 1941. From Hasselt they travel on to Brussels where they eventually find shelter with Anne Brusselmans. On November 9, 1941, they were taken by Andrée De Jongh - from the Comète escape route - via Valenciennes to Gibraltar and finally returned to England on March 10, 1942.

Robert Wood was arrested by the Germans and ended up in a prisoner of war camp in Germany.
In 1946, Henri Colaris and Warburton returned to the site of the Boxbergheide crash. By a strange coincidence they found the ring of one of the killed crew members.

This monument was built in 1970 by the residents of Boxbergheide. Every year on the 2nd Tuesday of September there is a memorial ceremony with military and civil authorities, in which also the children of the primary school participate.

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries & Guido Gilissen
• Photos: Guido Gilissen (1, 2), Fedor de Vries (3, 4, 5)