In Memoriam: Location Of Gun Turret Lancaster LM 185

In Memoriam: Gun turret Lancaster LM 185 found in meadow in Nederwetten

On August 9, 1944, a gun turret of a Lancaster bomber with two crew members was found 350 m south of Nederwettensche Street, now Soeterbeekseweg:
- Sgt. Reginald Percy Naylor, rear gunner, 35 years old, son of Arthur Lewis Naylor and May Naylor and husband of Sarah Naylor, from Ellesmere Port, Cheshire, UK.
- Sgt. Arthur Forster Marchall, turret gunner, age 19, son of Arthur and Caroline Marshall, from Low Fell, Gateshead, Co. Durham, UK.
Both are buried at the War Cemetery in Woensel in Eindhoven, plot KK, resp. graves 118 and 117.

The bomber they flew, the Lancaster LM 185 (WP-D) of RAF 90 Squadron. This squadron was stationed at Tuddenham. The Lancaster had left from there on July 20, 1944 at 11.02 pm for a flight of 147 Lancasters and 11 Mosquitos to bomb the Homberg Treibstofffabrik Rheinpreusen that night. This factory had a production of 200,000 tons per year and was very important for the fuel supply of the German army.
On July 21, 1944, the battered bomber crashed around 01.45 am in the Onrooi area in Boxtel. The two gunners mentioned above died on 21 July 1944 when they fell from the Lancaster with the gun turret. The five other members of the crew are buried in the Roman Catholic cemetery of the Sacred Heart of Jesus Church in Boxtel.

Chief Guard Jacob Boluijt in Nuenen c.a. states in his official report of August 10, 1944:
"On August 9, 1944, Matheus Sloots, aged 55 years, by profession, appeared before me as a farmer, married, nationality Dutch, living in Nuenen c.a., Nederwetten A49a.
He stated: "This afternoon (Aug 8, 1944) around 12:00 noon I was mowing oats in my field. The plot is located south of the public road, the Nederwettenschestraat, locally known as Nederwetten in the municipality of Nuenen, ca.At one point I came among the oats in a clearing and found there part of a plane with four machine guns, which was partly was burned. At about 1.30 pm of the said date, in the vicinity of this I found an unknown corpse on the said parcel, which was already in a far state of decomposition. Judging by the clothing, it is probably an English or American pilot. "

Both gunners and their tail turret were undetected in the field from July 21 to August 8, 1944. The other five crew members who landed in Onrooi (Boxtel) even remained unnoticed there until September 1945.
Until the late 1950s, the two war graves were located against the house of Sloots on Soeterbeekseweg. They lay neatly next to each other, in front of the farm Zeldenrust No. 29, visible to every passerby.

The information column at this location has been part of a bicycle route since 2014, celebrating 70 years of liberation Nuenen c.a.

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Source

• Text: Geert-Jan van Glabbeek
• Photos: Geert-Jan van Glabbeek