Crash Site British Whitley MK V P4955 ZA-G Rijsbergen

Rijsbergen (Tiggeltscheberg) 17 August 1940 Whitley MK V P4955 ZA-G
On the night of Saturday, August 17, 1940 at 3:26 a.m., an (Armstrong Whitword) Whitley MK V made a crash landing on the Tiggeltscheberg. The aircraft belonged to No. 10 Squadron RAF (RAF Station Leeming Yorkshire) and was part of a bombing mission to attack the Carl Zeiss factories at Jena. However, the target was better defended than told in the briefing.

Crew members Halifax Mk V LK959 ZL-D were:
Pilot F/O. William M. Nixon RAF
2nd Pilot F/O. Peter G Whitby RAF
Navigator W/O. Herbert W. Bradley RAF
Wireless On Sgt. Allen M. Somerville RAF
Air Gunner Sgt. E.R. Holmes RAF

During the attack the Whitley was hit by FlaK above the target after which the left engine stopped. Nevertheless, the bomb load was dropped on the target at 00:30. On the way back, due to the limited engine power, the Whitley only flew at 6000 Ft (approx. 2000m) and was fired upon by FlaK both above the Ruhr area and somewhere around the IJsselmeer. They managed to extinguish a motor fire. They would not make it to England and it was decided to set sail for the Scheldt estuary for an emergency landing. However, this became the Tiggelscheberg. The crew was unharmed and hid nearby with a farmer in a barn covered in straw. During a German search, in which the Germans pierced the straw with bayonets, they were not discovered. The Germans had meanwhile called on the population by means of leaflets to report the "aviators" against payment. Later in the day, the crew was surrounded in a forest and captured. The crew were taken to the Dulag Luft transit camp in Oberursel near Frankfurt, from where, after several days of interrogation, they were moved to a permanent POW camp.

The crew members remained imprisoned in various POW camps for the rest of the war and survived the war. Several of them have made one or more, sometimes very adventurous, escape attempts. Most of them were liberated in April 1945 or were able to reach their own troops themselves. 2nd Pilot F/O Peter Whitby visited the crash site on September 22, 1981.

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Source

• Text: http://www.militairhistorischmuseumachtmaal.nl/
• Photos: Martin Damen