Commonwealth War Graves Protestant Churchyard Heemskerk

On the Protestant Cemetery in the center of Heemskerk are nine Commonwealth war graves. Seven graves are of a crew of a bomber and there are two graves of the British navy.

On 16 December 1943 at 17:12 departed from RAF-Witchford, Lancaster DS835 with the mission: a bombing raid on Berlin. The aircraft was part of a formation of 483 Lancasters and 10 Mosquitos. DS835 crashed down for unknown reasons in Heemskerk in which all crew members lost their lives. The losses during this successful raid which destroyed a large part of the city centre of Berlin were high. Over 50 Lancasters were lost due to attacks from German fighters, flak guns and the heavy cloud cover during the return flight.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar.nl
• Photos: Ton Goedhart