Commonwealth War Graves Reformed Churchyard Benschop

The churchyard partly surrounds the Protestant church which stands in the centre of the village. This cemetery contains the graves of three Commonwealth airmen of No. 214 Squadron RAF who were killed on 03/02/1943.

Sergeant (Air Gnr.) John Caldwell Adam, 1340346, age 28
Squadron Leader (Pilot) William Clarke, 70132, age 32
Sergeant (Nav.) Eric George Johnson, 1124496, age 21

On 3 Februari 1943 at 18:27 departed from RAF Chedburgh, the Stirling R9282 with the mission: a bombing raid over the city of Hamburg in Germany. The aircraft was part of a formation of 417 bombers with the same mission. The formation consisted of 149 Lancasters, 123 Wellingtons, 83 Halifaxes en 62 Stirlings. R9282 was shot down over the Netherlands by the German night-fighter Uffz. Christian Költringer, III./NJGI and crashed down in Benschop. Of the seven crew members, three were killed, they are buried in this cemetery. The remaining four crew members were taken prisoner of war by the Germans. 10 bombers were lost during the mission; 4 Lancasters, 2 Wellingtons, 2 Halifaxes en 2 Stirlings. Due to poor marking of the target, the raid was not successful, in total there were 27 killed residents in Hamburg. Part of the bombs fell on the western situated port town of Wedel. Here was one person killed by the bombing. Also, a portion of the village and the harbor was destroyed.

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries & TracesOfWar.nl
• Photos: Bureau Funeralia / René ten Dam (1), Dick de Bruijne (2), Peter Schipper (3)