Commonwealth War Graves Sint-Martens-Voeren

Saint-Martens-Voeren Churchyard contains the graves of six Commonwealth airmen of the Second World War. They were all killed on 5 August 1941 and rest in a collective grave.

At the cemetery at St. Martin's Church lies the crew of the Wellington R1524 OJ-P of 149 Sq.
In the late evening of 5 August 1941, at 10.11 pm, the Wellington had taken off from Mildenhall for a raid on Mannheim.
A few German night fighters of the 1.Staffel started their engines on Sint-Truiden and climbed into the Limburg sky. Searchlight battery personnel tried to catch one of the bombers in a beam of light. Together with the pilots of the 1.Staffel they managed to shoot down five aircraft over Belgium that night.
At three minutes after midnight they scored their first victory, the Wellington of the 149th "East India" Squadron crashed as the first victim of the night fighters at Sint-Martens-Voeren on the hamlet of "De Plank"'.
The six occupants died in the flames. Only part of the remains could be salvaged, identification proved impossible for the Germans.
Sergeants Frederick Fowler (pilot, age 21), Eric Thomson (co-pilot, age 20), Howard Hale (observer/navigator, age 22), Barrie Richardson (radio operator), Vernon Scholey (nose gunner, age 21). ) and the Jew Solomon Morris (tail gunner, age 27) were later interred at the foot of the church amid great interest.

Source: Aviation History - De Decker C. & Roba J-L. : RAF bombers over Belgium 1940-1942, De Krijger, Erembodegem, 1993

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Source

• Text: Fedor de Vries + Marie-Christine Vinck
• Photos: Luc van Waeyenberge (1, 2), Marie-Christine Vinck (3, 4, 5)