Commonwealth War Graves Protestant Churchyard Westergeest

The Cemetery of the Protestant Church in Westergeest, contains eight Commonwealth War Graves.

There is the crew of the Halifax bomber HR667:

Flight Sergeant Kenneth Howard Buck, R/83572, RCAF, age 20
Sergeant (Air Gnr.) George Rose, 1356376, RAF, age unknown

On 4 May 1943 at 2236 departed from RAF Pocklington, the Halifax HR667 of No. 102 Squadron RAF, with the mission: a bombing raid over the city of Dortmund in Germany. The aircraft was part of a formation of 596 bombers, of which 255 Lancasters, 141 Halifaxes, 110 Wellingtons, 80 Stirlings and 10 Mosquitos. HR667 was shot down over the Netherlands by the German night-fighter Lt. Robert Denzil, 1V./NJG1 and crashed at 0036 in Westergeest. All seven crew members died in the crash, two are buried in this cemetery. The other five crew members were never recovered. In total 31 bombers got lost during this mission. The damage to the city of Dortmund was large.

Also there is the crew of the Wellington bomber X9822:

Sergeant (Pilot) George Frederick Bateman, 1104340, age 21
Sergeant (W.Op/Air Gnr.) Harold Frederick Eyre, 1152524, age 19
Pilot Officer (Obs.) Fredrick Jenkins, 129267, age 25
Sergeant (Air Gnr.) Harry Richard Legg, 701647, age 23
Sergeant (W.Op/Air Gnr.) Ernest Robert Butson Magrath, 926955, age 28
Sergeant (Pilot) Peter Alan Milton, 1168114, age 20

On 12 October 1941 at 1926 departed from RAF Alconbury, the Wellington X9822 of No. 40 Squadron RAF, with the mission: a bombing raid over the city of Nuremberg in Germany. The aircraft was part of a formation of 152 bombers with the same mission. X9822 was shot down over the Netherlands by the German night-fighter Oblt. Helmut Lent, 4./NJG1 and crashed at 0.06 in Westergeest. All crew members died in the crash, they are all buried in this cemetery.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar.nl
• Photos: Nico Nienhuis