Memorial Crashed Short Stirling Bomber

On 9 September 1944 at 02:50 local time, a Short Stirling bomber with registration LK200 took off from the secret Tempsford airfield near the English town of Bedford. It was a flight of 138 squadron for special assignments from the SOE (Special Operations Executive). The pilot of the aircraft was Geoffrey Maurice Rothwell. He had already completed two ‘tours’ at Bomber Command, i.e. 60 flights. This was his 71st flight. This cat with nine lives had already been shot at four times by German anti-aircraft fire.
Also on board were two passengers, namely agent Tobias Biallosterski and agent/marconist Pieter de Vos, who had to be dropped on the ‘Mandrill’ field together with 12 containers and four packages. Tobias had to organise the drop fields in West Friesland and Pieter took care of the radio link with ‘London’. Mandrill is located behind the farm at Zomerdijk 61 in Spanbroek. This was the first dropping field in West Friesland.

The LK200's return journey was less successful. One was supposed to fly to the North Sea between Texel and Vlieland, but the cable of a dislodged barrage balloon tore off an engine causing a fire. The aircraft swerved off towards De Cocksdorp and smashed into the dunes on Krimweg. The debris flew towards the Slufter. Rothwell was ejected from the aircraft but survived the impact, as did Charles Derek Shaw, Robert Alexander McKitrick and Robert William Wilmot. They stayed in camp Stalag Luft I near Barth, northern Germany, until the end of the war.
Rothwell died in 2017, aged 91.

Thomas Roger Court, John Hulme and William George Evans Walton did not survive the crash. They are buried at the mountain graveyard in Den Burg, near the military graves (nos 161 to 163).
At the crash site on Krimweg is a small monument, consisting of a boulder with a text sign.

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Source

• Text: Hans Walrecht
• Photos: Hans Walrecht (1, 4), F. Wibbeke (2, 3)