Commonwealth War Graves Protestant Cemetery Altdorf

On the Protestant Cemetery in Altdorf are four Commonwealth War Graves.
These are the graves of:

Flight Sergeant (W.Op.) Michael Joseph Thomas Finn, 1218851, age 21
Sergeant (Air Gnr.) Bernard Robert Giles, 1309196, age 31
Sergeant (Flt. Engr.) Frederick Arthur Jones, 1135264, age unknown
Pilot Officer (Pilot) Peter Geoffrey Quayle, 156633, age 20

On September 5, 1943 at 1956 departed from Chedburgh airbase in England, the Stirling EH931 with the mission to bomb the city of Mannheim in Germany. The aircraft was hit over Germany by a German night-fighter. The badly damaged plane cought fire, went into a dive and crashed with a big explosion in Altdorf (Germany). Of the eight crew members aboard, four survived the crash and were taken prisoner of war by the Germans. The remaining four crew members died in the crash, they are buried in this cemetery.

This is one of the few places in Germany where on a local cemetery, a crew of a bomber is buried. Most casualties from the Commonwealth were after the war reburied at one of the Commonwealth war cemeteries in Germany. The graves are marked with private grave stones and a monument, erected by the local people. The inscriptions on the stones is in German.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar.nl
• Photos: TracesOfWar.nl