Lancaster ED840 took off at 22.44Hrs. from Warboys, which is a small village at Cambridgeshire and became the home base of No. 156 Squadron until March 1944. Warboys was closed as an airfield in January 1946. We went to visit the airfield in 1994, and there was nearly nothing left which reminded the airfield. In the nearby church, St. Mary Magdalene, a glass window was presented to commemorate the Pathfinders which took off from Warboys, and each year the former members of No. 156 Squadron held there reunion in this village.
ED840 was part of a Force of 202 Lancaster's and 10 Halifax's, which went on the raid to Cologne during the night of 16/17 June 1943. The marking of the target was not so good because of the bad weather, and only the first hundred bombers could bomb the target. The remaining bombers returned back. That night 401 houses were destroyed and nearly 13.000 suffered damage. 16 industrial sites were hit and one of them was the Chemical Chalk Works, and with all this died 147 civilians and 213 civilians were wounded. Fourteen Lancaster's did not return and four crashed in Belgium. ED553 at Wommelgem- ED840 at Lier- ED629 at Neerpelt - ED487 at Vorst. The other Lancaster's in Germany and Holland. ED840 was shot down by a German nightfighter, Officer Rudolf Frank 2/NJG1, at 01.00Hs. and busted into flames.
Coming from Berlaar the pilot noticed the town of Lier, and he made a hard turn left looking for a suitable place to put the aircraft on land.
The damage caused to the surrounding houses by the explosion of the aircraft
