Handley Page Halifax MkIII (radial engines) Serial Number MZ565 was on an operational sortie to bomb the railway yards of Montzen on the night of the 27th/28th April 1944. The Halifax was air bourne from RAF Snaith at 23.57pm. At the controls was a veteran pilot F.S. J.H.P. O'Neill who had been awarded the British Empire Medal in 1943.
On the home ward leg of their long journey they were shot down over the village of Villers L'Eveque (Kemexhe) in Belgium. At approximately 03.00 hrs eye witnesses saw tracer bullets from a German Night Fighter strike the engines of MZ565 causing the aircraft to spiral out of control. Shortly afterwards the aircraft exploded in mid air scattering wreckage far and wide at a place called Kemexhe, within the French speaking part of Belgium. The German Night Fighter was most likely based at St. Trond air base.
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