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* Report: July 15th, 2023: The Belgians Parade to the London Cenotaph *

RAF aircraft's crash sites in Province of Limburg:
Meeuwen (Linde-Peer)

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Last update: 25/06/23


Elegy to
the Heroes of Silence


* To the 433 Squadron *
* To the crew of AD797-VN *
* To the monument erected in remembrance *
* Cemetery where rest the crew *

Crash site of Hampden AD797-VN
3/06/1941

aircraft
cest raf squadron
Unit: 433 Squadron
Aircraft: Hampden
Code: AD797-VN
Base: Lindholme
Mission: Düsseldorf
Crew officer:
Incident: Shot down by German fighter

Location: (Prov. Limburg)

crash

Facts

Nine aircraft took off from RAF Lindholme, North Yorkshire for Dusseldorf from 22.40 hours onwards. Met report: cloudy over entire route with thick haze obscuring the target (Dusseldorf). Eight aircraft bombed, most by dead reckoning, with no results noted.One aircraft, Hampden AD797 (VN-O) failed to return, nothing further being heard from the crew after take-off. The aircraft failed to return, and is believed to have been shot down by a night fighter over Belgium on the return from the target.
All four crew were killed, and bodies recovered for burial;
All four are buried in Leopoldsburg War Cemetery. Limburg, Belgium. According to Belgian sources
"On the morning of the 3 June 1941, the aircraft crashed into Mollestraat (now Linde Bosstraat) in Linde Peer. Limburg, close to a Village Funfair. Villagers were first on the scene. German soldiers from the nearby Helchteren Barracks were soon on the scene. Due to the carnage, the bodies were buried on the spot. Remarkably, the German soldiers are believed to have placed flowers on the graves, as they were First World War veterans (maybe Home Guard or equivalent?) and were anti-Nazi. After the war, the bodies were exhumed and re-interred at the British Military Cemetery in Leopoldsburg. Interestingly FIVE bodies are said to have been recovered from the wreckage and five graves were visible in a photograph taken at the time.However such was the devastation of the crash site that it is possible that remains of four were thought to be five?
In the churchyard of Linde is a masonry monument for the crew of the Hampden AD797 of 50 Squadron. The memorial stone was unveiled on October 14, 2001 and was an initiative of the Peer Society of Peoples. The research for this memorial was mainly done by Peter Loncke and the Heemkundige Kring van Peer.
A Bf. 110 attacked one of the other crews this morning; this may have been the cause of AD797’s demise. Seven of the remaining eight aircraft landed safely back at Base, one diverted to Finningley.

Sources:
Aviation safety
The International Bomber Command Centre (IBCC)
Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC)
Aircrew Remembered
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