Banner




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

RAF aircraft's crash sites in Province of Namur:

* Return to the previous page *


Vers le site en français

Last update: 25/06/23


Elegy to
the Heroes of Silence


* To the Squadron 432 *
* To the crew of NP699-QO-O *
* To the monument erected in remembrance *
* Belgian Cemetery where rest members of the crew * * Memorial where members of the crew are commemorated *

Crash site of Halifax NP699-QO-O
18/12/1944

aircraft
cest raf squadron
Unit: Squadron
Aircraft: Halifax
Code: NP699-QO-O
Base: East Moore
Mission: Duisburg
Crew officer: F/O Max Krakowsky
Incident: Shot down by German fighter

Location:

crash

Facts

On 18 December 1944, the RAF 10 Squadron bomber Halifax LV818 ZA-F-took off from Melbourne, Yorkshire, England, to Duisburg for a bombing mission on the industrial facilities of Duisburg, north of Cologne in the Ruhr. From the base in East Moor (North Yorshire), another Halifax, this time a Halifax of 432 RCAF Squadron NP699 QO-O takes off for the same mission and the same objective.
At about 6am, while they were flying over the Ardennes at the border of France and Belgium, for some reason, the two aircraft collided and crashed in the region of Rocroi. The LV818 falls at the place called Les Bernes near the village of Taillette, and the second near Maubert-Fontaine south of Taillette.
Fourteen airmen died in this collision and these «crashes», only the pilot the F/O Max Krakowsky (RCAF) managed to parachute and fall in Belgium near Brûly just at the Belgian border.
Several bodies of these airmen were quickly found and identified before being buried in the American cemetery of Fosses la Ville near Namur (P/O W.H Lesse (RCAF), Sgt KF Matthews (RAF), Sgt W.E Mawson (RAF), F/L N.C Tatam (RAF), P/O A.G.W Blayney (RCAF), P/O M.J Boylan (RAF) and Champigneul in the Marne (F/O R.L Cann (RCAF) and F/O G.O Wilson (RCAF). Later, the bodies of the six aviators buried in Fosses were transferred to the cemetery of Leopolsburg in Belgium and those of Champigneul in the Canadian cemetery of Dieppe in Hautot sur Mer (Seine Maritime). A British (Sgt E. Nicholson (RAF) and an unidentified aviator rest at the cemetery of Clichy, near Paris.
In 1945, the body of the navigator of the LV818 F/O John Henry Waldron (RAF) was found near Taillette and buried in the village cemetery. In June 1948, this same cemetery housed the remains of radio operator Douglas John Mole (RAF), found in a wood near Taillette. In 1951, a third body, the F/S. E Zadorozny (RCAF), was found near Sévigny la Forêt, a few kilometres south of Taillette. He is currently buried in the cemetery of Choloy en Meurthe and Moselle.
Only one body has yet to be found.
The names of the F/O G.D Body (RAF) pilot of the LV818 and Sgt J.W Green of the RCAF are inscribed on the Runnymede Memorial in England. crash

Youg french women sitting on the wreckage of LV818

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

Back to the top

logo
"The Belgians Remember Them" - Rue de Maulde, 2 - B/7830 HOVES (Silly), Belgique - Tel: +32/(0)479/245.148
Bank: BE97 0018 3886 3049 - BIC: GEBABEBB - Email: belgian.remember(at)gmail.com

Reproduction or distribution in any form of texts, lists and documents presented on this site is forbidden without the express authorization of the author
© Copyright "THE BELGIANS REMEMBER THEM" - 2017, all rights reserved - for all countries

Logo Wilfred Burie Webmastering Compteur.fr analytics