The crash of a Halifax at Herpen, 21 July 1944 Herpen also experiences that war flying has its dangerous sides for the civilian population. It's Thursday night, July 20, around twelve o'clock. The Halifax Mz 617 of the 578th RAF-Squadron has dropped its bomb load on the German city of Bottrop Welheim. During the return flight, the bomber is caught in a cross of searchlights. At that moment, the pursuit of the German night fighters begins. Whatever escape technique the pilot of the Halifax devises, the Luftwaffejager piloted by Hauptmann Werner Hoffmann continues to chase him. The English bomber tries in vain to escape. At about half past one in the night, the four-engined aircraft is finally shut down after a fierce air battle over the triangle Ravenstein, Neerloon and Overlangel. The Halifax was crewed by pilots F/Lt Joseph Couture (23), F/Eng Harry Sellers (23), F/O Joseph Fitz patrick (21), F/O George Hodgson (21), Sgt. Charles Morton (21), Sgt. Walter Broughton (21) and Sgt. Allan Garnham (19). In Herpen, people see the blazing bomb launcher approaching from the east like an increasing fireball. He flies over De Wooij in the direction of Herper Dune, turns, turns in the direction of Het Broek and then returns to above the bowl of the village. Arriving at the height of the church tower and rectory, the machine suddenly makes a descending glide towards Molenstraat and skims over the roofs with its wings. While debris, guns and burning petrol fall down, the plane bores into the ground at the junction of this street with St. Hubertusstraat, exactly between the homes of Hanna van de Velden and Jan van Erp in an open space between the houses. . The devastation is indescribable. The burning gasoline runs off the roofs. It's one big conflagration. Mrs Bierman from St. Hubertus Street screams: "Toon get up, they fall as thick as chaff. One hears the cries and screams of people and children. Toon Bierman runs outside in his gabardine raincoat, which catches fire. He pulls. the long coat quickly off his body and throws it away. A mass of aluminum has been melted against the facades of surrounding houses. The houses of Piet van Brakel and Jan van Erp with their thatched roofs are instantly ablaze and from the veranda and shed van Lambert van den Berg is not spared. A wing of the plane ends up in Wim van Erp's bedroom. That house is right next to the crater. Hanna van de Velden's house is mainly damaged by cracks. At Jan van Zuijlen, a burning fuel tank falls on the air-raid shelter and its contents flow in. The cellar is completely on fire in no time, but no people have fled that night. Among the civilian population there is not a single victim to be regretted. Only widow Van der Velden sustains burns. Walking out of her house, she trips over pieces of the plane and falls into the burning mass. The entire crew is killed. One of them is in Janus van den Berg's garden. Two others are found among the remains after clearing the wreckage. Nothing has been found of the other four. The pilot and his crew are buried in the English military cemetery in Uden.
The crash of a Halifax at Herpen, 21 July 1944
ReplyDeleteHerpen also experiences that war flying has its dangerous sides for the civilian population. It's Thursday night, July 20, around twelve o'clock. The Halifax Mz 617 of the 578th RAF-Squadron has dropped its bomb load on the German city of Bottrop Welheim. During the return flight, the bomber is caught in a cross of searchlights. At that moment, the pursuit of the German night fighters begins. Whatever escape technique the pilot of the Halifax devises, the Luftwaffejager piloted by Hauptmann Werner Hoffmann continues to chase him. The English bomber tries in vain to escape.
At about half past one in the night, the four-engined aircraft is finally shut down after a fierce air battle over the triangle Ravenstein, Neerloon and Overlangel. The Halifax was crewed by pilots F/Lt Joseph Couture (23), F/Eng Harry Sellers (23), F/O Joseph Fitz patrick (21), F/O George Hodgson (21), Sgt. Charles Morton (21), Sgt. Walter Broughton (21) and Sgt. Allan Garnham (19).
In Herpen, people see the blazing bomb launcher approaching from the east like an increasing fireball. He flies over De Wooij in the direction of Herper Dune, turns, turns in the direction of Het Broek and then returns to above the bowl of the village. Arriving at the height of the church tower and rectory, the machine suddenly makes a descending glide towards Molenstraat and skims over the roofs with its wings. While debris, guns and burning petrol fall down, the plane bores into the ground at the junction of this street with St. Hubertusstraat, exactly between the homes of Hanna van de Velden and Jan van Erp in an open space between the houses. . The devastation is indescribable. The burning gasoline runs off the roofs. It's one big conflagration. Mrs Bierman from St. Hubertus Street screams: "Toon get up, they fall as thick as chaff. One hears the cries and screams of people and children. Toon Bierman runs outside in his gabardine raincoat, which catches fire. He pulls. the long coat quickly off his body and throws it away. A mass of aluminum has been melted against the facades of surrounding houses. The houses of Piet van Brakel and Jan van Erp with their thatched roofs are instantly ablaze and from the veranda and shed van Lambert van den Berg is not spared. A wing of the plane ends up in Wim van Erp's bedroom. That house is right next to the crater. Hanna van de Velden's house is mainly damaged by cracks. At Jan van Zuijlen, a burning fuel tank falls on the air-raid shelter and its contents flow in. The cellar is completely on fire in no time, but no people have fled that night.
Among the civilian population there is not a single victim to be regretted. Only widow Van der Velden sustains burns. Walking out of her house, she trips over pieces of the plane and falls into the burning mass.
The entire crew is killed. One of them is in Janus van den Berg's garden. Two others are found among the remains after clearing the wreckage. Nothing has been found of the other four. The pilot and his crew are buried in the English military cemetery in Uden.
The plane punched a hole about ten meters long, four to five meters wide and five to seven meters deep. One of the engines appears to have been left in the ground. It was impossible to get it loose. After the largest pieces of wreckage and some remains had been removed during that Thursday and the Germans had lifted the security of the streets and left. a group of local residents went to investigate the crater further. The Germans usually did not go to extremes when salvaging the bodies. The local residents decided to dig. That was done by Toon Bierman, Cornelis Kops, Jan van Erp, Lambert van den Berg. Thé van Mook and Richard van de Velde. Soon they came upon a dome with their shovel, and a human body appeared, wrapped in a blue kite. This frightened the men so much that they immediately closed the hole. Direct eyewitnesses of this were Tony Bierman, now living in Reek, then 14, and Theo Kops, living in Berghem, then 13 years old.
ReplyDeleteI stood in front of our house in the village center of Herpen near the crater to watch the excavation work of my father and his neighbors. When that aviator jersey became visible, someone pulled it and I saw a body very clearly. That image is engraved on my retina. The dome and contents were simply covered with sand and the crater razed to the ground. I was banned from speaking by my father and had to forget everything as quickly as possible. But forgetting is not easy. Now, as a grandfather, I feel how important it is for relatives. There is really nothing that stands out at the location of that crater. There is now a peaceful traffic square there, beautiful gardens have been laid out and trees planted. Underneath is at least one crew member. Actually, all should have been lying together in Uden in the war cemetery. That's where their crosses are and that's where their mortal remains should be.
Bierman is right, we should not resign ourselves to this situation. Since five bodies are buried in a collective grave in Uden, it is quite possible that mortal remains were left in the crater. At the head of the air defense service of the municipality of Ravenstein. G. Bakker, there was immediately great uncertainty, as witnessed in his letter February 8, 1946:
We have been able to find at least 4 corpses here, but it is almost certain that, in view of the body parts that were burned around, etc., there were still a few more corpses. In addition, it was thought that a corpse may have been present under or in the wreckage. The krauts were immediately on the spot with all their might and scattered everything so that no close investigation could be made. -Translated by Google