Lancaster crash, finding relatives.

[Enigma]

I live near the little village of Heerewaarden and work in the local visitorscentre.

 

On the 22nd of June 1944 a Lancaster bomber crashed between Heerewaarden and the Fort.

All 8 crewmembers died.

 

A witness was a young boy (Wim) who saw the bomber enveloped in flames coming down and exploding and Wim is a volunteer in the visitorscentre in Heerewaarden.

He hoped at least 1 or more had survived but I had to tell hime none did.

He was allways dissapointed the crew who died weren't remembered or honoured by a monument, plaque or similar.

A local man took up the idea to research and get things started with help from Heidie of the visitors centre.

I am also asked to help out a bit to get something organised .

Hopefully next May we unveil something to commemorate these man on or next to a existing WW2 monument

 

But it would be great to be able to find family, descendants or maybe even former collegues of these men.

So below is basic info about the plane, flight and importantly the men who lost their lives.

Help very appreciated.

 

 

Lancaster LM570 Heerewaarden.

 

Serial Number LM570

 

22nd June 1944

Serial Range LM303 - LM756.

This aircraft was one of 350 Lancasters ordered from A.V.Roe (Yeadon) as Mk.111s except for the first ten as Mk.1s (LM301- LM310), delivered from October 1942 to October 1944. The Mk.1s had Merlin 20 engines and the Mk.111s Merlin 38 engines initially installed. LM570 was delivered to 106 Sqdn 13 May 1944. LM570 also took part in the Key Raid against Dortmund 22/23 May 1944. When lost this aircraft had a total of 90 hours. LM570 was one of two 106 Sqdn Lancasters lost on this operation. See LL955.

Airborne 23:15hrs 21 June 1944 from Metheringham.

Outbound, shot down by night-fighter Hptm.Ernst-Wilhelm Modrow 1./NJG1 and crashed at Heerewaarden.

Seven are buried in Uden War cemetery.Sgt C.E.Scott has been re-interred in the Canadian War cemetery at Groesbeek.

 

-F/O K.G.Bellingham KIA Pilot. 05-A-02

-S/L A.J.Loughborough KIA 2nd Pilot. 05-A-04

-Sgt J.W.Blanchard KIA Flight Engineer 05-A-05

-F/S H.Gavin RAAF KIA Navigator. 05-B-13

-F/S L.Toomey RAAF KIA Air Bomber. 05-A-03

-Sgt A.Goodacre KIA Wireless Operator / Air Gunner. 05-A-06

-Sgt S.J.Malaband KIA Air Gunner. 05-A-01

-Sgt C.E.Scott RCAF KIA Air Gunner. XV-E-08

[Rick W]

I like this sort of research! Will see what I can find out.:-)

[Locolines]

Thank you for doing this admirable deed

[Redherring]

On 21/22 June 1944 133 Lancasters and 6 Mosquitoes attacked the synthetic-oil plant at Wesseling. Nearly all from 5 Group. Night fighters accounted for 37 planes.

On the same night 123 Lancasters and 9 Mosquitoes attacked the synthetic-oil plant at Scholven/Buer.

Reference... The Bomber Command War Diaries (2000) Middlebrook & Everitt

 

My father (aged 91) flew his first operation, as 1st pilot, the next night, in a Lancaster to L'Hey with XV sqdn. Two of his crew survive and live in NSW. They each know how close they came to oblivion and they remember the crews that didn't return to Mildenhall.

 

A worthy cause.

 

Robert

[RAFMT]

Unfortunately, and I’m speaking from a professional point of view, it’s going to be quite hard to trace existing family.

The RAF records would have contained a next of kin and a person to be notified in case of death; but for most of the young people this was their mother and father respectively.

Your best bet is to hire genealogists in each country to trawl through BMD records to find any spouses and children, or even siblings and their children. Also it would be worth, if you can find where each man came from, putting an advert in the local papers as extended families tend not to move around too much.

[RattlesnakeBob]

showing ignorance a bit Sorry in advance !..

..but...how often and in what circumstances did the Lancaster carry a '2nd Pilot' ??? ..... Thanks

A grand and honourable investigation by the way !

[STRIKE AND RETURN 460]

showing ignorance a bit Sorry in advance !..

..but...how often and in what circumstances did the Lancaster carry a '2nd Pilot' ??? ..... Thanks

A grand and honourable investigation by the way !

 

The second pilot on the mission was Squadron Leader Loughborough Arthur James aged 28yrs and married. Enigma keep up the good work on this as I know what its like to loose a relative under these circumstances as my uncle was a flight Engineer with 460sqd. Its knowing people still remember and care.

[Tony B]

Very Mixed crew. Have you tried the press and local in country vetran organisations? The service records should at least give you were they signed on, in not a Hometown. Beauty of the Internet.

[ted angus]

AS you have the rank name and date of the incident and place of internment, you will have no difficulty finding these brave chaps on the Commonwealth War Graves Commision website using the great search facility; The entry for each man will give you his next of kin and often the other person to be informed of death; i.e Son of Mr & Mrs xyz of perth and wife of Mrs asc if aberfeldy. vey strange I have found several instances of parents being listed in preference to wife;

This will be an excellent starting point ;

As an aside when I left in 2004, the rule was your wife was always your NiK even if you were seperated;

re the 2nd pilot, This is a strange one as the Lanc was built with single man controls with the Flt Engineer acting as the pilots second pair of hands, but I have read several instances of a 2nd pilot being carried on Ops.

Good luck

RIP lads

TED

[Enigma]

About the 2nd pilot.

AFAIK, he was the new squadron leader and went along as a bit of a hazing, baptism of fire or something like that.

 

The main researcher and initiative taker in this endevour allready has done some research.

I think he even has a few photo's of some of the men.

 

Yesterday evening the 4 of us had a meeting to exchange ideas so had limited time to study his research folder.

So, me asking here is just a way to start looking for relatives the easy way as most here are Britsh some may have allready dealt with searches like this.

 

Thanks for sharing some of your stories and your interest in this.

[Desert Rat]

Lancs quite often carried a 'second pilot' or 'second dickey'.

The normal reason was a new pilot, little or no combat experience and would have to stand behind the pilot the entire trip to watch what went on during an actual mission. As a rule, raids on Happy Valley were not usually chosen to do these flights as the risks was extremely high.

Once the second dickey had done a couple of trips like this, he would go back to his own new crew and they would embark on actual missions themselves as part of the squadron.

 

Enigma, if you want any info from the Metheringham end, just drop me a line and I'll go and see the guys at the museum.

[Redherring]

re 2nd pilot...

Apparently it was normal practice at operational squadrons to blood a new pilot by first sending him on a mission with an experienced pilot. From thereon it was unusual as there was always a shortage of pilots due to the high attrition rate.

My father tells me he trained his flight engineer to pilot the plane on quiet sectors, just in case he was incapacitated.

[Tony B]

Also on some missions the 2nd Pilot was an experienced navigator to assist with routing.

[Enigma]

Reminder.

[Enigma]

Update.

On May 4th (our remembrance day) a simple commemorative plate will be unveiled in the village near the monument for its civilian war dead at the church.

 

Still no relatives found.

 

-F/O K.G.Bellingham Pilot.

Son of George William and Dorothy Mabel Bellingham, of Bathampton, Bath, Somerset.

 

-S/L A.J.Loughborough 2nd Pilot

Son of Thomas Wynne Loughborough and Evelyn Loughborough; husband of Nora Constance (Sally) Loughborough, of Much Hadham, Hertfordshire.

 

-Sgt J.W.Blanchard, Flight Engineer

Son of William Herbert and Louisa Martha Blanchard, of Hull.

 

-F/S H.Gavin RAAF Navigator

Son of Mervyn Roy and Ivy Geraldine Brickwood Gavin, of Kelso, New South Wales, Australia.

 

-F/S L.Toomey RAAF Air Bomber.

Son of Joseph Benedict Toomey and Mary Ann Toomey, of Newcastle, New South Wales, Australia.

 

-Sgt A.Goodacre Wireless Operator / Air Gunner.

Son of Joseph Harold and Kate Emily Goodacre, of Pinchbeck, Lincolnshire.

 

-Sgt S.J.Malaband, Air Gunner.

Son of Samuel and Rose Malaband, of Aldridge, Staffordshire.

 

-Sgt C.E.Scott RCAF, Air Gunner.

Son of Percy J. Scott, and of Mildred Scott, of Burnaby, British Columbia.

Edited April 8, 2014 by Enigma
Next of kin added

[patch17]

Hi,

 

I came across your thread whilst undertaking some family research.

 

I am the great niece of James William Blanchard.

 

He was born in Hull to Louisa Martha Blanchard and William Herbert Blanchard in 1922/1923. Siblings included Marjorie Blanchard, Lilian Blanchard, Percy Blanchard and Mary Blanchard (My grandmother). I am not aware James had any family. All his brothers and sisters are now deceased.

 

If I find anything further I will post this.

 

Thank you for your lovely thread. Kind regards

[Enigma]

Hi,

 

I came across your thread whilst undertaking some family research.

 

I am the great niece of James William Blanchard.

 

He was born in Hull to Louisa Martha Blanchard and William Herbert Blanchard in 1922/1923. Siblings included Marjorie Blanchard, Lilian Blanchard, Percy Blanchard and Mary Blanchard (My grandmother). I am not aware James had any family. All his brothers and sisters are now deceased.

 

If I find anything further I will post this.

 

Thank you for your lovely thread. Kind regards

 

Thank you so much for your reply.

Good to hear from a family member of one of those brave men who unfortunately never returned home while fighting for our family.

 

Do you know if there are photo's of James William?

 

 

Here a photo of the remembrance plaque.

Edited August 17, 2017 by Enigma

[patch17]

Thank you so much for your reply.

Good to hear from a family member of one of those brave men who unfortunately never returned home while fighting for our family.

 

Do you know if there are photo's of James William?

 

 

Here a photo of the remembrance plaque.

 

Thank you for the message and the photograph of the plaque. We have currently started doing research as a family on James. His sister Mary (my grandmother) would have been 90 this year and she always wanted to visit his grave in Uden but never got there due to illness.

 

My mum has a photo of James which I will gain a copy of.

 

Thank you again for such a lovely thing you have done. We are aiming to visit his grave in September/October this year and will definitely visit this memorial plaque as part of our visit.

[Enigma]

Thank you for the message and the photograph of the plaque. We have currently started doing research as a family on James. His sister Mary (my grandmother) would have been 90 this year and she always wanted to visit his grave in Uden but never got there due to illness.

 

My mum has a photo of James which I will gain a copy of.

 

Thank you again for such a lovely thing you have done. We are aiming to visit his grave in September/October this year and will definitely visit this memorial plaque as part of our visit.

 

If you want to you can let me know when in Sep/Oct you'll be in the Netherlands.

Maybe we could meet up and even visit Heerewaarden.

 

Did you get my Personal message? If you want you may email me directly.

[Martin Breathwick]

.

Edited October 25, 2022 by Martin Breathwick
Privacy

[Enigma]

2 hours ago, Martin Breathwick said:

My name's Martin and for the last few years I have been doing a week-long motorcycle trip around Europe in June visiting WWII sites and memorials etc with six old friends. Early next June, 2018, we plan to visit Arnhem which made me think of trying to find Sgt. Arthur Goodacre's grave and to pay my respects. My father Leslie, now 88, was best friends with Arthur's younger brother and retains vivid memories of saying goodbye to Arthur at the end of his leave in summer 1944 before this fateful flight. Dad and I have previously visited the Metheringham Airfield Visitor Centre, from where LM570 took off, and found Arthur's details in the memorial records there

I therefore find myself very happy to have found all of these details but also a little regretful that Dad and I missed the opportunity to be there for the unveiling of the commemorative plaque in 2014. If only I'd seen this forum a few years ago.

If all goes to plan I'll lay a small token of respect to Arthur and his crew from my Dad and will also pop in to the Heerewaarden visitors centre. If possible I would also love to say hello and thank you to anyone involved in the creation of the the plaque...

Let me know nearer to the time of your visit.

Maybe we can meet up if you like and go to Uden warcemetary.

I'll send you a PM with my emailadres.

 

[Exiledbaggie]

Hi I am a relative of Sidney James Malaband the mid upper gunner in LM570, I came across this site and post while researching family history recently. Sidney had no children, he was my Grandmothers cousin. It has brought a tear to my eye to know he was not forgotten and to see him commemorated in this way.

I am trying to put together his service history but so far not much luck.
Unfortunately I have no photos of him nor have I found any of him or his aircraft to share with you all, I really just wanted to send my heartfelt thanks from my family to the people of Heerewaarden for their care.

Edited August 12, 2021 by Exiledbaggie
updating family tree connections

[Enigma]

1 hour ago, Exiledbaggie said:

Hi I am a relative of Sidney James Malaband the mid upper gunner in LM570, I came across this site and post while researching family history recently. Sidney had no children and he was an only child, he was my Grandmothers cousin. It has brought a tear to my eye to know he was not forgotten and to see him commemorated in this way.

I am trying to put together his service history but so far not much luck.
Unfortunately I have no photos of him nor have I found any of him or his aircraft to share with you all, I really just wanted to send my heartfelt thanks from my family to the people of Heerewaarden for their care.

Thanks so much for your reply.

Last Saturday we went to the plaque with a great niece of Blanchard after we went to visit Blanchard's grave.

I placed paper Poppy petals at the 7 graves from this Bomber, the 8th was Canadian and buried in Groesbeek.

[Jane]

Hi there, 

Sidney Joseph Malaband was my Uncle, my Mother Jane (Malaband) his sister. 

Sadly I never met Uncle Sidney as he died before I was born.

Jane Lesley Houghton.

perth WA.

[Geoff]

Hello

Is this thread still open? 

Jim Loughborough was my uncle.

 

Geoff Loughborough