ED651
Crashes > of the R.A.F.
On the return flight from the bombing mission on the SKODA works in Pilsen, the Lancaster ED651 came into the cone of light of the anti-aircraft searchlights in the Cologne area. They were attacked and shot at by a large group of German night fighters.
The aircraft immediately caught fire and the rear and centre gunner were killed in the attack. The pilot, Bruce Wilson, attempted an emergency landing, but the aircraft crashed, killing the flight engineer, Sgt Ralph Henry Pallender.
The rest of the crew was seriously wounded and taken to the Hohenlind Reserve Hospital in Cologne.
Sgt Wilson suffered a fracture of the lumbar vertebra and was transferred to the reserve hospital in Bad Münstereifel at the end of May 1943.
Fl/O Frederick Boswell had severe shattering of his left leg, which had to be amputated. He remained in Hohenlind for almost seven months before being transferred to a prisoner of war camp.
P/O Robert Stitt even remained in the Cologne military hospital until May 1944; severe fractures to his arms and legs made such a long stay there necessary.
Sgt Harald Goode did not survive his severe burns to his face and hands. He died of circulatory failure on 23 April 1943 in Cologne-Hohenlind and was buried in Cologne's Südfriedhof cemetery.
Source: Arolsen Archive, ITS039 /10280: Record of the Res. hospital Cologne-Hohenlind on the treatment of English prisoners of war 1941-1945
Note on the crash: There are no documents from the night fighters or the anti-aircraft gunners to whom the crash can be attributed. However, Sgt Wilson himself stated that he was shot at and hit by night fighters.
Above:
The crash site around Heppendorf.
Left:
The location of the crew's grave in Cologne's Südfriedhof cemetery.
bottom left:
The death certificate for Sgt William Watson Bannatyne
below right:
The death notice from the Cologne-Hohenlind Hospital (Reserve Military Hospital) for Harald Frederick Goode (wrong Good here), who succumbed to his severe wounds on 23 April 1943.