EF427
Crashes > of the R.A.F.
Around 250 aircraft attacked the metalworking factories in Remscheid that night. During the attack, the EF427 was caught in the beam of an anti-aircraft searchlight. The anti-aircraft gun fired at the aircraft, which was now illuminated by several anti-aircraft searchlights, and hit it before it could drop its bomb load. Nevertheless, the pilot kept his nerve and headed for the bomb target, which was illuminated with marker bombs, and dropped his bombs.
After dropping the bombs, the aircraft, which was on fire inside, headed for the return course. An anti-aircraft shell exploding behind the aircraft scattered its shrapnel inside the aircraft and wounded Sgt Fry in the abdominal area. Another hit struck the front of the aircraft, which then hurtled towards the ground at a steep angle.
Three crew members bailed out from a height of around 1,500 metres. The aircraft raced towards the ground and exploded on impact in a field near Manheim, burning out completely. Four crew members died and have not yet been recovered. Only memorial plaques on the Runnymede Memorial commemorate the dead.
In 1998, one of the survivors, Sgt Douglas Fry, made his story about the crash and his subsequent German captivity available to the Kerpen town archives in a lengthy essay. This report was published in 1998 by the "Heimatfreunde Kerpen e.V." in issue 6 of the "Beiträge zur Geschichte von Kerpen-Manheim".
You can access this article via this link: DOUGLAS FRY (with the kind permission of "Heimatfreunde Kerpen e.V.")
In August 2025, excavations for the wreck of the Stirling EF427 took place near Manheim on the edge of a large open-cast lignite mine. Archaeologists from the Rhineland Regional Association excavated for the crashed aircraft based on information from the "Rhine/Moselle Air War History Working Group". A number of metal and plastic parts were found, as well as bone fragments, the remains of a uniform jacket and other artefacts. It is now hoped that the remains of the bones can be used to identify the deceased through DNA matching.
Here is the newspaper article about the crash:
