KB738 - Luftkriegsarchiv Köln

A total of 319 aircraft were involved in the attack on the railway facilities in Opladen on 28 December 1944, two of which crashed on the approach to the bombing target. They were the Lancaster X, KB738 of the 419th Sqd and the Lancaster X, KB798 of the 428th Sqd.

It is not possible to determine exactly which of the two aircraft was hit by the flak and whether they collided in the air as a result. It is also possible that the two aircraft collided in the air without the influence of the flak, as both aircraft burst in the air and the debris fell to the ground in the wide area around Leverkusen. None of the crew members of either aircraft survived the crash.

(According to Boiten "Nachtjagd Bd.1944/5, page 80, the shooting down of one of the two aircraft is attributed to several flak positions of the 7th Flak Division around Leverkusen).

The wreckage of KB738 fell to the ground in the Leverkusen-Schlebusch area, with further debris scattered within a radius of four kilometres. The deceased crew members were found dead in the wider Schlebusch area.

All the dead were buried in the cemetery in Leverkusen-Manfort and moved to Rheinberg War Cemetery after the end of the war.