LK693
Crashes > of the R.A.F.
On its approach to Mannheim, before crossing the Rhine at Merkenich, the LK693 came within range of several anti-aircraft batteries stationed at Groß Lachem.
The aircraft was hit and most probably caught fire. The entire crew, with the exception of the pilot, left the aircraft immediately by parachute. They all landed safely near Cologne and became German prisoners of war.
The Halifax crashed burning at Neuensaal-Bechen near Kürten. Parts of the aircraft lay on the road to Hau, the fuselage had crashed next to the Hachenberger Weg.
The pilot, W/O II Class Kenneth Cunliffe Smith, died in the crash and the subsequent impact fire. The 23-year-old Canadian was buried in the Catholic cemetery in Kürten and transferred to Rheinberg British Cemetery in November 1947.
A few years after the war, children playing found an unexploded bomb near the crash site; it was defused and removed by the bomb disposal unit in Cologne.
Additional source:
Kürten Historical Society, Reinhard Baade in "Kürtener Schriften 2005"
Above:
The crash site of the Halifax LK693
left:
Photo of the crash site on the outskirts of Neuensaal
Source: Kürten Historical Society "Kürtener Schriften" 2005
below:
Entry of the launch in the flak diary of 18 November 1943
Source: Federal Archives RL5/1452