LW672
Crashes > of the R.A.F.
194 Royal Air Force aircraft take off in the night for an attack on the factories in Wesseling.
Already on approach to the target, the Halifax BIII LW672 with its almost exclusively Canadian crew receives heavy flak. Hits in both left engines caused the aircraft to sink rapidly. Over the Niehl harbour area she received another flak hit in the open bomb bay, whereupon the bombs still stuck there detonated and tore the aircraft into several pieces. Large parts crash in Niehl near the Rhine and north of the old firing ranges.
The entire crew, except for bombardier Pilot Officer John Arsenault, are killed.They are all buried in Cologne's South Cemetery.
Arsenault is rescued from the sump of a new harbour basin under construction in Niehl and becomes a prisoner of war.