NF979
Crashes > of the R.A.F.
During the devastating air raid on Düren, 485 Lancasters, supported by numerous Mosquitos, destroyed the entire city centre of Düren.
After 21 minutes of bombing, 3,100 people had been killed and over 95 per cent of the town lay in ruins. On 19 November 1944, the remaining population of Düren was evacuated and did not return to the rubble until February/March 1945.
There are no eyewitness accounts or records of the crashes of the three Lancasters (NF979, PB648 and NG238) over Düren. It is virtually impossible to determine exactly which aircraft crashed where within the town, and this can only be approximated on the basis of documents and records from the Allied recovery units.
The same applies to the initial burial sites of the crews. Whilst several mass graves have been documented, the bodies of the crews had been lying exposed in the open in the town for several months; as a result, decomposition was already well advanced by the time they were recovered and buried in March and November 1945. It was only possible to identify the bodies and body parts found as belonging to specific individuals in two cases; the other remains were interred in mass graves.
The Lancaster NF 979 most likely crashed near the "Stadtgarten" (now ‘Willi Brand Park’) following anti-aircraft fire. Only a few pieces of wreckage were found and identified by the end of the war.
The crew’s remains were buried in the spring of 1945 in a mass grave in the "Stadtgarten", together with the remains of those from the Lancaster NG238. In December 1946, they were reinterred in a communal grave at the Venray British Cemetery in the Netherlands.
above:The pilot of NF979,Flight Officer John Graham Anderson, RNZAF
Above:The flight engineer on NF979Sgt Phillip Charles Maurice Russell