NG238
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 lost their lives and over 95 per cent of the town had been destroyed. On 19 November 1944, the remaining population of Düren was evacuated and did not return to the ruins until February/March 1945.
There are no eyewitness accounts or records of the crashes of the three Lancasters over Düren. It is virtually impossible to determine exactly which aircraft crashed where within the town, and this can only be described approximately on the basis of documents and records from the Allied recovery units.
The same applies to the initial burial sites of the crews. Although several mass graves have been documented, as the crews’ bodies had lain exposed in the open in the town for several months, 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 NG238 broke up in mid-air following an explosion caused by anti-aircraft fire. The gun turret crashed into the small factory belonging to the Gothe family at 25 Rütger-von-Scheven Street. It was here that the body of Sgt Henry Sapsed was found; he was the only identified member of the crew.
The engines (whether this involved several or all of them can no longer be ascertained today) fell to the ground near the statue of the Virgin Mary by the old pond. Immediately after the war, the wreckage of the aircraft was salvaged by scrap dealers from various locations within the Düren city area and, in some cases, completely dismantled. Consequently, identification of the individual aircraft is possible only through a few surviving wreckage parts
All the other victims of flights NG238 and NF979 were not found until March 1945, following the capture of Düren by Allied troops and the return of the evacuated population, and were buried in mass graves. No precise identification of the dead took place at that time, nor was it possible after their exhumation in September 1946.
Above:
The locations where individual wreckage parts of NG238 were found in the completely destroyed town centre of Düren.
At the very top, shown on a contemporary town map; below, the individual locations shown on a more recent map.
Left:
The pilot of the Lancaster NG238,
Fl/O James Ross Copland, RNZAF
Source: aircrewremembered.com