PB648
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 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. Whilst several mass graves are 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 most likely crash site of the Lancaster PB648 is assumed to be within or in the immediate vicinity of the RIEMANN BARRACKS. These barracks were not hit during the bombing raid; only one block of houses was destroyed. Whether this destruction was caused by the crash of PB648 is a matter of speculation.
As the aircraft crashed whilst carrying a full bomb load during the ongoing bombing raid, only fragments of the crew members were found in the completely destroyed wreckage. It was not until after the capture of Düren by Allied troops on 31 October 1945 that they were buried by British Sergeant Major Thompson in three graves in the immediate vicinity of the crash site. Identification was not possible due to severe mutilation and the fact that the bodies had been lying exposed for several months.
Sgt Joseph Edmund Leaman was not found until March 1945 by Allied burial parties in the ‘ruins of the city centre’ of Düren; no precise description of the location has been recorded. He was buried at the Henri Capelle American Cemetery in Belgium. In July 1947, he was exhumed and reburied at Hotton British Cemetery.
Above:
The crash site of PB648 at the RIEMANN barracks, on the outskirts of Düren.
Left:
The pilot of PB648,
Flight Officer Edward Thomas Coles, RCAF