W4302
Crashes > of the R.A.F.
The Lancaster B I, W4302 was shot at by a 10 cm anti-aircraft gun in the Sieglar area. It received a direct hit and the bombs it was carrying exploded, tearing the aircraft apart in the air.
The wreckage of the aircraft and the partially mutilated bodies of the crew were scattered over several hundred metres. The cockpit of the aircraft with the pilot crashed through the roof of a workshop and landed on a lathe, with an arm and a leg sticking out of the cockpit. Debris, parachutes and body parts were found in various gardens and on the roofs of houses. The rear canopy with the machine guns was found near the old school.
Soldiers from the Hangelar airbase recovered the bodies and took them to the cemetery in Menden, where they were buried with military honours.
Source:
The information on the crash and the recovery of the crew is taken from the book by Hartmut Küpper:
BONN-HANGELAR, Volume 3/Page 189
Above:
Debris from the crashed Lancaster BI, W4302.
Left:
The crew's grave at the Menden cemetery.