W7502
Crashes > of the R.A.F.
During the approach to the 1000 bomber raid on Cologne, one of the heaviest and most devastating raids Cologne will experience during the war, the Stirling I, W7502 comes under fire from the 1st / Res.Flak Abt. 212 and is hit. The aircraft catches fire and three members of the crew parachute out.
Fl/Sgt Borrowdale loses his parachute and clings to Sgt Tate's body in free fall. When Sgt. Tate opens his parachute, Fl/Sgt. Borrowdale slips and falls to his death. His shattered body is found near Aachen and buried in the cemetery there.
Sgt. Howard Tate and Sgt. Albert Smith also end up near Aachen and become German prisoners of war. Sgt. Smith is taken to a German military hospital because of his severe injuries and is not transferred to a German prisoner of war camp until January 1943.
The aircraft crashes with the remaining crew 400 metres southeast of Huppenbroich and burns out completely. All six crew members still in the plane are recovered and buried in Cologne's South Cemetery.