X9916
Crashes > of the R.A.F.
27 Wellingtons and 7 Sterling take off from Feltwell to attack Cologne and the synthetic oil refinery at Wesseling.
On the approach to the target, the aircraft are detected by the flak's searchlights, but not clearly enough as there is dense ground haze over the targets.
Nevertheless, the flak succeeds in taking the Wellington X9916 under fire at the height of Frechen/Widderdsdorf. The right engine caught fire and the aircraft rapidly lost altitude, flying over the railway embankment in Weiden towards Bahnhofstrasse. Here it rips off the chimney of house No. 41 with its right wing, swings to the right, hits some more trees and crashes into the Wirsing fields. (Today, house No. 54 stands there, on the corner of Ludwig-Jahn-Str. and Hölderlin Str.).
On impact, the bombs still in the plane exploded and tore a huge cracker into the fields. None of the crew survived the crash, their completely mangled bodies were recovered and buried in Cologne's South Cemetery.
I would like to thank Henry Faust from Weiden, who was lucky enough to interview contemporary witnesses to this crash a few years ago.
He kindly shared his findings with me.
Top left:
List of graves at the Cologne South Cemetery
Above right:
Pilot Sgt. Frederick Lionel Roy Wood, RNZAF
left:
Fl/Sgt Newville Henry Welsh, RNZAF