Crew members of Lancaster KB728
Pre- 419 Squadron
The Morrison crew were a highly experienced group of airmen. Before coming to 419 Squadron they had completed 13 sorties with 434 Squadron. The crew then took part in six operations with 405 PFF Squadron before being posted to Moose Squadron.
Night of June 14th 1944
Lancaster KB728 squadron ID VR-V took off at 2308 for an operation against Sterkrade Germany. The aircraft was reported to have exploded in mid-air after or during an attack by enemy night fighters.From local sources the following was found out post-war; the aircraft crashed around 0130 into Middelweg with the wreckage burning and ammunition exploding so no one could get close. A local farmer's eye witness account was that he saw three bodies in the aircraft and had found two more bodies in the field. Yet another body was found in a near by ditch. An open parachute was also found with no body near by? There was a delay of several days before the Germans allowed the bodies to be removed from the crash scene. The local church was Roman Catholic and the pastor refused to have the bodies in his cemetery. Eventually arrangements were made to have the bodies interned in the Reformed Church's cemetery in Huissensedijk. Only four coffins were used. One containing the remains of the three bodies from the aircraft. The remaining coffins contained the bodies found away from the aircraft. Only these three bodies were identified at that time. When the post-war exhumation of the graves there were only five bodies found. The open parachute remained a mystery.
They were very experienced crew who all were close to completing their first tour of thirty operations. The crew members had logged from 27 to 29 operations.
The Memorial
The people of Elden maintained the graves in honor of the airmen and today there is a memorial to them near the crash site.
The Luftwaffe put up a heavy resistance and many combat reports were filed by the crews.
Each report giving details on the gunners encounters with the Luftwaffe's night fighter's and their attempts to stop the bomber stream from reaching the target.Later Luftwaffe documents showed that the stream of aircraft had been detected and partly followed by tracking the signals coming from the bomber's H2S, a ground scanning radar system used to guide the bombers accurately to the targets.
The new FuG 350 radar detector equipment developed by the Luftwaffe from a captured H2S was able to locate the signals each time the ground scanning radar system was used. The development of detection devices and counter devices was the beginning of Electronics Warfare.
