Dunlop crew 48 crash site Niederaussem, Germany

The RCAF 434 Squadron would like to graciously thank Loni Schneider of Niederaussem Germany for submitting very thorough documented research into the Loss of Halifax EB-257, coded WL-E and Dunlop crew 48.

On 25th Sept. 2015 a monument was completed at the crash site for the Dunlop crew, I would like to thank Loni for providing the following images.

Niederaussem Germany

A large boulder rests on approximate location where Halifax EB-257 had crashed.

Two plaques provide a brief history, 4 aircrew were killed, 3 others became P.O.W.

Killed were; F/S E.A. Dunlop (Pilot).  Sgt J.E. Owen (W/Op). Sgt C.R.M. Edgar (R/AG). Sgt L.F. Shirley (F/E).

P.O.W.'s; Sgt J.E. James (Nav.). Sgt R.H. Vance (B/A). Sgt N.J.J. McBride (MU/AG).

The following is details on the crash of Halifax EB-257 3/4 Nov. 1943 In Niederaussem - Loni Schneider.

Requiem for a Rear Gunner
My brief sweet life is over,

My eyes no longer see,
No summer walks,

No Christmas Trees,

No pretty girls for me.

I've got the chop, I've had it, 

My nightly ops are done
Yet in another hundred years; I'll still be twenty-one 

by R W Gilbert

What Happened on 3/4 Nov. 1943?

On the evening of the third / fourth November 1943 between approximately 19:00 - 20:00 clock attacked the British Royal Air Force Bomber Command, under the command of Air Marshall Sir Arthur Travers Harris, called "Bomber Harris" in Dusseldorf (Dusseldorf operation). The focus of the attack was in the Dusseldorf city center and in the southern parts of the city, with the most severe damage to homes and industrial buildings, such as Rheinmetall in Dusseldorf - Their village and Mannesmann-iron pipe mills in Dusseldorf-Carlstadt.
(The 1930s and 1940s were also marked by the defense and self-sufficiency policy of the Nazi government. During the Second World War, the company employed to compensate for the labor shortages prisoners of war and forced laborers to maintain production).

Source Stadtarchiv Düsseldorf; Bomb attack on 11.03.1943 at 19.03 clock and 21.10 clock in the Düsseldorfer districts; Altstadt, Oberbilk, Hafen, Rath, Friedrichstadt , Flingern, Stadtmitte, Stoffeln.

7 mines, 10 Bombs, 10 staff-bombs. 9 person dead and 36 Person injured.

The RAF Bomber Command lost 24 aircraft:

19 Royal Air Force (RAF)

4 defective landed on the base

1 crashed in England

5 crashed in Netherland and Belgia

3 crashed in Mönchengladbach and 1 crashed in Kempen

5 crashed in Düsseldorf

1 exploded in the vicinity of Köln

5 Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF 6 Group)

1 Bomb missing

1 crashed in England

1 crashed in Netherland

1 crashed in Mönchengladbach

1 crashed in the near of Köln

What Information We Had?

Pastor Carl August Kreidt (dead 1958) wrote in his diary; "Against 20 clock crashed a shot down enemy aircraft over Niederaußem. A wing was between school and Mentgen across the main road. In the 11 m long wings was a tank with 300 liters. Gasoline. The burning residual flew up until about the portal of Fortuna-Nord and lay before the high voltage line. So no damage was done. Four Englishmen were dead, three escaped by jumping by parachute."

The crash imagine today would be about here.

These two pictures were provided to us by Gerhard Becker (ehem. Rhein Braun Director of briquette Frechen / CARL)

Halifax EB-257 in the Turnip field, power plant in background.

Several witnesses who have experienced this, also reported; "The crash of the aircraft had witnessed the neighborhood at night. In the early morning I went as a child at age 8 with my mother (my father was in the war) from our home in the Holt Roper Street to the wreck of the crashed British bomber outside the factory Fortuna-Nord. From our back garden it was up to the crash site a short away. In the cockpit were two dead pilots side by side. The pilots were from Canada, white- skinned with dark curly black hair. Probably the other flight attendants were in the rear of the machine.” "The bodies were found a few days later. The smell of death wafted towards us. The dead were then stored at the fire-house, where they were picked up a few days later”. “The gasoline flowed over the road. A farmer has bled gasoline".

Today Niederaussem Power Plant

The other wing landed in the village

The images have been provided by Dr. Rolf Bachem.

Today, same location.

"A chipped British soldier landed at Castle Holtrop on a field, went through the woods and reported to the manager of Castle Holtrop."
 "From the parachute silk were sewn communion dresses."

Castle Holtrop

24 bombers were lost on this night, of those only two crashed near Cologne Germany, one Halifax the other a Lancaster EA-R, Serial # ED-438 from 49 Squadron.