Hi, Susan,

 

Lancaster 111 Serial No. ED938, Code CF-F.  Flight squadron 625 took off at 2243 on the evening of 13/06/1944 from RAF Kelster on Ops to Gelsenkirchen and due to enemy fire crashed near Spanbroek (Noord-Holland) approximately 9km NW of Hoorn. 

 

Of the 7 crew members only 2 managed to escape the crash and were both taken Prisoner of War:

 

The two survivors were as follows: 

 

Service No. 417891 Flight Sergeant Raymond Francis Ridge (Barney), RAAF taken to Stalag Luft L7 Bankou, near Kreulber, Upper Silesia (POW No. 233)

 

Service No. 419074 Flight Sergeant J.D. Lindsay, RAAF, taken to Stalag Luft L7 Bankou, near Kreulber, Upper Silesia (POW No. 174)

 

5 other crew members were reported killed in action and are buried at Spanbroek Churchyard.  They are as follows:

 

54182 Pilot Officer Alexander Gregory Scott, age 26 son of Alexander and Jessie Scott of West Drumoyne, Glasgow

 

637452 Sergeant Alfred Ronald Williams, age 24, son of Albert and Lena M Williams of Redditch, Worcestershire

 

418583 Flight Sergeant Charles Stirling Dundas Tainsh RAFF, age 26, son of Charles Dundas Tainsh and Helen Tainsh; husband of Dora May Tainsh, of Carnegie, Victoria, Australia

 

25514 Flight Sergeant Jeffrey Gordon Lane RAAF, age 21, son of Frank Charles and Margaret Ellen Lane, of Lismore, New South Wales, Australia

 

1586836 Sergeant Leonard Thomas Victor Suffield, age 23, son of Gearge and Kate Suffield, of Broadstairs, Kent

 

Operation Gelsenkirchen had 303 aircraft - 286 Lancasters and 17 Mosquitos of Nos 1, 3 and 8 groups, they carried out the first raid of the new oil campaign, the target was the Nordstern synthetic-oil plant at Gelsenkirchen.  17 Lancasters were lost.

 

My father's words "Lancaster was hit by flak, and they were ordered to bail out, Navigator killed, Tailgunner bailed out, followed by middle upper, followed by self at about 7,000 ft, all should have been able to bail to get out of front unless front escape hatch was too badly hit by flak to open."  My father's parachute caught on fire and as he was descending he could hear the parachute ropes, pinging as they burnt, he received burns to his face, both hands and also on the underside of his left leg.  He managed to crawl into a barn, but was soon confronted by the owners of the farm, a doctor, and the germans.  He was taken to Queen Willamena Hospital (Luftwaffe) Amsterdam on the 13/6/44 - 12/7/1944 approximately.  He was then transferred to Wetzlou Transit Camp 12/7/1944 Luft 7 Hospital 15/8/1944.

 

All this information has been taken from dad's records that I looked up on the net.  The last entry was "Didn't like marching for 3 weeks on one third rations ie from Bankou to Goldenberg."

 

Hope this is some help to you.

 

There has also been some discussion that at one stage my father escaped from POW by having a cycling uniform made up and leaking out information that there was going to be an attempted escape going in one direction and then he escaped in the other direction and coming to a road block, using the only German that he had learnt, "Open the gates I am training for the Olympics," and the guards opened the gates.  (Dad was a SA Champion cyclist and he was very fit, another reason why we thought that he lasted through his time in the Prison camp." But he must have been captured because he did the death march as stated on his records.

 

Kind regards

Helen