Date:	Friday 28 April 1944
Time:	01:30 LT
Type:	Handley Page Halifax Mk III
Owner/operator:	51 Sqn RAF
Registration:	LW479
MSN:	MH-E
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 7
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Caberg, Maastricht, Limburg -   Netherlands
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Snaith
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Took off from RAF Snaith at 23:49 to attack the railway yards at Montzen in Belgium.
The aircraft was attacked by night fighter pilot Leutnant Friedrich Potthast of the 11./NJG 1, who was flying a Bf 110 G-4 from St Trond (Sint-Truiden) airfield in Belgium; blew up in the vicinity of Maastricht, where those who died are buried in the general cemetery. Flt Sgt Gillespie was very seriously wounded when he was ejected out of his aircraft:

Crew:-
Pilot : Flight Lieutenant Lewis Rothwell DFC RAFVR 171500 (NCO:1108064 : Commission Gazetted Tuesday 14 March, 1944) [Killed]
Flight Engineer : Flight Sergeant Robert Gillespie RAF 966771 [PoW]
Navigator : Flight Sergeant William George Clark RAFVR 1321803 [Killed]
Bomb Aimer : Flight Sergeant Anthony Brian Partridge RAF 1388359 [PoW]
Wireless Operator : Sergeant John McQuater RAFVR 1550193 [Killed]
Mid-Upper Gunner : Sergeant John Ewing Sinclair RCAF R/199326 [PoW]
Rear Gunner : Sergeant John McGlynn RAFVR 1590573 [Killed]

Note:-F/Sgt. Robert GILLESPIE Royal Air Force 51 Squadron
Robert arrived home on Tuesday night the 17th of April 1945, much to the surprise of his family by stepping off a coal lorry he had boarded at Newmains. During his captivity Robert had helped to keep up the spirits of the other lads who were prisoners in Germany, when asked about this he said – ” I had to keep up the auld Scotch custom by keeping up the boy’s spirits”. Robert was full of praise for the work of the Red Cross, he said – “we would never have survived on the German rations had it not been for the Red Cross Parcels”. He was on his second tour of operations when he baled out over Germany. He was liberated on 8th of April 1945 by the 3rd American Army.

Nachtjagd Combat Archive 1944 part two
https://verliesregister.studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/rs.php?aircraft=&sglo=T3631&date=&location=&pn=&unit=&name=&cemetry=&airforce=&target=&area=&airfield=
Google Maps
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1944 Page 199.
Note:-SHOTTS DISTRICT PRISONERS OF WAR 1939 – 1945. For everyone with an interest in the town and people of Shotts
*Luftwaffe Night Fighter Combat Claims 1939-1945.
Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

4 July 1943

JD262

51 Sqn RAF

5

Rance, Sivry-Rance, Hainaut

w/o

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-Dec-2008 11:45	ASN archive	Added
11-Jun-2016 15:30	Red Dragon	Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
06-Nov-2018 18:39	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Operator]
06-Apr-2020 08:52	TigerTimon	Updated [Time, Location, Source, Narrative]
27-Apr-2024 06:51	Rob Davis	Updated [Source, Narrative]