Date:	Tuesday 25 April 1944
Time:	02:18 claim
Type:	Handley Page Halifax Mk III
Owner/operator:	420 (City of London) Sqn RCAF
Registration:	MZ503
MSN:	PT-L
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 5 / Occupants: 7
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Waal river near Zuilichem, Gelderland -   Netherlands
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Tholthorpe
Destination airport:	Karlsruhe

Narrative:
Takeoff at 21:35 hrs for an operation to Karlsruhe in Germany.
Having lost its nose in a collision over the target, the aircraft was intercepted and shot down by night fighter pilot Oberleutnant Hermann Greiner of the 11./NJG 1, who was flying a Bf 110 G-4 from St Trond (Sint-Truiden) airfield in Belgium.
The Halifax crashed near Zuilichem (Gelderland) on the S bank of the Waal, 8 km WSW of Zaltbommel. Those who died rest in Zuilichem General Cemetery.
Five crew members died, two were taken prisoner by German occupation forces:

Pilot F/O. D.D. Watterson J/20177 RCAF / grave 1 1-3
Flight Engineer P/O. A. Hansford 179265 RAF / grave 1 1-3 / 36 years old (NCO:3583983 Commission Gazetted : Monday 13 March, 1944)
Navigator W/O. E.V. Webb R/114846 RCAF / grave 1 1-3 / 21 years old
Bomb Aimer F/O. A.S. Redmonds J/28213 RCAF / grave 1 1-3
Wireless Operator F/O. W. Murphy J/22084 RCAF / grave 1 1-3 / 23 years old
Air Gunner Sgt. B.M. Cassidy R/207884 RCAF / prisoner of war; died 17th March 2005 at age 81 / buried at Zuilichem 4th May 2005
Air Gunner Sgt. G.R. Tanner J/90757 RCAF / prisoner of war

Nachtjagd Combat Archive 1944 part two
https://verliesregister.studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/rs.php?aircraft=&sglo=T3619&date=&location=&pn=&unit=&name=&cemetry=&airforce=&target=&area=&airfield=
Google Maps
Commonwealth War Graves Commission
http://wilhelminasluis.nl/zuilichem-25-04-44.html
Royal Air Force Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1944 Page 187.
Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

17 August 1944

MZ687

420 (Snowy Owl) Sqn RCAF

8

North Sea, some 70 nm off Dutch coast

w/o

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-Dec-2008 11:45	ASN archive	Added
08-Apr-2014 13:22	gerard57	Updated [Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Other fatalities, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
20-Apr-2014 21:27	Nepa	Updated [Operator]
25-May-2015 18:24	King	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
10-Jun-2016 15:42	Red Dragon	Updated [Cn, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
03-Apr-2020 10:27	TigerTimon	Updated [Time, Other fatalities, Location, Phase, Source, Narrative]
16-Jun-2022 07:39	Ron Averes	Updated [Location]