Date:	Sunday 7 January 1945
Time:	22:30
Type:	Avro Lancaster B Mk III
Owner/operator:	405 (Vancouver) Sqn RCAF
Registration:	PB229
MSN:
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 7
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Unterpfaffenhofen, Bayern -   Germany
Phase:	En route
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Gransden Lodge
Destination airport:	RAF Gransden Lodge

Narrative:
During the night of 7-8 January 1945 645 Lancasters and 9 Mosquitoes of 1, 3, 5, 6 and 8 Groups, RAF Bomber Command, attacked Munich and claimed a successful area raid, with severe damage to the central and some industrial areas. This was the last major raid on Munich. 11 Lancaster were lost and four more crashed in France.

Returning RAF crew reported a mid-air collision between two Lancasters at around 2230 hrs:
22:28 hrs, Munich area, "Approx 100/200 yards N. slightly above 2 Lancs seen converging and then collide with violent exposion and burning debris seen falling."
22:36 hrs, Munich, "Two Lanc seen to collide. Both blew up and then went down in flames."

These reports probably are about the same event, the air collision between the Lancaster III PB229 LQ-X of 405 Sqn RCAF and the Lancaster III PB173 F2-C of 635 Sqn RAF. According to German documents both crashed at 2230 hrs at Unterpfaffenhofen, 19 km SSE from the centre of Nürnberg, in fighter grid reference DC 6 (wrongly noted as DC 4 in the German documents). There was no survivor.

Crew:-
Pilot : Flight Lieutenant Leslie Garwood Sparling RCAF J/28709 [Killed]
Flight Engineer : Flight Sergeant Robert Andrew Quinn RCAF R/166920 [Killed]
Navigator : Flying Officer James Allan RCAF J/36317 [Killed]
Bomb Aimer : Flying Officer Lawrence William Splatt RCAF J/35536 [Killed]
Wireless Operator : Pilot Officer Norman Lester William Scott RCAF J/92782 [Killed]
Mid-Upper Gunner : Flight Sergeant Douglas Harold Brown RCAF R/214565 [Killed]
Rear Gunner : Pilot Officer Daniel Veri RCAF J/95485 [Killed]

Sparling, Quinn, Brown and Veri are buried in Dürnbach War cemetery. The other have no known grave and are commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. This Lancaster bore the unusual name of "Honk Tonk". Its career was somewhat chequered with at least two speels of inactivity while undergoing repairs on site, the last being completed on 25 November 1944.

http://www.rafcommands.com/forum/showthread.php?10068-Lancaster-collision-night-of-7-8-Jan-1945-Unterpfaffenhofen
"The Bomber Command War Diaries", by Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt, ISBN 1-85780-033-8
"Royal Air Force Bomber Command losses, vol 6. Aircraft and Crews Losses 1945", by W R Chorley, ISBN 0-904597-92-X
http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead.aspx
http://de.wikipedia.org/wiki/Germering
http://www.maplandia.com/germany/bayern/oberbayern/furstenfeldbruck/unterpfaffenhofen/
Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
25-Aug-2013 21:32	JINX	Added
24-May-2015 20:35	Zeeland	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
18-May-2016 15:43	Red Dragon	Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Location, Country, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
29-Jun-2018 06:53	ehren69	Updated [Location, Source, Narrative]
13-Oct-2018 16:50	stehlik49	Updated [Operator]
02-Jan-2019 11:34	Laurent Rizzotti	Updated [Date, Time, Cn, Location, Source, Narrative]
07-Jan-2024 07:58	Rob Davis	Updated [Source, Narrative]