ASN Wikibase Occurrence # 220849
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| Date: | Monday 6 September 1943 |
| Time: | 00:29 |
| Type: |  Short Stirling Mk III |
| Owner/operator: | 149 (East India) Sqn RAF |
| Registration: | EE872 |
| MSN: | OJ-N |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 7 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Rheingönheim, Ludwigshafen am Rhein, Rheinland-Pfalz. -
 Germany
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk |
| RAF Lakenheath, Suffolk |
Takeoff at 19:36 hrs local time for an operation against Ludwigshafen & Mannheim. The aircraft was shot down by night fighter pilot Hauptmann Hans-Wolfgang von Niebelschütz of the 5./NJG 4, the attack taking place at a height of 5000 metres.
Flight sergeant Brown, and his colleagues Alexander Holms, David Badcock and Adrian Douglas, all from New Zealand, and Henry Saunders and Douglas Guest, both from London, lost their lives it he attack.
Rear gunner Harry Bernard, from Cambridgeshire, was the only crew member who survived. The other six rest in the Durnbach War Cemetery.
Crew of Stirling EE872:
Flight Sergeant David Herbert William BADCOCK (421312) Air Bomber
Flight Sergeant Andrew Angus BROWN (1349635) Pilot
Warrant Officer Adrian Vincent DOUGLAS (403617) Wireless Op
Sergeant Douglas Anthony Percy GUEST (1603378) Flight Engineer
Flight Sergeant Alexander Hunter HOLMS (421933) Navigator
Sergeant Henry Arthur SAUNDERS (649405) Air Gunner
Sergeant Harry "Barney" BARNARD (1308865) Rear Gunner - sole survivor, captured injured. Detained at Stalag 4B Muhlberg (Elbe). Survived the war, released from captivity in April 1945, and died in 1979.
On 6 September 2023, on the 80th anniversary of the loss of Stirling EE872, a memorial plaque was unveiled close the site of where the aircraft came down, in the presence of family members of the crew (see Daily Mail Report of 28.9.2023, link #1)
Sources:
1. https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-12568213/Memorial-six-brave-RAF-men-including-Scots-pilot-crashed-field-Germany-1943-unveiled-wreckage-site.html
2. https://www.stuff.co.nz/taranaki-daily-news/109964979/kiwi-bomber-crash-site-rediscovered-after-more-than-75-years
3. https://www.ig-heimatforschung.de/luftkrieg/stirling-ee872-ludwigshafen-1/
4. Nachtjagd Combat Archive 1943 part two
5. https://aircrewremembered.com/brown-andrew-angus.html
6. https://www.rafcommands.com/database/serials/details.php?uniq=EE872
7. Biography of Pilot: https://www.aircrew-saltire.org/lib106.html
8. https://wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/view.php?uid=208831
9. 149 Sqn RAF ORB for September 1943: National Archives (PRO Kew) File AIR27/1003/18: https://discovery.nationalarchives.gov.uk/details/r/D8389335
10. https://losses.internationalbcc.co.uk/loss/203380/
History of this aircraft
Other occurrences involving this aircraft
| 16 January 1942 | W7461 | 149 (East India) Sqn RAF | 0 | 1 mile SW of Anston |  |
w/o |
| 2 October 1942 | R9167 | 149 (East India) Sqn RAF | 7 | Bedelaarspad, Sevenum, Limburg |  |
w/o |
Location
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 16-Jan-2019 06:54 | gerard57 | Added |
| 21-Jan-2019 21:18 | Nepa | Updated [Operator, Operator] |
| 26-Jan-2019 12:20 | gerard57 | Updated [Registration] |
| 10-Aug-2020 07:48 | TigerTimon | Updated [Time, Cn, Other fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative] |
| 28-Sep-2023 15:29 | Dr. John Smith | Updated [[Time, Cn, Other fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative]] |
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