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| Date: | Sunday 9 November 1941 |
| Time: | 20:52 LT |
| Type: | Handley Page Hampden Mk I |
| Owner/operator: | 408 (Goose) Sqn RCAF |
| Registration: | AE438 |
| MSN: | EQ-N |
| Fatalities: | Fatalities: 4 / Occupants: 4 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | Zeeweg, Roksem, Oudenburg, West Flanders -
 Belgium
|
| Phase: | Combat |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Syerston, Nottinghamshire |
Took off at 17:55 hrs local time for an operation against Oostende.
The aircraft was hit by the 13./III./Flak-Regiment 4 and crashed.
August Baeckeland from Roksem, part of Oudenburg in West Flanders, remembers: "It must have been around 3 a.m. when Valeer Vandekerckhove knocked on the door. Taken by surprise he came to ask for help and told us that an aeroplane had crashed near his farm on the Zeeweg. Once again a British bomber had been caught in the light beams and fallen victim to a German Flak-battery in the area of Ettelgem, near Ostend.
"When Valeer and I reached his farm, a grim spectacle awaited us. About twenty metres from Valeer's farm I saw an English bomber with its nose stuck in the ground, its tail half in the air. Fortunately, no fire had broken out in the crash. In the nearby orchard I saw a parachute hanging with the lifeless body of a crew member beneath it."
"In the darkness everything was difficult to distinguish and soon more people from the neighbourhood turned up. Gradually everything became clearer. At last the crew must have tried to leave the shot-up plane, but probably from too low an altitude. In the cockpit I saw the dead body of the pilot, a leg out of the window."
In the morning, an extensive German guard had been set up around the plane, who did not allow anyone near the wreckage. Fortunately, the crash had caused little or no damage to the buildings. The wreckage was loaded onto trucks. The Germans secured four bodies. The mortal remains were transferred to and laid to rest in Filip Bultynck's party room and buried at the municipal cemetery in Westkerke a few days later.
The cemetery was evacuated because of the rearrangement works at the crossroads near the church. Only the four soldiers remain and they are given a place of honour in the shade of a weeping willow. Thus they form the smallest military cemetery in Europe.
Crew killed: P: Plt Off J C Wilson RCAF J/5224 O: Plt Off E B Te M Robertson RNZAF NZ404556 W.Op/AG: Sgt D F W Norton RAFVR 1280431 AG: Sgt D V Markall RAFVR 1167721
Sources:
Nachtjagd Combat Archive The Early Years part two
https://luchtvaartgeschiedenis.be/content/hampden-ae438-te-roksem
http://www.aircrewremembered.com/wilson-john.html
Google Maps
Revision history:
| Date/time | Contributor | Updates |
|---|---|---|
| 06-Nov-2021 20:02 | TigerTimon | Added |
| 06-Nov-2022 12:41 | Ron Averes | Updated [Location, ] |
| 06-Jul-2025 07:13 | Antonio | Updated [Narrative, ] |
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