Date:	Friday 21 July 1944
Time:	01:20 LT
Type:	Avro Lancaster Mk III
Owner/operator:	405 (Vancouver) Sqn RCAF
Registration:	PB174
MSN:	LQ-P
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 7 / Occupants: 8
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	Weustboerweg, Reutum, Overijssel -   Netherlands
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Gransden Lodge
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Took off from RAF Grandsden Lodge at 23:40 hrs for a bombing operation against Bottrop in Germany.

Outward-bound, the aircraft was intercepted by night fighter pilot Hauptmann Martin Drewes, Kommandeur of III./NJG 1, who had taken off from Leeuwarden airfield at 00:25 hrs in Bf 110 G-4 G9+MD; crashed at Reutum, 11 km ENE of Almelo. In turn, Drewes and his crew of Fw. Erich Handke & Ofw. Georg Petz were forced to evacuate the Messerschmitt when the Lancaster exploded.
The rear gun turret of PB174 was blown free in the explosion, the gunner succeeding in extricating himself and pulling the release cord of his parachute, as the only survivor of his crew.
Those who died rest in Tubbergen Roman Catholic Cemetery next to six airman from 625 Squadron who Lancaster crashed while on operations to Berlin in March.

Crew:-
Pilot : Flight Lieutenant James Denholm Virtue RCAF J/7905 [Killed]
Flight Engineer : Sergeant Patrick Neil Gilbert RAFVR 1582850 [Killed]
Navigator : Flying Officer Joseph John Raymond Johnson RCAF J/24921 [Killed]
Bomb Aimer : Pilot Officer Vernon Fairbank Dodds RCAF J/89743 [Killed]
Bomb Aimer : Flying Officer Anthony Gerard McCarthy RAFVR 169703 [Killed]
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner : Pilot Officer Alfred Joseph Britts RCAF J/88665 [Killed]
Mid-Upper Gunner : Sergeant Thomas Davenport RAFVR 1354430 [Killed]
Rear Gunner : Flight Sergeant M S Stoyko RCAF 167132 [PoW]

Nachtjagd Combat Archive 1944 part three
https://verliesregister.studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/rs.php?aircraft=&sglo=T3892&date=&location=&pn=&unit=&name=&cemetry=&airforce=&target=&area=&airfield=
Google Maps
Air-Britain Royal Air Force Aircraft PA100-RZ999
Royal Air Foce Bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1944 Page 340.
*www.rafinfo.org.uk/BCWW2Losses/1944.htm
Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database

Other occurrences involving this aircraft

17 August 1944	PA988	405 (Vancouver) Sqn RCAF	1	near Allindemagle on the island of Sjælland		w/o
29 December 1944	PB525	405 (Vancouver) Sqn RCAF	8	missing		mis

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-Dec-2008 11:45	ASN archive	Added
25-Aug-2013 13:40	JINX	Updated [Operator, Phase, Source, Narrative]
05-Nov-2014 16:51	Wilbur	Updated [Aircraft type, Operator]
24-May-2015 20:27	Z. Zeeland	Updated [Operator]
25-Jun-2016 21:22	Red Dragon	Updated [Cn, Operator, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative]
23-Sep-2017 17:49	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]
06-Oct-2018 18:04	Anon.	Updated [Narrative]
13-Oct-2018 16:49	stehlik49	Updated [Operator, Destination airport]
22-Oct-2020 17:48	TigerTimon	Updated [Time, Location, Source, Narrative]
22-Mar-2024 15:22	Rob Davis	Updated [Source, Narrative]