Date:	Monday 22 May 1944
Time:	01:50 LT
Type:	Avro Lancaster Mk III
Owner/operator:	156 Sqn RAF
Registration:	ND559
MSN:	GT-J
Fatalities:	Fatalities: 6 / Occupants: 7
Other fatalities:	0
Aircraft damage:	Destroyed
Location:	near Molenaarsgraaf, Zuid-Holland -   Netherlands
Phase:	Combat
Nature:	Military
Departure airport:	RAF Upwood
Destination airport:

Narrative:
Took off from RAF Upwood at 22:44 hrs for a bombing operation against Duisburg in Germany.

Exploded, throwing clear Flt Sgt Ward, following a night fighter attack. Debris fell over Molenaarsgraaf (Zuid-Holland) some 14 km NE of Dordrecht. Those who died lie in Molenaarsgraaf Protestant Churchyard. The Squadron's Gunnery Leader, Sqdn Ldr Blair, gained his DFM on 103 Squadron, details appearing in the London Gazette on 25 October 1941:

Crew:-
Pilot : Flight Sergeant William James Ward RAF 1576902 [PoW]
Flight Engineer : Sergeant Sidney George Smith RAFVR 1466984 [Killed]
Navigator : Flight Sergeant Evan Ephraim Edward Roberts RAFVR 1422157 [Killed]
Bomb Aimer : Flight Sergeant Raymond Keating RAFVR 1338063 [Killed]
Wireless Operator / Air Gunner : Flight Sergeant Raymond George Watts RAFVR 1183531 [Killed]
Mid-Upper Gunner : Sergeant John Thomas Eardley McCaffery RAFVR 1374780 [Killed]
Rear Gunner : Squadron Leader John Edward Blair DFC DFM RAF 136172 (NCO:984600 : Commission Gazetted Tuesday 19 January, 1943) [Killed]

*This aircraft was claimed by Hptm Martin Drewes (Stab. III./NJG1) near Gouda at 01:50. This was his 38th confirmed victory.
He had taken off from Leeuwarden airfield at 00:09 hrs, in a Bf 110 G-4.

http://www.nimh.nl/nl/images/1944%20sec_tcm5-7285.pdf
Royal Air Force bomber Command Losses of the Second World War 1944 Page 230.
http://2ndww.blogspot.com/2006/07/what-happened-at-molenaarsgraaf.html
*Nachtjagd Combat Archive 1944 part three
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Rob Davis Bomber Command Losses Database

Date/time	Contributor	Updates
17-Dec-2008 11:45	ASN archive	Added
21-Jan-2010 21:01	w.bleumink	Updated [Time, Cn, Total fatalities, Total occupants, Narrative, ]
13-Jun-2016 19:31	Red Dragon	Updated [Time, Cn, Operator, Phase, Departure airport, Destination airport, Source, Narrative, ]
03-Nov-2018 10:02	Nepa	Updated [Operator, Destination airport, Operator, ]
17-Aug-2020 17:43	TigerTimon	Updated [Time, Other fatalities, Location, Source, Narrative, ]
07-May-2023 07:23	Anon.	Updated
17-May-2024 06:53	Rob Davis	Updated [Source, Narrative, ]