3 March 1945 and the kindness of strangers

[mozart]

This day is always tinged with sadness for me because 81 years ago my namesake and his fellow crew members flying a Lancaster based at Waddington were shot down and killed, most probably by Heinz Wolfgang Schnaufer, whilst attacking the Dortmund-Ems canal near Ladbergen, north west Germany.  After visiting their graves in the Reichswald War Cemetery in 2005, I started some research about their final (and only third) operation.  The intervening years have taken me across the world meeting families of the crew, studying at the National Archives both in London and Canberra, and building a detailed website which has expanded way beyond my original intentions, it can be viewed at www.ordinarycrew.co.uk 

 

There were many highlights over the years but one particular one was finding the exact spot where the Lancaster crashed in Germany, an area named Pentrup which is near Ladbergen.  I visited the crash site in 2010, met the lovely family whose land the plane crashed on, and left a plaque in memorium on a nearby oak tree.

 

 

This plaque was vandalised soon afterwards, but the incensed family replaced it with another metal one attached to a stone.

 

I had an email recently from a chap called Rainer Hillbrand who was hiking in the Pentrup area and saw the plaque.  He did a little research and found my website, then contacted me directly asking for more details, he having already logged the position of the plaque on OpenStreetMap, something I'd never heard of but apparently it's used by walkers worldwide.  Since then Rainer has put lots of details about the crew on WikiData (again something I was only vaguely aware of) and Wikimedia Commons.  I'm very grateful to Rainer for all of this because he's helping to commemorate this crew in particular but all of those in Bomber Command in general.  He has also pointed out (unbeknownst to me (again!)) that my website host Wix is an Israeli company.  As he put it "In times of peace, but especially in times of war, having a local copy of the complete website content is always a good thing".  When I confessed that copying my website was beyond my technical capabilities, he has  kindly done it for me on a track website copier.  Photos that Rainer sent me:

 

 

The Langkamp family got the squadron number slightly wrong from the wrecked original plaque, putting "4ST" instead of "467", but that's of little concern.  This has been corrected on the Wikidate site and OMS by Rainer.

 

The kindness of strangers is very touching and reassuring in this era where self-interest and aggrandisement appears to be the main motive of many.  I am forever grateful and happier than normal on this day.

 

 

Edited Tuesday at 01:45 PM by mozart

[CRAZY IVAN5]

What a heart warming story! There's A LOT good people in this world , the only trouble is the nasties suck up all the press, or so it seems.

[dennismcc]

53 minutes ago, CRAZY IVAN5 said:

What a heart warming story! There's A LOT good people in this world , the only trouble is the nasties suck up all the press, or so it seems.

The above is sad but true, there are a lot of nice people out there going about their daily business.

A very fine story Max, thank you for posting it.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[mozart]

There’s another sad/happy element too Dennis. After my plaque was vandalised the Langkamp family were so cross that they contacted the local police and newspapers. A chap who lived in the nearby town of Greven read the story and phoned the Langkamps asking permission to go over the crash site field with his metal detector. Well, he found lots of bits many of which he sent me….that was my Holy Grail! The exploded .303 bullets were manufactured in 1944 in Radway Green, not a million miles from you! (And very close to where I spent three years at college in Alsager). 

[dennismcc]

Pretty amazing Max, its nice to hear that there are still people like that about, its also nice that something was recovered rather than left to corrode away underground.

I had to look up Radway Green and they are still in the ammunition business.

It seems a long way for you to go to study, unless you were living up our way at the time.

 

Cheers

 

Dennis

[mozart]

Living in halls of residence then digs for three years Dennis, then in Hanley for a fourth for Keele Uni. 

[DugyB]

Thanks for sharing this story with us, it’s a bit heartbreaking and yet heartwarming all at the same time. So many young men’s life never lived, the appalling scale of the loss of life escapes my comprehension.  Mad respect to all those young men. 

[Furie]

Quote

This plaque was vandalised soon afterwards...

 

Two things are infinite: the Universe and human stupidity.

And I’m not totally sure about the Universe just yet...

Albert Einstein.

 

Edited Wednesday at 05:10 PM by Furie

[mozart]

So true Denis! Just to tie up any lose ends, this is Rainer’s Wiki article:

 

 https://www.wikidata.org/wiki/Q138567396