115 Squadron

29/30 August 1944

Lancaster Mk I - ME718 KO-G

T/O Witchford 2114 - target Stettin, Poland.
Shot down by a night fighter and crashed at Ove 12 Km of Hobro, Denmark.

Claim by Lt Hans Oppl 1/NJG7 - (S) Vuborg/Logstor area (LT-JT) 3,800m at 00:10.
Source: Nachtjagd Combat Archives 1944 Part 4 - Theo Boiten, via John Jones.
KIA 27 December, 1944 on a Night mission near Grandrieu, Belgium.
Source: Aircrew remembered.

ME718 was attacked by a German night fighter and caught fire.
At approx. 00:10 hours it crashed near Ove northeast of Hobro killing all onboard.
The bomb load exploded when the Lancaster hit the ground spreading wreckage
and human remains over a wide area.
The Germans did not want to collect the human parts and left them in the field.

The locals were abused by this behavior and collected the remains in wickerwork baskets.
The Wehrmacht ordered the Danes to hand the baskets over, and these were thrown in the
crater at the crash site and covered it.
When the Germans had left the area, the locals together with members of the Civil Air Defence
opened the crater and placed the remains in a coffin which was driven to Ove church.

On 4/9 1944 the flyers were laid to rest in Ove cemetery unknown to the Wehrmacht,
Vicar A. Bundgård officiating at the grave side ceremony.

Source Air War over Denmark

Source: 115 Squadron Roll of Honour by D. Bruce, W. R. Chorley, J. G. J. de Haan.

402 Lancasters and 1 Mosquito of Nos 1,3, 6 and 8 Groups ordered to Stet tin.
This was a successful raid, hitting parts of Stettin which had escaped damage in previous attacks.

23 Lancasters lost, 5.7 per cent of the force.

Source: nationalarchives.gov.uk - Bomber Command - Campaign Diary August 1944.

ORB. 29th Aug., 1944.
21 aircraft (22 aircraft - 7 from "A" Flt., 7 from "B" Flt., & 8 from "C" Flt. -
1 aircraft from "C" Flt. was cancelled)
took off between 21.08 hours and 21.30 hours to attack STETTIN.
2 aircraft (G.ME.718 F/L. E. CHATTERTON J.24313 and
W.PB.131 Captain F/O. N. G. BERKELEY) Lancaster Mk III PB131 KO-W, 7 KIA,
failed to return from Operations - no news being received.
1 aircraft (J.HK.598 Captain F/O. P. F. WARD) was forced to abandon the sortie due to starboard inner engine
being unserviceable and returned to Base early after jettisoning his bomb load safe.
18 aircraft identified the target visually and by P.F. flares and bombed red and green indicator markers from heights
ranging between 15,000 feet and 19,000 feet.
Bombing was well concentrated around docks and many large fires with much smoke and explosions were observed.
Photographs were attempted.
One aircraft had its fore part and cockpit damaged by Flak and the Pilot (F/S. POTTER, C. F. RAAF - HK.555) was wounded in the leg.
Permission was granted to land in SWEDEN but Pilot carried on and successfully landed his aircraft at Base.