ORAC
2nd Oct 2002, 14:08
Nice to see that nearly 60 years later some people still remember.
The Times - October 02, 2002
Dutch unearth war heroes' bomber
By Charles Bremner
A SEVEN-YEAR hunt has unearthed the wreckage of a wartime Wellington bomber in fields near Amsterdam, together with the well preserved remains of three Canadian crew members.
Details of the find were disclosed by the Dutch authorities yesterday after the three men’s families were notified that their RAF 428 Squadron bomber had been found. It crashed on May 5, 1943.
The Wellington, under the command of Warrant Officer Benjamin Moulton, 30, of the Royal Canadian Air Force, was shot down at 2am by a Messerschmitt 110 fighter as it returned to its base in Yorkshire, from a 600-aircraft raid on Dortmund.
Moulton, from Brockville, Ontario, was regarded as a local hero because witnesses said that at the last minute he steered the stricken aircraft away from Wilnis, 11 miles south of Amsterdam, as it descended in flames towards the town.
Captain Hans Spierings, of the Air Force recovery unit, said that the pilot’s action had probably cost him his life: “The people in the town all say that Moulton stayed in the plane to avoid hitting the town and this still has a great impression on the citizens. In their mind, Moulton was a hero.”
Two crew members bailed out and were taken prisoner, but Moulton and Flight Sergeants Joseph White and Joseph Thibaudeau, both 21, went down with the aircraft near Wilnis. Parts of Moulton’s body were found at the time and buried in a local cemetery, but the other two men were listed as missing.
The Wellington was brought up last week by an excavation team from the Royal Dutch Air Force. It was lying more than 12ft deep in a peat bog in a reclaimed field below sea-level.
The operation was the climax of a drive launched in 1995 by a group of local residents to find the remains of the bomber that narrowly missed their village in 1943. In a campaign that attracted national attention, the group fought an initial refusal by the local authorities to allow the search and the building of a monument. Captain Spierings said: “When we found the remains, it was a moment of emotion for me. These men were my colleagues — they, too, were in the Air Force.”
Jan Rouwenhorst, a history teacher who set up the foundation to find the Wellington, said yesterday that the aim had been to honour men who died fighting for freedom.
“We knew human remains were inside. We thought it our moral obligation towards our liberators 60 years later for them to have a grave known to their families.”
The foundation raised money from local and central government and lobbied to convince the State to authorise the search and the excavation.
The wreckage was located on September 2 and the digging took three weeks. Among the items found was a map of the South of England. “When we opened it, it said, ‘Areas dangerous for flying in are not indicated on this sheet,’ ” Mr Rouwenhorst said.
Among other items retrieved were a pair of unused silk parachutes, phosphorous incendiary bombs, machineguns and ammunition.
A ruler with the name of Sergeant Gordon Carter, the navigator, was also found. Carter and Sergeant Harvey Hodinott, the radio operator, survived the war in a prison camp. Carter returned to Canada and Hodinott settled in Scotland. Both have since died.
The peat bog had ensured that the human remains of the crash victims were identifiable, Mr Rouwenhorst said. He added that unlike other hunters of wartime wrecks, his group was not interested in the wreckage itself.
The relatives of White, from Thorold, Ontario, and Thibaudeau, from St Eustache near Montreal, are still absorbing the news. Samuel White, 75, recalled how his underage younger brother had persuaded his mother to sign a consent form to let him go to war. “My mother died a thousand deaths,” Mr White said. “She cried every day for years until she died. She blamed herself.”
Mr White hopes that his brother will be reburied near the spot where his aircraft went down. “That’s where he’s been for nearly 60 years.”
Serge April, the Canadian Ambassador to the Netherlands, said that the men would be buried with all honours, “fitting for what they did and how they died”.
The Times - October 02, 2002
Dutch unearth war heroes' bomber
By Charles Bremner
A SEVEN-YEAR hunt has unearthed the wreckage of a wartime Wellington bomber in fields near Amsterdam, together with the well preserved remains of three Canadian crew members.
Details of the find were disclosed by the Dutch authorities yesterday after the three men’s families were notified that their RAF 428 Squadron bomber had been found. It crashed on May 5, 1943.
The Wellington, under the command of Warrant Officer Benjamin Moulton, 30, of the Royal Canadian Air Force, was shot down at 2am by a Messerschmitt 110 fighter as it returned to its base in Yorkshire, from a 600-aircraft raid on Dortmund.
Moulton, from Brockville, Ontario, was regarded as a local hero because witnesses said that at the last minute he steered the stricken aircraft away from Wilnis, 11 miles south of Amsterdam, as it descended in flames towards the town.
Captain Hans Spierings, of the Air Force recovery unit, said that the pilot’s action had probably cost him his life: “The people in the town all say that Moulton stayed in the plane to avoid hitting the town and this still has a great impression on the citizens. In their mind, Moulton was a hero.”
Two crew members bailed out and were taken prisoner, but Moulton and Flight Sergeants Joseph White and Joseph Thibaudeau, both 21, went down with the aircraft near Wilnis. Parts of Moulton’s body were found at the time and buried in a local cemetery, but the other two men were listed as missing.
The Wellington was brought up last week by an excavation team from the Royal Dutch Air Force. It was lying more than 12ft deep in a peat bog in a reclaimed field below sea-level.
The operation was the climax of a drive launched in 1995 by a group of local residents to find the remains of the bomber that narrowly missed their village in 1943. In a campaign that attracted national attention, the group fought an initial refusal by the local authorities to allow the search and the building of a monument. Captain Spierings said: “When we found the remains, it was a moment of emotion for me. These men were my colleagues — they, too, were in the Air Force.”
Jan Rouwenhorst, a history teacher who set up the foundation to find the Wellington, said yesterday that the aim had been to honour men who died fighting for freedom.
“We knew human remains were inside. We thought it our moral obligation towards our liberators 60 years later for them to have a grave known to their families.”
The foundation raised money from local and central government and lobbied to convince the State to authorise the search and the excavation.
The wreckage was located on September 2 and the digging took three weeks. Among the items found was a map of the South of England. “When we opened it, it said, ‘Areas dangerous for flying in are not indicated on this sheet,’ ” Mr Rouwenhorst said.
Among other items retrieved were a pair of unused silk parachutes, phosphorous incendiary bombs, machineguns and ammunition.
A ruler with the name of Sergeant Gordon Carter, the navigator, was also found. Carter and Sergeant Harvey Hodinott, the radio operator, survived the war in a prison camp. Carter returned to Canada and Hodinott settled in Scotland. Both have since died.
The peat bog had ensured that the human remains of the crash victims were identifiable, Mr Rouwenhorst said. He added that unlike other hunters of wartime wrecks, his group was not interested in the wreckage itself.
The relatives of White, from Thorold, Ontario, and Thibaudeau, from St Eustache near Montreal, are still absorbing the news. Samuel White, 75, recalled how his underage younger brother had persuaded his mother to sign a consent form to let him go to war. “My mother died a thousand deaths,” Mr White said. “She cried every day for years until she died. She blamed herself.”
Mr White hopes that his brother will be reburied near the spot where his aircraft went down. “That’s where he’s been for nearly 60 years.”
Serge April, the Canadian Ambassador to the Netherlands, said that the men would be buried with all honours, “fitting for what they did and how they died”.