In June 1944 there was the feeling that the war will not last that long.
Allied forces had landed in Norman on June 6. A week later, on the night of 12 to 13 June 1944, the Oosteinde in Nunspeet was startled by a crashing plane in the middle of the night. It was a lancaster bomber that had destroyed the oil installations in Gelsen-Kirchen with a total of 294 aircraft, in such a way that the production of jet fuel for the Germans failed for a long time.
But also seventeen English bombers were lost.
One was the Lancaster MK-II DS818 with the name Maggie on the motorcycle shield. The aircraft, which belonged to the 514 Squadron, had been fired at by the German anti-aircraft artillery and flew a bit slower. This made it easy prey for a Duiste night fighter. It is not certain at all, but it might have been Lieutenant Hitler who shot Maggie around half past two in the night.
An explosion set the device on fire. The lost height flew a bit further in the direction of Harderwijk, but turned around and crashed at the Oosteinderweg for about two hours. At the Nagelhout farm on Oosteinderweg 70 the tail broke and came down in a field of oats in the area where the Heemskerklaan was later constructed. Tail gunner Sergeant Keith Russell Baker also ended up there. Kindreen found him when they went to school in the morning.
The rest of the aircraft came on a rye branch at the present poultry slaughterhouse. The wreckage was scattered everywhere.
Three men were still in the burning plane. The bodies were burned in such a way that it was difficult to find out who they were.
Only after the war did clarity come about. Flight engineer Sergeant Peter Geoffrey Cooper landed with his parachute in a beech tree in the lane where now the deer park is. He had a broken leg and was taken to the hospital by the Germans.
Bombardier Flight Sergeant Harry James Bourne landed over Wesinge near Doornspijk. Totally upset he was taken care of by local residents, but wanted to return to his kamaradenin the plane. There he was captured by the Germans. The police report states:
"There is a suspicion that one of the pilots has escaped by withdrawing from his arrest by his flight."
That suspicion was correct, because pilot of Maggie, Pilot Officer Derek Anthony Duncliffe, ended up in the forest with his parachute. When Wim Mazier went to school in the morning, he met a man on stocking feet. He thought for a moment that it was a Dark, but then he saw from the uniform that it had to be an Englishman. Wim took him to an underground hut near the Middenhoeve, brought home sandwiches and coffee and went back to the hut.
Duncliffe got a safe place in the Pas Op-Kamp and in other places in Nunspeet. At the liberation he was in Apeldoorn and could then return to England.
The two imprisoned passengers ended up in a POW camp in Silesia and were able to return to England after the war. The four killed passengers were buried on June 15 at the cemetery in Nunspeet.
The British War Graves Foundation placed uniform gravestones after the war.
Source: publication "Stripes in the Air" by Dick Baas. Publication Nunspeet 2008 (
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Crew: Lancaster Mk.II - DS818 - JI-Q - 13 Jun 1944 - Mission: Gelsenkirchen
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1238964 - 174413 - P/O. - Pilot - D. A. Duncliffe - RAFVR - Age 21 - EVD
658833 - F/Sgt. - Navigator - G. F. Lewis - RAFVR - Age 23 - KIA
1520541 - Sgt. - Wireless Operator / Air Gunner - G. K. Brown - RAFVR - Age 31 - KIA
1086096 - Sgt. - Flight Engineer - P. G. Cooper - RAFVR - Age .. - POW
1586150 - F/Sgt. - Bomb Aimer - H. J. Bourne - RAFVR - Age .. - POW
2208713 - Sgt. - Mid Upper Air Gunner - W. E. Steger - RAFVR - Age 20 - KIA
1852412 - Sgt. - Rear Air Gunner - K. R. Baker - RAFVR - Age ~20 - KIA