"Propeller of the Lancaster ND689 KMO bomber, crashed at Long on 05.20.1944, emerged on 09.12.1998.
The Lancaster Mk III ND 689 was part of a batch of 600 aircraft built by AVRO at Chadderton from December 1943 to May 1944. It is equipped with Merlin 38 engines manufactured under license from Packard.
The ND 689 of the 44th Squadron, unit code KM-O, was shot down on the night of May 19-20, 1944.
It had taken off at 10:56 p.m. from the Dunholme-Hodge base in Great Britain to bomb the station in the town of Longueau, in the Somme, region of northern France.
Sergeant Ingram is listed on panel 211 of the Runnywede Memorial. One of the killed (KIA), is buried in the cemetery of Saint Pierre and the three others in the communal cemetery of Abbeville. Despite multiple searches we did not find any traces of prisoners (POWs) after the war.
In 1998, the Lancaster WU 21 restoration team from the Ailes Anciennes Le Bourget association, helped by the municipality of LONG, its inhabitants, the firefighters of Flixecourt, two divers from Beauvais and the demining team of 'Amiens fished the Merlin 38 engine from the peatlands of the “Banc des provisions”, the name of a pond near LONG, in the Somme.
The Lancaster WU 21 restoration team restored the Merlin engine. With the agreement of the City of LONG, this engine will be exhibited at the Air and Space Museum at Le Bourget. in the hall 1939-1945."