©  Foto:

Aircraft crash at Broballe-Mjels in 1944

At around 02:30 on 29 January 1944, 2 British bombers crash in the area around Broballe and Mjels on Nordals.

The two aircraft are part of the 700 bombers that took off shortly before midnight in England and are heading south towards the city of Berlin in Germany.

JA 967 and HK 537 both crash over Nordals and all 14 crew members on board perish and are later buried at the cemetery in Aabenraa.

On the 50th anniversary, the small memorial site at Næsvej was established, with a memorial stone for each of the two crews, and every year flowers are laid on the anniversary of the crashes.

From Wyton Air Station, as part of R.A.F. Squadron 83, on board Lancaster JA 967:
F/Lt. Horace Robert Hyde, RAF (Pilot) - age 32
Sgt. Robert McKerlay, RAF (Flight engineer) - age 21
F/lt. Clement Charles Lockyer, RAF (Navigator) - age 27
F/O. Brian Andrew James, RAF (Bomb aimer) - age 22
F/O. William Bowman Robson, RAF (Wt Operator) - age ?
F/Sgt. Arthur Waite, RAF (Mid upper gunner) - age 22
F/O. Peter Groucutt Davies, RAF (Rear gunner) - age ?

From Waddington Air Station, as part of R.A.A.F. Squadron 463, on board Lancaster HK 537:
F/Lt. Norman Percival Cooper, RAAF (Pilot) - age 31
Sgt. Francis Charles William Bull, RAF (Flight Engineer) - age ?
P/O. George Jeffreys Kerr, RAAF (Navigator) - age 29
F/Sgt. Lewis Havelock Christmass, RAAF (Bomb aimer) - age 26
Sgt. Frederick Ernest Robson, RAF (Wt Operator) - age 20
Sgt. Ronald James Grist, RAF (Mid upper gunner) - age 26
F/Sgt. Harold Suthers, RCAF (Rear gunner) - age 21

Share your wonders: