Crashsite Handley Page Halifax Mk II W1271 VR-P

During the night of 21 to 22 June 1943, the Halifax Mk II W1271 bomber of the Canadian 419 Squadron crashed in this area. The aircraft had departed from RAF Middleton St George the previous evening for a mission to Krefeld. Above Brabant, it was fatally attacked by the Messerschmidt Bf110 night fighter of Leutnant Wilhelm Johnen 2./NJG 1 from Gilze Rijen. At around 0.1.43 a.m., it crashed near “De Posthoorn”, killing the entire crew.

The crew consisted of:

Pilot Sgt. Colin Rees Pearce, RNZAF, 22 years old
Flight engineer Sergeant Joseph John Francis Holland, RCAF
Navigator Flight Sergeant William Tidswell Ellis, RNZAF, 27 years old
Bomb aimer Sergeant Glyn John Davies Thompson, RAF, 27 years old
Sergeant William James Randall, RAF, 23 years old
Air gunner Sergeant James Galloway, RAF, 21 years old
Air gunner Flight Sergeant Edgar Lester Robson, RNZAF, 27 years old

All are buried at the Bergen op Zoom War Cemetery.

A monument at the crash site was unveiled on 22 June 2023.

The story of the crash of the Royal Canadian Air Force's Halifax W1271 is described in the book: ‘Het abrupte einde van drie missies boven Rucphen’ (The abrupt end of three missions over Rucphen) and ‘The abrupt end of three missions over Rucphen’.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Ad van Uffelen (1, 2, 3), Jan Taheij (4)