Crashsite Avro Page Halifax Mk III LW433 WL-W

During the night of 16 to 17 June 1944, the Halifax Mk III LW433 bomber of the Canadian 434 Squadron crashed in this area. The aircraft had departed from RAF Croft the previous evening for a mission to Sterkrade, Germany. Over the Netherlands, it was fatally attacked by the Heinkel He 219 night fighter of Unteroffizier Hugo Oppermann /NJG 1, from Venlo. At around 0.1.00 a.m., the Halifax crashed near the hamlet of Nederheide. Three crew members were killed, three were captured and one managed to escape the Germans and remained in hiding in Brabant until liberation.

The crew consisted of:
Pilot Officer Fred J. Haldenby RCAF (prisoner of war)
Sergeant Peter Dennis Victor Ager RAF Volunteer Reserve, 19 years old (killed, buried at the Protestant Cemetery in Zundert)
Flight Sergeant Edward J. Downing RCAF (initially escaped but arrested on 7 July in Antwerp)
Sergeant John H. Dougherty RCAF (prisoner of war)
Warrant Officer William Adrian Good RCAF, 21 years old (killed, buried at the Canadian War Cemetery in Bergen op Zoom)
Sergeant Tom Inverarity RCAF (escaped)
Pilot Officer Albert Edward Charles Boehmer RCAF, 19 years old (killed, buried at the Canadian War Cemetery in Bergen op Zoom)

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

The story of the crash of the Royal Canadian Air Force's Halifax LW433 is described in the book: ‘Het abrupte einde van drie missies boven 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)