Crash Site Vickers Wellington Mk II W5372 PH-D

This marker post stands on the spot where the RAF's 12 Squadron Vickers Wellington W5372 crashed on 26 March 1942. The aircraft had taken off from RAF Binbrook that evening with the aim of bombing the Krupp factories in Essen. On its way there, it was spotted by German radar and attacked by Oberleutnant Egmont Prinz zur Lippe-Weissenfeld's Bf110 night fighter from Bergen airfield. The aircraft then crashed in flames near the Kathoeksloot / Vleetweg in Andijk. The entire six-man crew was killed. They are buried in the military cemetery at the General Cemetery in Bergen. After the crash, three unexploded bombs were found, which were detonated by the Germans, leaving huge craters and metal debris in the soft polder soil.

The crew of the Wellington consisted of:
Wing Commander Albert Golding, RAF, pilot,
Sergeant Finlay Donald McLeod, RAAF, co-pilot,
Flight Sergeant Bruce Elbert Doe, RCAF, observer,
Sergeant Mervyn Duncan, RCAF, radio operator/air gunner,
Sergeant William Stanley Makin, RAF, radio operator/air gunner,
Sergeant Percival Gordon Thorpe, RAF, air gunner.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar
• Photos: Lars Bijwaard
• - https://www.verliesregister.studiegroepluchtoorlog.nl/ahome/lossregister/results?sglo=T1453
• - https://www.oorlogsmonumentenmedemblik.nl/vliegtuigcrash-wellington-w5372-andijk