Avro Lancaster I (PD268 SR-O) finally found at Hagen
Avro Lancaster I (PD268 SR-O) finally found at Hagen.
Crewmembers:
Flying Officer | R T | Cawthorp |
Sergeant | R W | Mahr |
Sergeant | W | Canning |
Sergeant | A F | Matthews |
Sergeant | C E | Preston |
Sergeant | L F | Tyrrell |
Squadron Leader | M V | Gibbon |
Warrant Officer | I H | Bond |
Record for the departure: http://www.backtonormandy.org/the-history/air-force-operations/airplanes-allies-and-axis-lost/lancaster/RAF80695.html
Record for his mission: http://www.backtonormandy.org/the-history/air-force-operations/airplanes-allies-and-axis-lost/lancaster/PD2681945-03-08.html
Finally certainty: Canadians visited Hagen in the footsteps of his brother.
Read the whole article here: http://www.lwl.org/pressemitteilungen/mitteilung.php?urlID=37578
Photos: H. Klötzer, LWL / Baales, Imperial War Museum, Ernest Mahr, LWL / Burgemeister
For years, experts from the LWL Archaeology for Westphalia, the city of Hagen cooperate with its historic center and local historian Horst Klötzer to document, among others, the crash sites of warplanes and thus the traces of the fighting during the Second World War.
The indications led Horst Klötzer as early as 2013 with the metal probe to widely scattered remains of a bomber crash, which was hitherto unknown. "Among the finds were tiny metal pieces that were often less than two centimeters, British coins and least massive aircraft parts with inscriptions and remains of the suspension locking" says Klötzer. The findings, he added, within two years with support from the LWL Archaeology for Westphalia and the city of Hagen, but also with other helpers to a giant puzzle together. After questioning by local residents and eyewitnesses followed extensive research in war documents and recordings.
"On the night of 7 to 8 March 1945 should be 526 British Lancaster and Mosquito bombers five perform an attack on the eastern German city of Dessau. They started the afternoon in Ludford Magna in Lincolnshire in eastern England," says Dr. Ralf Blank by those Wissenschaft, Museums & Archives of the city of Hagen. "At the time the Ruhrgebiet was still strong and secured the aircraft avoided the direct course, flew south over the Bergisches Land and Sauerland." So the machine PD 268 SR-O of the 101st Squadron. On board were eight crew members. The youngest was just 19 years with Rudolf Mahr. The young Canadians dominated the son of an immigrant from Germany, the German language and should interfere with special transmitters to radio communications of the enemy night fighter. The German opponents had the British attackers yet in sight: five aircraft were shot down.
The whereabouts of the machine PD 268 SR-O, the British authorities did not know until today. They remained missing. Until the researchers were active. Not only the crew members could be found within the search - even the surviving survivors. Klötzer finally got in touch with them. For Ernest Mahr, the brother of the youngest crew member Rudolf W. Mahr, was made by this surprising information: He wants to see with their own eyes the place of the crash - the place where his brother lost his life. Because the remains have local residents protested after some time buried in the cemetery in Hagen-Dahl - without official registration.