Date: 13/14th May 1943
Time: 03.07 Uhr. (German time)
Unit: No.78 Squadron RAF
Type: Handley Page Halifax II
Serial No: JB873
Coded: EY - J
Location: Crashed between the two villages of Oud-Heverlee and Haasrode, Belgium.
Sgt G. H. Dane MID 146425 – Killed.
Sgt J. H. Body 658465 – Killed.
Sgt A. C. P. Minnitt – Captured POW.
Sgt R. G. Goddard 1333556 – Evaded capture and returned.
Sgt L. Adams 1390851 – Captured POW.
Sgt J. W. Pople 1388502 – Captured POW
Sgt A. Beatson 1698487 – Captured POW.
Sgt F. W. Webb 1388371 – Captured POW
REASON FOR LOSS:
Took off from its base at Linton-on-Ouse at 23.29 hours. Was attacked and shot down by a night fighter of Lt Wolfgang Schnaufer II./NJG1 and crashed between Oud-Heverlee and Haasrode (Brabant). Both pilots who were killed were laid to rest in the Haasrode Churchyard. The only evader, Sgt Goddard returned to the UK and was decorated with the DFM, details being gazetted 17th August 1943.
The wreck of Halifax JB873 appears to be near a farm barn, here the turret and tail wheel (Jeckel)
Burial detail:
Sgt Dane and Sgt Body both rest in the Haasrode Churchyard, Belgium.
Researched and compiled by Melvin Brownless with special thanks to Horst Keckel, August 2013.
The British Library is preserving this site for the future in the UK Web Archive at www.webarchive.org.uk All Aircrew Remembered on our Remembrance pages, are therefor not just remembered here, but also subsequently remembered and recorded as part of our nation’s history
and heritage at The British Library.
