Serial No: ED427 Mark: III Known Op's: 7
Nickname: None Traced
Service History:
49 Sqn del'd 24-12-42 EA-O, SOC 20-4-34
Listed As: FTR
Date: 17 April 1943
Target/Tasking: Pilzen
SOC/Crash Site: Laumersheim, Germany
Notes:
16/17-4-43: Take off 2114 Fiskerton. Part of a force of 327 aircraft - 197 Lancasters, 130
Halifaxes, tasked to attack Pilzen. The attack cantered on the Skoda armaments works took place in
clear conditions and in full moonlight. However as the main force crews had been briefed to
'visually' identify the works prior to bombing and to use the Pathfinder markers as a guide; bombing
was not satisfactory and many crews bombed a large asylum 7 miles from the factory in error.
Local reports confirmed the raids failure by stating that armaments works was not hit during the
attack. 37 aircraft, 11.31 percent were lost - 19 Lancasters, 18 Halifaxes. The cause of the
aircrafts lose is not recorded but crashed at Laumersheim, Germany. All of the crew, who were on
their second operational sortie, have no known graves and are commemorated on the Runnymede
Memorial. At the time of its loss the aircraft had accumulated a total of 147 hours on its airframe.
01-2010: crashed site was located and was expected to be excavated in the spring. It is believed that the crew remain in board the aircraft.
The crash site of Lancaster ED 427 was located near the village of Laumersheim/Germany, by careful research of a local researcher and witness Peter Menges
All crew members are listed as MIA. From eyewitness reports we do believe, remains of the crew are still in the wreckage in the ground.
ED427 - EA-'O'
Took off from Fiskerton at 21:14 on 16/04/1943.
She was carrying 1x 4000 Cookie and 2x 1000 Lb general purpose bombs.
The route left England at Dungeness and proceeded to Pilsen via 3 turning points, these being 4937N 0205E, 4920N 0700E and 4855N 1230E.
The crew were:
Pilot F/O AV Bone (48898),
Nav Sgt CW Yelland 1578189,
W/Op Sgt RC White (134559),
B/A Sgt RJ Rooney (1238955),
F/Eng Sgt RNP Foster (545719),
Mid-Upper Sgt R Cope (1086776)
Rear Gunner Sgt BE Watt (R117198),
The recovery of ED427 was commenced by Uwe Benkel and his team in September 2012, with parts of the wing and engine being recovered , these were later identified and that being the #3 Engine, human remains were also recovered these were handed over to the local autorities at the end of the day.
In 2014 I was asked by Uwe if a museum could be located for the remains of the aircraft recovered that day could go on display as a memorial to the crew.