What happened on 15 March 1944
The Avro Lancaster Mk.I aircraft with the serial number W 4355 took off from Mildenhall Air Force Base in the Cambridge region on the evening of 15 March. Another 863 bombers took off with it, packed full of ammunition. The British Air Force dropped 2500 tonnes of high explosive phosphorus and incendiary bombs over Stuttgart. The stream of bombers, 150 kilometres long, caused a deafening noise and could be heard in places close to the Swiss border. The Royal Air Force lost 37 aircraft in the attack.
Almost crashed on a village:
The Lancaster bomber Mk.I with the serial number W435, designation LS-A from the Royal Air Force takes off for the night attack on Stuttgart. But in Athesans, France, around 40 kilometres from the Swiss border, it was attacked and hit by Bf 110s. The crew, some of whom were seriously injured, saved themselves with parachutes and bailed out over the lake district. The injured pilot Walter Blott is the last to bail out. He tried to steer the aircraft into the Niederried reservoir. But the plan failed and the aircraft flew pilotless towards Golaten, where the pilotless bomber circled over Golaten several times before crashing next to a farmhouse at around 11.30 pm. All that remained of the airframe was unrecognisable debris; the remains of the aircraft were scrapped in Switzerland.
Crew:
Pilot: F/Lt Walter Blott
Flight Engineer: Sgt G. Mattock
Navigator: P/O Cedric Nabarro
Bomb Aimer: W/O John Millard (am 22.12.44 geflohen)
Wireless Oprtr: Sgt Gordon Gill
Mid-upper Gunner: Sgt William Forster
Rear Gunner: Sgt Denis Murphy
Gedenksteineinweihung 21. Juli 2024
