On June 26 1943 about midnight a Short Stirling bomber left the British RAF base at Chedburgh, Suffolk, together with 473 other bombers for a raid on the industrial area of Gelsenkirchen.
On board were seven crew – Bernard Church, John Tritton, Edwin Taylor, William Thompson, William Davis, Fredrick Mills, Keith Neilson.

Keith Neilson was on his first flight with the crew, he was standing in for another member of the crew William Thomas who was unable to fly that night, William was killed on the next mission he undertook after his crew had gone missing.

At 1.10 pm the plane flew above de Achterhoek.                     


In Venlo the German night fighterpilot Ludwig Meister and his radio navigator had taken off in a Messerschmitt to fight the British bombers.
Above Aalten the German fighter pilot saw the Stirling flying at only 4 km height, and fired a number of 2 cm grenades, which reached their target.
The Stirling had not released all of its bomb load, so the German attack caused the bomber to catch fire very quickly.

The rear gunner – Fredrick Mills was killed in the plane, and the pilot stayed at the controls of the plane until very late in order to give his crew the best chance of surviving.
William Thompson, William Davis, Edwin Taylor and Keith Neilson were able to bail out before the plane crashed in Yzerlo.

Before he bailed out, Edwin Taylor saw John Tritton who was holding the escape hatch open and he also saw that the pilot was making his way to the escape hatch and thought both would follow him.
However neither of these two remaining crew members survived and Edwin Taylor does not know why.

The first body of the crew – William Thompson,was found on the place where the memorial has been erected.
Keith Neilson and Edwin Taylor were the only survivors from that night, and were captured by the Germans.


Berkenhove 2003
The 5 crew members who did not survive – Bernard Church, John Tritton, William Thompson, William Davis and Fredrick Mills, were buried at Berkenhove cemetery in Aalten.

In memory of this event a memorial has been designed and erected at the Huistededijk on June 26 2003.
Keith Neilson died in 1970, but Edwin Taylor the navigator was able to be present at the unveiling of the memorial.