Crash of EF366, Achel, Belgium
On the night of June 21 to 22 1943, the EF366, which had taken off at 00:07 hrs from Oakington and belonged to 7 Squadron, was shot down. It crashed at about 01:35 hrs in the hamlet "Het Ven" at Hamont-Achel, Belgium.
F.l.t.r: navigator Charles Redwood (RNZAF), bomb aimer Frank Hugo (RAF), wireless operator L. Ellingham (RAF), pilot Robert Bruce Meiklejohn (RAAF), mid upper gunner Jack Kilfoyle (RAF), flight engineer Bill Cole (RAF). E. A. Brown, the 7th crew member, is not on this photo.
The Stirling EF-366, one of the leading bombers, had to mark a turning point to the south-east of Eindhoven to lead the main body of the bombers to Krefeld. Soon after having completed this first mission, the crew was engaged in combat with two German nightfighters, who had seen the Stirling's shadow above the beacons. At 11,000 feet the aircraft was so badly damaged that the pilot gave the order to bail out. The centrifugal force of the plane was so strong that the crew could hardly move. The pilot, Flying Officer Robert Bruce Meiklejohn, stayed at the controls until he knew all had escaped. When the plane came down in a screaming dive and fell towards the centre of the village Achel, he still managed to nose up the plane just before striking the ground. The sky was clear and there was a full moon that night. Thus not only five crew members, but also an important number of villagers at the centre of Achel, owe their lives to pilot Robert Bruce Meiklejohn. He was to pay the ultimate price, dying on that night, as did one other crew member, navigator Flying Officer C.H.D. Redwood. The Stirling was shot down by Hauptmann Siegfried Wandam, who himself was shot down and died with Bordfunker Fw. Schöpke in his Messerschmitt Bf 110 only a few weeks later, on July 4, 1943. The surviving five crew members of the Stirling EF-336 later wound up in prisoner-of-war camps. Two of them, Mr. Frank Hugo and Mr. Bill Cole, stayed with the Spelters family at Haspershoven Overpelt for 10 days, before the resistance movement tried to help them escape.
On Saturday 11th September 1999, Mr. W. E. Cole, who was a flight engineer on the Stirling EF-366, honoured Hamont-Achel with a visit and received the freedom of the city. He was guided through the local museum at Het Simonshuis. It was on Mr. Cole's 23rd birthday that war hero Robert Bruce Meiklejohn captained his last plane, giving his own life at the age of 21, to ensure that his crew mates and numerous villagers survived. (This information is based on the research results procured by Mr. Peter Loncke from Lommel, Belgium)
Rare picture of crashsite in 1943, in the background some German soldiers
Bill Cole's Story
My re-calls of that night are not too clear, and have deminished over the years. But I remember clearly the moments from the start of the combat with the German night fighter until I evacuated the aircraft from the bomb aimers hatch in the nose. Before that both of our gunners had reported the sighting of the Luftwaffe plane, our mid-upper gunner reported having seen two. This might have been an impression made in the confusion of the fight. The official German report refers to only one fighter being involved, and I think that might be correct.
I don't know how long the combat lasted, but from the first exchange, I had time to leave my position at the engineers panel, to join the Skipper and sit with him in the second pilot's seat. Both of our gunners were repeatedly in action and the fighter made repeated attacks without causing us serious damage. Our altitude was just under 12.000 feet when I joined the pilot.
Shortly after we were attacked from the rear, and the Stirling went out of control. There was no fire but we lost both rudder and tail plane control and the aircraft went into an almost vertical nose dive, and the skipper gave the order to bale out. I had time in pitch darkness to make my way back to the engineers panel, where my parachute was stowed. I clipped it on and passed the navigator's table, down the steps to the bomb-aimer position and exited the aircraft. The bomb aimer having already left. Although I cannot be positive I am sure that the navigator had been injured or killed during one of the exchanges. He would certainly have got out before me if he had been able.
I made an uneventful descent, the parachute working as it should and came to earth within a kilometer or two to the west of the village of Neerpelt. I landed at the side of a small river or perhaps it was an canal. Above me at the top of a fairly steep slope there was a wooded area. Some big trees and a good amount of ground covering small bushes. I hid my parachute and harness there and rested for a while trying to calm my bewildered thoughts. The night was quiet, I didn't hear any sound of the aeroplane crashing, nore of the bombs exploding; which is surprising considering the short distance from my landing to the site of the crash at Achel. After some time there, I decided to try to find out where I was; I didn't know for sure where I was. It could have been Belgium, or Holland or I thought perhaps we had crossed the German border, and I was among the enemy. Anyway I decided to leave the sanctuary of the wood and try to find some habitation, and perhaps help.
By pure chance, I walked in an easterly direction. I don't know for how long or how far, but after passing some houses in complete darkness I heard someone or something approching me from the opposite direction. I hid in the hedge at the side of the road while the somebody was Frank Hugo, who I know you have met. After some joyful greeting we decided to return to the woods where I had been earlier to be at least out of sight for a while.
Early next morning looking down from our vantage point up the slope we saw two men walking along the water side. They were the Spelter brothers from Neerpelt, who suggested we laid down for the rest of the day and they would return that evening. This they did with some food and the offer that they would help us get away from the area where we knew the Germans would be searching for us. The rest of the story you may know. From Neerpelt we went to Hasselt, from Hasselt to Liege, from Liege to various safe places en-route to Brussels. Brussels to Paris where we were caught by the Gestapo. Followed: an unpleasant stay in the prison Freénes not far from Paris, and eventually being declared prisoners of war and taken into Germany to spend the rest of the war at Stalag IVB, and returning home in the early summer of 1945.
Tanglewood 29 June 1999. Bill Cole
Paul Cox & Bill Cole
A memorial plaque was erected on June 17 2000 for the killed airmen Bruce Meiklejohn (pilot) and navigator Charles Redwood. The plaque is at the outer wall of a chapel, 500 meters from the crashsite. Son of the youngest brother of Bruce Meiklejohn, Bill Cole and family of Charles Redwood joined the ceremony.
Paul Cox arrived the first at W/O E.A Brown from New-Zealand. The tailgunner had a bad landing with his parachute some hundreds of meters from the Stirling, half of his body was stuck in the earth and the locals had to dig him out. Paul Cox gave Brown a drink with his own canteen which he still wore.
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Sgt. Frank Hugo (19 yrs old) of No.7 Squadron, Pathfinder
Force RAF. Bomb aimer on the ill-fated Stirling III EF366 Marked MG-L Frank escaped capture after the crash and, with the aid of the Spelters family eventually arrived in Paris, where he was betrayed to the Gestapo and taken to Fresnes interogation centre, where, because he was in civilian clothing, he was tried as a spy and condemmed to death. However it was eventually recognised that he was in the RAF and he was moved to Dulag Luft where he was re-united with Bill Coles and 'Duke'Ellingham. They were finally transferred to Stalag 4 where they were to remain for the remainder of the war. |
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