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Posts posted by FlyingScot
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Pilot and crew
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Becklingen cemetery
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Robert Webster
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Bernhard,
Sorry for the long delay, but I have been travelling and now I am still away. Yes, I drove down to Becklingen on Monday on a dull, grey rainy day. The cemetery was very easy to find, serene and beautifully kept. I found Robert and the rest of the crew almost at the top of the hill, all buried alongside each other. I took some photos and will upload these when I can.
I then drove back to Hamburg going via Rotenburg, but of course I had no idea in which area the plane came down.
Since my return I have also managed to find online the son of our pilot, Melville Muller. He has given me some more information which I hope to post later with his permission.
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Yes, it has been interesting to talk with my other family members who have added things that I did not know. Wilce got in touch with my Grandmother (Robert's mother) at some point later and told her what had happened and that he had switched places with Robert. I also now know that at some point my Grandmother did visit the grave but whether it was the military cemetery or the previous one I do not know.
Just a little more of the back story - you can read more about the pilot's earlier missions here: http://www.swannington-norfolk.co.uk/index-page5.html
Also, Ranalow was the newphew of a minor figure in British history, Captain Oates, who reached the South Pole with Capt. Scott and when he (Oates) knew he was dying and might hold the others back, made the famous remark as he went outside to die "I may be gone some time". Capt Oates had no children himself but Ranalow was his sister's son.
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Bernhard, just FYI I have further discovered from my cousin that Uncle Robert's usual place was as the rear gunner but on this occasion he switched places with Wilce who ended up as the sole survivor. So the empty rear turret explains that. Robert would have been in the mid-upper turret and whether or not he was still there, or was the body you saw thrown clear I guess we shall never know.
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Yes, thanks all. My typo. BECKLINGEN is indeed the correct place.
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Thanks, Bernhard. I have everything booked now and will drive to the region on Monday morning but I have to be back in Hamburg by early afternoon. As far as I know I am likely to be the only member of our family to have ever visited the area.
regards,
Iain
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Thanks, Bernhard. Full details of the crash can be found here, so you can figure out if it is the same one. I have also established that my uncle was one of the two gunners onboard and I do recall my Dad saying he was a rear gunner.
http://www.fliegerschicksale.de/fliegerschicksale/absturzorte/r/rotenburg/080445ro_en.php
My plan is to visit the cemetery on Monday morning. May or may not swing by Rotenburg on the way back to Hamburg but as I do not know the crash site location that would just be passing interest.
I only asked about the necktie as I do know my uncle was a bit 'dapper' as we say and was known as a snappy dresser so I was speculating he might have worn his own choice of neckwear. Not important!
Thanks for all your help.
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Good to hear from you. I have some more details to hand now. My Uncles's flight was a Lancaster bomber from No 35 Squadron based at a small base, Graveley in Cambridgeshire UK. The aircraft was one of 8 on the raid that night and took off at 7:42pm local time on April 8th. It was the only aircraft not to return, after bombing Hamburg. The last of the others was back at base around 0100 on the 9th. The only record I have puts the time of crash at 11pm which sounds about right.
There were 7 crew members onboard, under the command of a very experienced pilot, the gloriously named 31 year old Melville Max Victor Lewis Muller (sounds like some German family in there somewhere!) who was famous for other exploits earlier in the war.
At least 4 of the others on board, including my uncle Robert, were aged just 23.
Five were killed on impact, one survived the war in a POW camp and one survived the crash but died within 48 hours.
I believe, but am not certain, that my uncle was the rear gunner, hence your account of finding the empty turret and the body is extremely poignant. If indeed we have the correct crash, then you could very well have been looking at my uncle, assuming that the two survivors were already making tracks and you say two bodies inside the fuselage with mention of a possible third, that would make a deal of sense. What was it about the necktie that struck you as odd? Was it perhaps not the regulation uniform?
I never knew my uncle as I was not born until 1952. He was one of three brothers, the other two now long dead. I do have a cousin now in her 80s who remembers him well and fondly but otherwise there are no other links with him. My father was in Asia during the war and never really spoke much at all of his lost brother.I do not know where he was initially buried but by the early 50s his remains ended up in Berlingen war cemetery where Allied casualties were brought from many other graves in the region. See here: http://www.cwgc.org/find-a-cemetery/cemetery/2009051/BECKLINGEN%20WAR%20CEMETERY
As I mentioned before, by coincidence I have a couple of days business in Hamburg next week so it is my plan to hire a car and drive down to the cemetery. If I had enough time I would take in Rotenburg too, but I have no idea what or where I would be looking for.
regards,
Iain Webster
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Hi, I am absolutely stunned to read this account just a few days after you posted it and at the very time I was thinking about
I am 95% certain your account refers to the crash involving my uncle, Robert Webster who was a crew member on this flight which came down on 8th April 1945 in the very early hours of the morning as they were making their way home after a bombing raid on Hamburg. Does that sound about right?Let me know if you think so. I have full details of this mission, the crew members and their fates. In fact by pure coincidence I am visiting Hamburg next week and planning to visit the cemetery where my uncle lies along with other crew members.
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Early 1945 Bomber Command plane crash, Northern Germany
in World War II 1939 to 1945
Posted
I received this additional information yesterday, thanks to Rod Muller,