We are proud and enthusiastic to announce that ECG Air Branch has been officially selected to carry out, in close cooperation with various specialist departments of the Ministry of Defence, the very first aircraft salvage operation within the National Programme for the Salvage of Aircraft Wrecks. The salvage of the aircraft will commence in the month of August this year.

The immediate cause (and necessity) for this first disposal within the National Programme is perhaps best described by the Stirling Foundation W7630:

"Eight young men took off from Oakington at 8.13pm on Thursday night in their Short Stirling Mk.I with serial number W7630 MG-M. The aircraft belonged to 7th RAF Squadron and was part of the Pathfinder Force, a group of squadrons specialising in target marking. According to the RAF official statement, the bomb load consisted of 6 x 1000 GP lbs Bombs and 36 Flares in 2 Bundles. 476 aircraft of Bomber Command bombed the cities of Düsseldorf and Neuss that evening between 22:12 and 23:55. 33 aircraft failed to return and two returned to base with damage. This Stirling was one of the 33 aircraft lost...

Shot at!
The outward journey was quite easy until they were hit by anti-aircraft fire (FLAK) about five minutes before the target. One of the crew members, P/O Freberg, managed to stay out of the hands of the Germans and returned to England. There he stated the following: "The outward flight was without incident until 15 minutes before reaching the target, when the intercom failed. The W/T operator managed to put it right again, but it failed again a few minutes later just as the aircraft was making a run on the target at 14,500 feet. Immediately after the intercom failed, the aircraft was engaged by intense flak, and the pilot, being out of touch with the rest of the crew, did not know what evasive action to take. There was one burst immediately below the belly of the aircraft which damaged the controls, and another burst in the wireless equipment. The pilot was heard to yell above the din to the bomb aimer to jettison the bombs, but I believe he was not successful in so doing".

In the same report, P/O Freberg also mentioned that at the time of his jump, there were still some crew members on board the aircraft. The bomber was shot at again on the way back to Oakington, this time by the German night fighter pilot Hauptmann Siegfried Wandam, Staffelkapitän of 3./ NJG 1 of Fliegerhorst Venlo. The Stirling crashed next to Abbey Lilbosch in the community of Echt (currently Echt-Susteren) in the late evening of 10 September 1942.

The crash site was then swampy meadow where cows and horses grazed. The plane disappeared into a deep hole and was never recovered, despite several attempts to do so after the war. Joep Jennissen, who worked as a farmhand at the Abbey, had to get the remaining cattle out of the meadow the morning after the crash. What he found there, he could never forget as a 16-year old and became the driving force behind his efforts to recover this plane and its crew.

The crew

Leslie R. Barr ; ( KIA) Flight Lieutenant DFC & Bar, age 28. He was 1st Pilot, was found dead at the crash site and is buried at Jonkerbos War Cemetery in Nijmegen.

Irwin D. Fountain ; ( MIA) Pilot Officer, age 27. He was 2nd Pilot and has been missing since.

Ernest R.M. Runnacles ; (KIA) Pilot Officer, age 28. He was presumably the bomb aimer, was found dead at the crash site and is buried at Jonkerbos War Cemetery in Nijmegen.

Philip G. Freberg; (EVD) Pilot Officer, age 26. He was a navigator and managed to stay out of the hands of the Germans after his jump and return to England.

Maurice S. Pepper; ( MIA) Sergeant DFM, age 27. He was a flight engineer and has been missing since.

Eric H. Cook; (POW) Pilot Officer, age 24. He was a radio operator and was captured after his jump.

John Greenwood ; (MIA) Sergeant, age 19. He was a rear turret gunner and has been missing since.

Peter B.P. Price ; ( MIA) sergeant, age 34 years. He was a tail gunner and has been missing since."

Copyrighted images received from the Short Stirling W7630 Foundation, by Marleen Jennissen, initiator of the salvage and chairwoman of this foundation.