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Dutch government to raise Short Stirling Bomber
Posted: Sun Sep 06, 2020 6:50 pm
by TheGreenGoblin
The son of a crew member of a World War Two bomber that crashed into a lake in the Netherlands has welcomed the Dutch government operation to lift it.
The Short Stirling Bomber, based at RAF Downham Market in Norfolk, was lost returning from a 1943 raid on Germany.
Gunner Sgt Leonard Shrubsall's son Richard, 76, thought his father's plane had been lost over the sea.
But the plane had been found in a lake and the operation to recover it started on Monday.
It is expected to take four to five weeks.
Short Stirling to be raised from lake
- Sgt Leonard Shrubsall.jpg (21.91 KiB) Viewed 337 times
Re: Dutch government to raise Short Stirling Bomber
Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 8:13 am
by om15
The official recording of this aircraft was
"BK716 J/218 Sqn 17.3.43 FTR 30.3.43 from Berlin, crashed at sea off Vlieland, Netherlands.
The same night two Stirlings from 214 Sqn collided over Chedburgh, crews escaped except one member from each aircraft, losses for March 43 were 18 Stirlings, or 4%.
(The Stirling Story by M Bowyer)
Re: Dutch government to raise Short Stirling Bomber
Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 10:58 am
by ian16th
om15 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 8:13 am
The official recording of this aircraft was
"BK716 J/218 Sqn 17.3.43 FTR 30.3.43 from Berlin, crashed at sea off Vlieland, Netherlands.
The same night two Stirlings from 214 Sqn collided over Chedburgh, crews escaped except one member from each aircraft, losses for March 43 were 18 Stirlings, or 4%.
(The Stirling Story by M Bowyer)
My 6th birthday!
Didn't know that I was going to spend over 4 years of my life on 214 Sqdn.
In happier times than WWII.
Re: Dutch government to raise Short Stirling Bomber
Posted: Mon Sep 07, 2020 11:50 am
by TheGreenGoblin
om15 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 07, 2020 8:13 am
The official recording of this aircraft was
"BK716 J/218 Sqn 17.3.43 FTR 30.3.43 from Berlin, crashed at sea off Vlieland, Netherlands.
The same night two Stirlings from 214 Sqn collided over Chedburgh, crews escaped except one member from each aircraft, losses for March 43 were 18 Stirlings, or 4%.
(The Stirling Story by M Bowyer)
His son only discovered much later in life that his father's aircraft hadn't come down over the sea as officially noted but had crashed into a Dutch lake.
Re: Dutch government to raise Short Stirling Bomber
Posted: Wed Sep 16, 2020 11:28 am
by AtomKraft
That's great! Another extinct type emerges from extinction!
Joins the ranks of a very few to do so. DH Hornet, Do-17 and maybe a very few others