Short Stirling & RAF Bomber Command Forum

Gents,

Found these in a old folder, crash site of EE903 31-8-1943.

Hi Steve

Keep the photographs coming as all are very interesting.

Best wishes

Douglas

The Nachtjagd War Diaries has EE903 probably shot down by Lt Wilhelm Henseler of 4./NJG1, his first victory (abschuss) so no doubt he enjoyed it. It took place near Wickrath, 4km SW of Rheydt at an altitude of 4.500m at 03.30hrs. German fighters, both Zahme and Wilde Sau, were concentrated in the target areas of Rheydt and Munchen Gladbach and conditions favoured the defenders because there was a cloud layer at about 10000 ft which was illuminated by searchlights, silhouetting the bombers.
Max

I recently came across your web site and am interested in the details concerning Short Stirling EE903 as my fathers younger brother, Sergeant Dennis Yardley was the navigator on the aircraft when it was shot down. Any further details you are able to give me concerning the aircraft and the crash site would be appreciated

Michael Yardley

Hi Michael and welcome to the forum.

Here is a photo of what I trust is HA-Q Short Stirling from 218 Sqn. I do noy know if the serial number is EE903 ( FTR 30-31st August 1943 - crashed in target area, Monchengladbach )
but I'd thought I'd post it anyway. ( Listed below are many images of Short Stirlings from this forum )
viewtopic.php?f=2&t=44&start=50#p4558
Also......
viewtopic.php?f=25&t=424
Cheers,
John

Hallo Michael,

my father in law died last month (94 years old), and what i found in an envelop were about 200 pictures with name, place, date etc. on the backside of each of them.

On the following picture he wrote: "Bugkanzel (that means "Front Cockpit) einer Short Stirling, Wickrath, 31.08.1943"

I hope I could help a little bit with this small piece of a big puzzle...

Christophe wrote:Hallo Michael,

my father in law died last month (94 years old), and what i found in an envelop were about 200 pictures with name, place, date etc. on the backside of each of them.

On the following picture he wrote: "Bugkanzel (that means "Front Cockpit) einer Short Stirling, Wickrath, 31.08.1943"

I hope I could help a little bit with this small piece of a big puzzle...

Short Stirling 31.08.1943.jpg

Hello Christophe and welcome to the forum.
Sorry to hear about your father in law and please accept our condolences.
On a positive note, if wished to post a thread about your father in law ( a short story, photos, operations etc ) we would be very pleased to hear about him.

If you need any assistance in posting images, I can assist .............. please advise.
Cheers,
John

good morning john,

thank you so much for your warm welcome and your condolence.

But: "Rest In Peace, Horst Karl Otto S."?

I am not really shure, if you would be "very pleased to hear about him" - to avoid any misunderstanding: this man was fighting on the other side, was an enemy, his job as german "flak-helfer" was to shoot as much english bombers down from the sky as possible ! (and, as far as I can see, he seemed to do this job like everything in his life: to 100%, with passion and (as far as possible) even with joy.)

So please understand that I would feel ashamed to praise this man (no matter how much we loved him) in front of this forum...

My main intention was to help Michael Y. with a small detail about his father's younger brother (I hope I did)

Christophe (Berlin, Germany)

p.s. Sorry for my bad english, seems to be corroded in the last years
p.p.s. Do you know this: http://www.crashplace.de/index.php?section=home ? (I feeded the data base with the details about EE903)

Christophe wrote:good morning john,

thank you so much for your warm welcome and your condolence.

But: "Rest In Peace, Horst Karl Otto S."?

I am not really shure, if you would be "very pleased to hear about him" - to avoid any misunderstanding: this man was fighting on the other side, was an enemy, his job as german "flak-helfer" was to shoot as much english bombers down from the sky as possible ! (and, as far as I can see, he seemed to do this job like everything in his life: to 100%, with passion and (as far as possible) even with joy.)

So please understand that I would feel ashamed to praise this man (no matter how much we loved him) in front of this forum...

My main intention was to help Michael Y. with a small detail about his father's younger brother (I hope I did)

Christophe (Berlin, Germany)

p.s. Sorry for my bad english, seems to be corroded in the last years
p.p.s. Do you know this: http://www.crashplace.de/index.php?section=home ? (I feeded the data base with the details about EE903)

All good, Christophe ................... my misunderstanding.
Cheers,
John

Hello Christophe,

Please don't feel that you shouldn't post anything about your father in law.
I'm sure all on this forum would understand he was only doing a job during the war, just as many others did.

A few years ago John posted some photo's of some Flak Towers still in existence in Berlin, and they were very interesting.
Could you tell us where you father in law's flak battery was located ?

Thank you for posting the photo.

Regards,
Wayne.