Studiegroep Luchtoorlog 1939-1945

Monuments


Monument chart: M0128
Monument Name T/R Number
Monument Wellington R3202 T0768
Date unveiling Street City Zipcode Province
August 8, 2015 Eemspolderweg Uithuizen 9982 Groningen
Description
The monument consists of a natural stone with a plaque on it. The plaque tells the story of the crash and crew of the RAF Wellington R3202. 
There is also an information board with several photos of crew members of Wellington R3202.
History
On 2-8-1940 around 9.30 pm 62 Wellington bombers of the 115th squadron take off from the RAF base in Marham (U.K.). Their aim was to bomb an oil refinery near Hamburg (D). After the bombardment had been successful, almost all bombers landed safely at their home base on 3-8-1940. One was missing, Wellington R3202 'KO-J'. The crew of the Wellington had previously indicated that there were engine problems to which it was soon added that maintaining altitude was problematic. To this day, it is still not known for sure what happened. However, the remains of four crew members were recovered weeks later at various locations along the Dutch coast.

West of the monument at Uithuizen, the body of P/O. was found. R.W. Pryor in the salt marsh. A few days later, the body of P/O. was found. R.T. Gerry washed up on Rottum beach. On the same day, the bodies of P/O. S.J.S. Wilde spotted floating in the sea from the dike above Delfzijl while that of Sgt. J. Dempsey was found at the foot of the dike near Heveskes. The bodies of F/Sgt. R.J. Ruffell-Hazell and Sgt. J.M. Croft have never been identified. So they must have made an emergency landing at sea. A successful emergency landing as these four crew members managed to save themselves for several days in their inflatable life raft before finally ending up in the sea and drowning.