Crash of an Avro 683 Lancaster I off Texel: 7 killed
Date & Time:
Apr 4, 1943 at 0021 LT
Registration:
W4894
Survivors:
No
Schedule:
Warboys - Warboys
Crew on board:
7
Crew fatalities:
Pax on board:
0
Pax fatalities:
Other fatalities:
Total fatalities:
7
Circumstances:
The aircraft left RAF Warboys on April 3rd on a bombing mission to Essen, Germany. While returning to its base following an uneventful mission and while overflying The Netherlands by night, the aircraft was shot down by the pilot of a German fighter and crashed into the Lake Wadden, ten miles east of Texel. All seven crew were killed. Few debris of the aircraft were found in 1989.
Crew (156th Squadron):
F/Sgt Reginald Anderson Byass, pilot,
Sgt G. R. Minns, flight engineer,
F/O Gregory James Black, observer,
Sgt Norman Ray Thurecht, bomb aimer,
Sgt Russell Seymour Trigwell, wireless operator and air gunner,
Sgt D. L. Robertson, air gunner,
Sgt S. E. Crooks, air gunner.
Crew (156th Squadron):
F/Sgt Reginald Anderson Byass, pilot,
Sgt G. R. Minns, flight engineer,
F/O Gregory James Black, observer,
Sgt Norman Ray Thurecht, bomb aimer,
Sgt Russell Seymour Trigwell, wireless operator and air gunner,
Sgt D. L. Robertson, air gunner,
Sgt S. E. Crooks, air gunner.
Probable cause:
Shot down by a German fighter.