There
is a bit of a story I would like to share that came about for this tribute build
for my great uncle. Growing up, I knew that both sides of my family served
during WW2 and that one family member never returned, William Dean. My
Grandfather could not recall much of what happened to him, so I decided I would
try to find out for myself. Bill, as he was known to family and friends, was an
RAF Navigator assigned to 460 Sqn (Australlian) based out of Binbrook,
England. On the night of March 21, 1945, Lancaster AR-Y NG466 target was
Bruckstrasse. The crew was shot down in the early morning of March 22,
1945, but unable to clarify if it was a night fighter or flak. The plane
crashed at Bergisch
Neukirchen, seven miles south of Soligen, Germany. Of the crew, only the the Pilot Fl Lt Donald Heggie and the Bombadier
Kenneth Ambler survived. The rest or the crew died in the crash being
Flight Engineer Sgt. H Brooke, Wireless Op Pilot Officer. A Trotter,
Gunner Sgt. D
Robinson, Gunner H Dunkerley and my great-uncle Navigator Sgt. Bill Dean.
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An
investigation was carried out by local authorities and it was discovered
that the
Lancaster
crashed on the rear of a house at 04:30, minus one engine and the tail
unit, Cat.E. (Burned), partially buried. Nothing more than parts of
two parachutes were found. Local gossip had it at the time three bodies
had been in the aircraft, but only two were apparently recovered. It
was established that these two bodies were beyond recognition; the house
owner had seen them in the morning. His house was badly damaged and
burned. It was determined that Bill was one of these bodies still in
the plane. Another two crew members were found about 1 km from the
wreckage that may have been thrown from the disintegrating burning
aircraft, according to witnesses, at about 3000 ft. All the crew
members were recovered and buried at the Reinberg
War
Cemetery.
Once I
found what happened, I passed all the information to my Grandfather, which was
good for him as it gave him some closure as to what had happened to his older
brother. I wanted to build a model in the memory of Bill and his crew with
a little artistic license with the small addition of the 11 mission markings
that Bill flew in AR-Y. The kit is the Hasegawa 1/ 72
Lancaster
with a mixed set of decals from various sources. It was a fairly quick build
and when I showed it to my Grandfather, his expression was all I needed.
This model is dedicated to the memory all of the crew of AR-Y, that both
survived and perished the morning of March 22, 1945. Thanks for reading.
Ryan Cameron
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