Edelhertweg/Steenstraat/De Serpeling, Lelystad

 

On the return flight from target Dyousseldorf to home base Wickenby was shot down on the night of 11/12 June 1943. Avro Lancaster ED 357 of 12 Squadron, a four engined bomber, was shot down. Above the IJsselmeer '10 kilometers west of Harderwijk' the aircraft was hit at 02.02 by fire from a German night fighter. It was Oberleutnant Helmut Bergmann's thirteenth victory. The Lancaster crashed into the IJsselmeer around this location, two crew members managed to save themselves with their parachute.

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Crew

• Pilot: Daniel McNicol Thomson, Flight Sergeant, age 26

• Navigator: Kenneth Bowes, Sergeant, age 23

• Bombardier: William Middleton Ward, Sergeant, age 20

• Flight Engineer: James Leslie Osborne, Sergeant, age 20

• Radio operator/gunner: Douglas Noel Campbell, Sergeant, age 21

• Dorsal turret gunner: William Thomas Pingle, Sergeant, age 22

• Tail Gunner: Clarence Wesley Albert Sparling, Sergeant, age 23

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Thomson, Ward, Osborne and Campbell are buried in the Nieuwe Oosterbegraafplaats in Amsterdam. Bowes' body was never found or identified and his name is on the Commonwealth Air Forces Memorial for the Missing in Runnymede, England. Sparling and Pingle managed to survive and were taken prisoner. A propeller of the aircraft has been incorporated in the 'airgunners monument' in Dronten. Streets in the Dronten Zuid district are named after these crew members.