Alikruikweg 35, Biddinghuizen

 

On the return flight from target Berlin to home base Linton-On-Ouse in the night of 15 to 16 February 1944, Avro Lancaster DS794, a four-engined bomber, of the Canadian 426 Squadron was shot down. Above the IJsselmeer, northwest of Elburg, the aircraft was hit at 22:38 by fire from a German night fighter, flown by the very experienced Oberfeldwebel Heinz Vinke. The Lancaster crashed into the IJsselmeer around this location and the crew were killed.

​

Crew

• Pilot: Basil William Pattle, Pilot Officer, age 23

• Navigator: Peter Labach, Pilot Officer, age 22

• Bombardier: Lyle Wilmot Hicks, Flight Sergeant, age 23

• Flight Engineer: Augustus Bryan Chester, Sergeant, age 25

• Radio operator/gunner: Leslie Thomas Prosser, Pilot Officer, age 21

• Dorsal turret gunner: William Kilworthy Murray Love, Pilot Officer, age 25

• Tail Gunner: Orville Wesley Hicks, Pilot Officer, age 20

​

Labach, Lyle Hicks and Prosser are buried in the general cemetery in Harderwijk. Love is buried in the general cemetery in Elburg. Pattle, Chester and Orville Hicks are missing and their names are on the Commonwealth Air Forces Missing Memorial in Runnymede, England. Chester was British, Orville Hicks and Love were Americans who had enlisted in the Canadian Air Force. The other crew members were Canadians.