Lancaster
DV401 (QR-Z) of 61 Squadron took off from its base of Skellingthorpe at
23.46, on the second of January 1943. The target of the bomber and its
7-man crew was Berlin. Just south of Stavoren over the IJsselmeer
(formerly the Zuiderzee), the aircraft was attacked by a German
nighfighter and was badly damaged. The pilot was 22 year old Flying
Officer George Arthur Tull, the only son of a London tobacco shop keeper.
The aircraft was on fire, and possibly members of the crew were injured.
Tull tried to reach land to make an emergency landing, and the airplane
passed the Frisian coast at the small harbout of Laaxum. By that time, the
airplane had lost a lot of altitude and was ablaze from back to front.
They were too low for anyone to bail out, and about a mile inland, the
tail of the aircraft broke off. Half a mile further, the airplane slammed
into a hill. The airplane that had been brand new - with only 64 flying
hours - was reduced to rubble. None of the crew survived. The subsequent
explosion caused by the airplane's fuel and bomb load woke all the people
in the surrounding area. It was 01.30, January 3d, 1943.
The crew are
buried at Bakhuizen cemetary. They were G. A. Tull (pilot - 22); J. S.
Baldwin (bombadier - 20); C. G. Crosby (gunner - 35); C. Ablett (gunner);
J. Stock (wireless operator - 22); G. E. Heasman (flight engineer - 33);
J. G. Holden (navigator - 20).
With this
article I have included a picture of the graves of the crew, as well as a
wartime picture of the crash site a few days after the incident.
Click on
images below to see larger images
The Hasegawa
model was built out of the box. The kit itself is not without flaws - most
notably the big tailwheel, but I had a good time building it and I was
very pleased overall with the quality. The antenna is from stretched
sprue. I used Humbrol enamel paints, and I finished the model with
water-based acrylic clear satin from a spraycan, which I found at an
artist supply store. I need to thank Mark Peacock for generously donating
decals for the code letters and serial numbers. I 'm always amazed about
the generosity scale modeling community.
I built the model
for my dad who is an avid local amateur historian who investigated the
crash of DV401.
An account of the
crash (in Dutch) can be found in Jan van der Veer's book "De Luchtoorlog
Boven Zuid-West Friesland '40-'45".
Elger
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