IN September 1944 a Lancaster bomber took off from Skellingthorpe Airfield on course for a planned joint attack on the Dormund-Ems Canal near Munster.

On reaching the Netherlands shores, it came under fire from a German fighter plane. Fire was returned and the German plane took off.

Spotted by the groundlights, the Lancaster tried to take evasive action, but the steering failed and its crew were forced to bail out as the plane crashed on to farmland near Deurne.

Now Pierre van Dalen, whose family were involved in helping one of the crew members to escape, is researching what happened and seeking information.

And one of the crewmen – John Charles Webber – is known to have last lived in the Bournemouth area.

Two of the seven crew, F/S G. Twyneham and Sgt H.W. Jennings didn’t survive the crash and were later buried in the war graves at Verray in the Netherlands.

P/O C.A.Cawthorn, F/O J.P. Wheeler and F/O J.C. Webber were made prisoners of war and stayed in a PoW camp at Stalag Luft 1 until the end of the war, when they returned to England.

But S/L H.W. Horsley and Sgt. R.T. Hoskisson evaded capture and with the help of local citizens were brought back to safe areas and then returned to England.

It was the family of Pierre van Dalen’s mother, the Hoonings, who came to the assistance of Sgt Reg Hoskisson.

“After Hoskisson landed with his parachute, they gave him shelter, food and normal clothes and with the resistance, helped him to escape to the safety of the Allied Forces area”, said Pierre.

Horsley and Hoskisson, once they got back to England, continued to fly.

Sadly, in February 1945, they were part of a crew, when the plane taking off from Skellingthorpe fell from the sky and exploded. Horsley and six others died, Hoskisson was the only survivor.

“We have managed to contact the families of Horsley, Wheeler, Jennings and Hoskisson. Cawthorn is still alive”, said Pierre.

He is trying to trace the families of the last two crewmen, George Twyneham from Gateshead, and John Charles Webber, who was last known to have lived in the Bournemouth area.

“Son of Samuel and Nancy Webber, John Charles (Jack) was born in Cardiff in 1921 and died in Bournemouth in August 1992,” Pierre said.

“He had at least two sisters, Mary Elizabeth and Margaret Irene, both of whom later married. I have no idea if he got married or had any children.”

Anyone with information please contact Pierre at p.dalen7@chello.nl or write to Elzehoutstraat 4,Helmond, The Netherlands, 5706 XV.