A Sunday morning at the Schaarweg

It had been quiet for a few days. Due to bad weather, Allied aircraft had hardly flown between 16 and 19 February 1944. On the night of Saturday 19 to Sunday 20 February, the sky was full of aircraft again. The roar of engines was in the air. One of those aircraft was the Lancaster JB-609 PH-F, which had taken off at 23:23 on Saturday evening from Wickenby air base, home of 12 Squadron. A crew of seven with Flight Sergeant Norman Charles Bowker as pilot. A total of 823 aircraft flew to Leipzig. 12 Squadron provided eleven Lancasters. The trip was not a success. That night, 78 aircraft did not return and 420 crew members lost their lives. It was the heaviest loss in a single night for Bomber Command up to that day. It was Oberfeldwebel Heinz Vinke who shot down the Lancaster with his Messerschmidt 110G at 05:34 at an altitude of 4800 metres, fifteen kilometres northwest of Apeldoorn. The aircraft landed in a meadow on the right side of the Schaarweg in Elspeet, approximately two hundred metres from the corner with the Kleine Kolonieweg.
13-year-old Wim Pol went to have a look with his father: “I can still remember very well that I saw two members of the crew still sitting in the aircraft seats. Completely burned (almost black) with red-rimmed eyes. A horrific image that has always stayed with me.”
17-year-old Kees van de Steeg went to have a look between two church services: “The wreckage still contained the remains of two charred bodies. Like mummies, a sight you won’t soon forget.” Four other bodies were lying around the aircraft. They were taken to Harderwijk. The seventh occupant was not found until March 19 in a densely wooded area near a farm on Oude Garderenseweg.