Squadron: 103 (B) Sqn (RAF)
Start Date: 1942-08-28
Completion Date: 1942-08-29
Mission: Bombing
Operation: unspecified
Target City: Nuremberg Germany
Target Specific:
Base: RAF Elsham Wolds
Take Off Time: 20:37:00
Squadron Code: PM-
Radio Code:
Return Base:
Return Time:
Crash City: Germany
Crash Specifics: the Laacher See near Glees, Rheinland-Pfalz
Crash Latitude: 0.00000000
Crash Longitude: 0.00000000
Crash Reason: fighter
Flak Battery:
Enemy Claim: Feldwebel Fritz Schellwat & Unteroffizier Willmann of 5/NJG1
War Diary Unavailable
6 Group Unavailable

103 Squadron RAF (Nili me Tangere) RAF Elsham Wolds. Halifax MkII aircraft BB 214 PM- was intercepted on the way to the targets at Nuremberg, Germany over the Hohe Acht mountains at Adenau by night fighter crew Feldwebel Fritz Schellwat & Unteroffizier Willmann of 5/NJG1 flying a Bf110 and shot down. The bomber crashed into the Laacher See near Glees, Rheinland-Pfalz Germany with the loss of four crew members killed

Pilot Officer Vincent Merrill MacDonald Morrison (RCAF), Sergeant John Louis MacLachlan (RAFVR) were killed in action. Flight Sergeant John Joseph Carey (RCAF) and Sergeant James Wilfrid Platt (RAF) were missing presumed killed in action. Sergeant Platt's body was never found and he is commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial. Sergeant Carey was originally commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial but human remains were located in the lake in 2008, eventually identified as those of Sergeant Cary and he was buried at the Rheinberg War Cemetery in 2015

Sergeant Harold Gainsford Dryhurst (RAF), Sergeant Bernard Francis Anthony Hughes (RNZAF) and Sergeant Arthur Allan Roberts (RAAF) survived the crash and were taken as Prisoners of War

Nachtjagd Combat Archive, The Early Years Part 3, 30 May - 31 December 1942 by Theo Boiten, page 84

Unvetted Source Royal Air Force Serial and Image Database

Unvetted Source Aviation Safety Network

General RAF Commands