The last flight of the Avro Lancaster

30/01/1944:  

Take off at 17:24 hours from Waddington, England.

JA 973 JO-O set its co-ordinates for Berlin, Germany and its latest operation.  The crew settled down for the expected 4-5 hours flying that lay ahead of them.  By 23:00 hours, except for the dull drone of the Lancaster’s engines, there was still no sound to be heard, the crew were in luck.    The bomber had just turned on a course heading straight for the German capital when suddenly the sky around them became illuminated with flack shots!  A German Night-hunter (ME 110) had launched its attack on the unsuspecting Lanc.  The pilot, in an attempt to escape their attacker, pushed JO-0 into a nose-dive.  The Lancaster burst through the cloud cover hoping the fighter would not be able to follow; but soon the clouds were lighting up around them as the Night hunter renewed its attack.  The fire had been so furious that one of the Lancaster’s engines burst into flame.  Deeming the situation as hopeless, 4 crew members bailed out leaving behind the pilot and two others to try an steer their plane to safety.  She was spiraling out of control , nothing could be done, a few moments later the Lancaster plunged into the “” Lake.  Eye witness reports claim that the subsequent water fountain was higher than the trees and the only sound to be heard was a painful hiss from the JO-0 and a blood-curdling cry.  The silence descended with a choking thickness and all was still once more.  

31/01/1944:  

The next morning a local army unit secured the crash site and surrounding area.  As for the crew who had bailed: out one had been taken prisoner and the other 3 would only be safe if they were dead.  

August 1983:  

Our GST diving section at that time traveled, as they do every year, to the DDR side of Germany to set up a 14 day diving camp in Mecklenburg.  Here they were told the story of an aeroplane which exploded in the air in 1944 and how someone had just discovered what was left of the pilot on the shore.  By chance we got talking to a local fisherman who showed us the exact place where the plane was supposed to still be!  At the end of the first dive we were already rich.  At a diving depth of 4 metres we found an intact instrument console complete with clock, compass, and pulpit pieces.  We decided to comb the area but we found no more parts of the wreckage.  The search was continued the next day and we stumbled across some aluminium fragments which looked like they had been camouflaged at one stage, as well as some undefinable pieces which were all added to our collection.  

In order to avoid protest from the state police we declared only the position of our camp and withheld all other information.  In 1987 we travelled one more time to Mecklenburg and, after a lot of searching, discovered a complete Lancaster engine.  We also discovered that various parts of an aeroplane which were scattered in the surrounding area.  After that the search went quiet for 6 years.  From 1993 to 1996 we travelled to this lake regularly in order to ensure the safety of the wreckage and to collect information.  We began to understand how costly inquiries are and how complicated it is to separate correct information from false.  

Easter 2000:  

So far..........with a refreshed diving group we began to characterise the area where the wreck lay.  Within a week all the aeroplane pieces which had been lying safely underneath the engine were quietly taken away in order to identify the aircraft. Centimetre by centimetre the sea floor surrounding the engine was scoured with the help of an UW-metal detector.  

Evaluating the safety of the Wreckage  

27/05/2000  

At 8 am we had advanced so far that the salvage of the aeroplane engine could begin.  Under the watchful eye of the water protection police and the fish control we began to secure the floats to the engine.  An hour later we had progressed to inflating the floats.  With a powerful jerk the engine slowly started to lift from the floor and float up to the water surface. Once it reached the surface one of the cables tore and the engine sunk quickly back to the bottom of the lake.  

2 hours later we tried again.  At 10:45 am the engine was finally floating under the surface.  Then, with our boat we dragged the engine the 2 km to the shore.  By 17:00 the engine lay at a diving depth of 2 metres in a special suspension and was slowly brought to the surface by a winch catching the sun after 56 years of darkness.  

Assessment from Rolls Royce Merlin M28  

Up until then we only knew that it was an aeroplane engine made by Rolls Royce Merlin M28.  This meant that it was probably one of the 4 engines of an Avro Lancaster.  This engine had to power a plane with a wingspan of 31 metres, a length of 21.1 metres, a height of 6.1 metres, as well as being able to accommodate a weight of 27 000 kg; however,  we still had no clue as to which version it was.  After enquiring at Rolls Royce and an examination of the serial number on the engine it appeared to be an American built licensed version of the Packard V-1650 in the variation of the Rolls Royce Merlin M28.  This engine series was only built into the Avro Lancaster MK III or MK V.  

Easter 2001:  

Fitted with new UW Radar technology our diving crew began to search the lake again.  For 2 days we scanned the lake metre by metre.  At the same time we began to collect information about an American plane which crashed at a distance of only 6 km further away.  We searched through ice cold rain by day, strong wind, everything which you don’t want to endure.  The year before it had been 30° C during Easter but this year there was frost on our boat.  But inspite of that, 2 days into our search we were successful.  Amongst the reeds we found small aluminium sheets from, what we thought was, the American aircraft.  We were astounded to see that on one of the pieces was the RAF sygnia.  This proved it was not an American B-17 Bomber but rather an English machine.  After viewing all the found pieces, we unanimously agreed that it could only have been an Avro Lancaster.  We questioned witnesses who had lived in the area during the war, but they could not provide anymore information.  

September 2001:  

Today we know that in January 1944 on ‘Operation Berlin’ an Avro Lancaster MK III from the 463 Australian squadron crashed.  The aircraft left from Waddington, England at 17:24 on 30/01/1944.  It had the squadron code JO-0 and the squadron aircraft number JA 973.  It was crewed by 2 Australians and 5 British men:  

Pilot P/O Hanson, Peter Edward: exhumed and transferred to Chalottenburg, Berlin

Eng Sgt Hughes, EA bailed our and left a prisoner of war camp on 06/02/1945 to return to England.  

Nav Sgt Stevens, Maurice Arthur: still missing  

B/Aim F/Sgt Edgecombe, George Edward: still missing  

W/Op Sgt Bowes, Laurence: still missing  

AG Sgt Bligh, Norman Nicholas: exhumed and transferred to Chalottenburg, Berlin  

AG Sgt Wilson, James Manning Melville: exhumed and transferred to Chalottenburg, Berlin  

View the Crew Missions

October 2001:  

I was put in contact with Peter Johnson in Australia.  His father flew in 467 squadron during WWII.  Today he is in charge of the 467/463 memorial site.  He sent me the crew lists of our Lancaster.  It turns out that it was a different Pilot and a different mission order from the one we had assumed.  The whole thing becomes more mysterious, the more information we gain.  

(C) 16.11.2001 Timm Raabe  

All recovered pieces are in the Aeroplane museum in Merseburg and open to the public.  I would like to thank all those involved in bringing this story together.  I would also like to thank Peter Johnson from Australia for the original information regarding 463 squadron, as well as Chris Morris (British Military) for the quick validation of our information.