In the early morning of the 12th of June 1943, a plane crash occurred in Overdiemen, near farm “De Zeehoeve”. A downed Wellington bomber of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF), on return flight from a bombing mission over Düsseldorf to its base in England, drilled into the pasture of farmer Cornelis Hennipman. This killed the entire crew, consisting of one English and four Australian crew members.
466 (RAAF) Squadron
Through extensive archive research, we know that the crashed aircraft was a Vickers Wellington Mark X bomber, part of the 466 Squadron of the Royal Australian Air Force (RAAF). This squadron was part of the ‘No. 4 Group’ of the Bomber Command of the Royal Air Force (RAF).
Australian 466 squadron, with the motto of arms “Brave and True”, was formed on 10 October 1942. Mainly Wellington and Halifax aircraft were flown within this squadron. Its home base in England was Leconfield airfield (north of Hull in Yorkshire).
