Meeuwenweg 12, Lelystad

 

On the return flight from the target Gelsenkirchen to home base Snaith on the night of 25/26 June 1943, Handley Page Halifax HR731, a four engined bomber, of 51 Squadron was shot down. At 02:00 Oberleutnant August Geiger scored his 34th victory. The Halifax crashed into the IJsselmeer and the crew were killed. In August 1967, remains of a wing with petrol tank were recovered at this location. No remains were found.

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Crew

• Pilot: Anthony Osmond, Sergeant, age 22 

• Navigator: Geoffrey Charles Mortimer, Sergeant, age 21 

• Bombardier: Thomas George Barton, Sergeant, age 21

• Flight Engineer: Brinley Huggan, Sergeant, age 22

• Radio operator/gunner: Philip Blundell, Sergeant, age 30

• Dorsal turret gunner: John Emerson, Sergeant, age 22

• Tail Gunner: James Rorison, Sergeant, age 30

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Mortimer and Rorison are buried in the general cemetery in Harderwijk. Blundell is buried in Oud-Leusden cemetery in Amersfoort. Osmond, Huggan, Barton and Emerson are still missing and are listed on the Commonwealth Air Forces Missing Memorial in Runnymede, England. August Geiger himself was also killed over the IJsselmeer when his Messerschmitt Bf 110 was shot down by a British night fighter on the night of 29 to 30 September 1943. Geiger then had 51 victories to his credit, 50 of them over night.

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