[Harry Ree]

This loss appears to be a strange one at first sight.The target was the "Battle Area" which very fluid at this point in the Battle for France.The roll up of the BEF was at a crucial point at this date, being approximately 2 weeks after the German blizkrieg had started on the Western Front.However problems with navigation resulted in some aircraft taking tracks unrecognised by the crew, in fact I think they were lost but probabily would be unaware of this until they were brought down.

The clue is their resting place.Durnbach is a concentration military cemetery as stated and this crew must have been interred within the Durnbach catchment area as defined post war.

I suspect the crew had a fault with their navigation equipment which them to stray over southern Germany where they were brought down.Where their intial resting place is unknown to me.

On the same day in May 1940 a No 61 Squadron Hampden on a similar operation from Hemswell was lost in a similar incident due a a faulty gyro compass and the crew made a landing, out of fuel in what they thought was Scotland, in fact it was near to Stuttgart and all four crew, all pre war regulars went into the bag.

I knew the widow of one of this crew and she related to me that the the pilot, Chiefy Ross made a perfect landing in a meadow which he thought was in Scotland and said to her husband after landing."Pop down to the village, ring the squadron and ask them to pick us up". Her husband went to the village and came running back followed by locals and exclaimed "We are in Germany" (I think the language was a bit stronger) Her husband remained a POW until May 1945 when he had attained the rank of Warrant Officer during captivity.

From that I told her that the loss of her husbands aircraft was recorded in W R Chorley's excellent reference source which she later obtained. A very nice lady.