Hamilcar actual landing areas in operation Varsity

That would be Chalk 273. It was part of the 716th Coy RASC contingent. It landed near Margraten. The pilots, S/Sgt Spowatt and F/O Ankers, were shot in the head and their bodies propped up against the undercarriage. The body of Driver Baker RASC, was found close by. The load of Bren Carrier and associated equipment, and other passengers, was never found.

Steve W.


Look like murder?

 

Appreciate its been a while since the original post, however, as I just found this and you never know it may still be useful, there is an article from Wakefield council that suggests J.W. Fozard 88131 may also have been onboard, https://www.wakefield.gov.uk/librar...em/stories/pontefract/harry-baker/war-service

BR,
SH

 

Appreciate this is rather a long time after your initial post, however, having looked into this a bit further, I think might have found the position. Based on your description and a couple of war diary entry's.

53rd (Worcestershire Yeomanry) Airlanding Light Regiment, RA lists 253 and includes a grid reference: I think this may actually be 257 instead, and on top of that the Grid Reference places this glider between the Autobahn and river Issel where expected,

Lat Long approx.: 51°45′25″N, 006°34′27″E (4000 x NE of the woods in the centre of DZ P known as "Bunty"), this grid reference is accurate to at best 100m.

The glider is listed as carrying Ammunition and is the only one of the four, 53rd Gliders that doesn't match the allocated Chalk Numbers of 255-258 making me think the CN 253 is a Typo and that this is in fact 257. (or possibly even that the author was Dyslexic upon noting a similar mix up on one of the grid references as well, where 190, 489 for CN 256 appears to have been written as 190, 849).

The RAF also have a plot showing a Hamilcar in this area.

As an additional side note the proposed landing time is listed elcewhere as 10:51 (presumably UTC/GMT)

Hope this helps

Best Regards,
SH

 

Patrick,

I see it is a old post, but on the pegasus archive website

53rd (Worcestershire Yeomanry) Airlanding Light Regiment, RA

Is mentionened the number 255

255 Hamilcar
L/Sjt Gower, Gnr Page, Gnr Deighton, Gnr Julian
No trace has been found of this glider. Crew known to be PW.

But as this post is old, maybe you can tell more about William Page his visit in 2009 / 2010.
Did you found the place ?