On 7/8
April 1941 the squadron participated in a
mission to Kiel and Emden. Sgt Wroath was with a crew captained
by P/O Ronald Carrapiett. The other members
of the crew were second pilot Sgt Anthony
White, observer P/O Cecil Jones
from Northern Rhodesia, and wireless operator
Sgt Arthur Mason.
58 squadron
is ordered to attack the harbour in this
city. At 20.55 the crew takes off from their
base, Linton-on-Ouse, in Whitley T4145 GE-P
for 'Peter'.
Most likely
on the way to the target area the
Whitley is intercepted by a German night
fighter, piloted by Oberfeldwebel Paul
Gildner of 4./NJG1. He is stationed at
Leeuwarden airfield.
At 00.27 Gildner attacks the
Whitley. After being hit by a burst of
the German's cannons, the Whitley explodes.
Burning pieces of wreckage come down in a
wide area; the tail section comes down on
the Woortmansdijk in the town of Waterhuizen,
just 7 kilometers south west of the city of
Groningen. Another piece of the fuselage
crashes near the farm of the Steen brothers
in Waterhuizen. Several of the bombs aboard
explode. Seven others are found the next day
in fields nearby.
The wreckage
of Whitley T4145. (picture courtesy of
Nachtjagdarchiv Horst Diener via Ab Jansen
in Wespennest Leeuwarden, vol. I,
page 118)
That the
explosion was violent can be deducted from
the fact that a part of the right wing is
found two kilometers from the main wreckage.
Four of the
five crew members die. They are found
between the spread out wreckage of the
plane. The only crew member to survive is
Sgt Arthur Mason. He lands by parachute
near the shipyard of the van Diepen
Brothers. He was apparently wounded by the
neck due to his landing in a tree. He was
taken by father and son Wiegers, who hear
him calling out for help and find him
wounded and bleeding, to the house of the director of the shipyard.
He is given some brandy and
is known to have said that this was the
third time he had "come down" and had
"enough of it". It was not possible to keep
the flier in hiding as many people,
including collaborators knew he had come
down and was known to enjoy the hospitality
of Mr. van Diepen. He was taken to the
hospital in Groningen by the Germans. After
his recovery and interrogation he spent the
rest of the war in a PoW camp.
German
soldiers inspecting the wreckage at the
Woortmansdijk near Waterhuizen. (Picture
courtesy of Co Maarschalkerweerd)
The right wing
that was found approximately 1,5 kilometers
from the rest of the wreckage and
close to were Sgt Mason landed by Parachute.
(Picture courtesy of Co Maarschalkerweerd)
German
soldiers inspecting the wreckage of T4145.
(Picture courtesy of Co Maarschalkerweerd)
The same
night thebody of P/O Carrapiett is found in
a field nearby. The body of a second crew
member, possible Sgt White, is found,
sitting up on the bank of a small creek.
That same day Jan and Hendrik Steen are
ordered by the Germans to salvage the
wreckage. The Germans want to cut it up so
they can transport it easier. When the two
brothers pull away a large piece of
wreckage, the are confronted by a crew
member with a machinegun on his lap, in a
pose ready to shoot. A German quickly pulls
Hendrik out of the line of fire. However,
the man was killed in the crash and is
probably observer P/O Cecil Jones.
The salvage
operation takes from 10 April till 16 April
when the last bombs in the fields are
detonated.
Sgt White and
Sgt Wroath's early grave in Groningen
(picture courtesy of Mr. Andrew Stevens)
Sgt Wroath buried at the Esserveld cemetery
in Groningen, Plot RW. Row Class 2. Joint
grave 1.
(picture by
Wim Bastiaanse)
