In November 1941
he moved with 151 Wing to Murmansk and later
Archangel on the north coast of Russia. He then
spent a short time in Moscow, before returning
to England in September 1942. He then applied
for aircrew and began his training as an aircrew
Wireless Operator.
He was posted to
No.28 Operational Training Unit in April 1943. Here he met the rest of his crew:
George Tindle, Cyril Hollingsworth, Frank Harris,
James Forrest, and George Smith.
After they
completed their training with 28 O.T.U, In
August of 1943 they
were
posted to 7 Squadron at Oakington, where they met
Arthur West.
On 23 November
1943 the crew took off from Oakington at
1716 in Lancaster III JA932-M. Their target
for tonight was the German Capital Berlin.
On the way back to base, between 22.00 and
23.00 the plane crashed near the town of
Oudeschild on the Island of Texel.
Mr J.J. Bakker
was a child living in Oudeschild in 1943.The
aircraft crashed near his
home, whilst he was in bed. He remembered
the 23rd as a cold night. Around 1800 they
heard planes coming over and the rattling of
machineguns, something that had become a
rather familiar sound in the skies over
Texel.
At 22.10 the
four engined Lancaster crashed in Oudeschild,
just beside the church. Apparently the pilot
had tried to crash-land the plane. The
crewmembers were found in the wreckage. One
of them was found the next day in a small
pool, which in the winter was used as a
skating ring. The pilot was found in his
seat, hands still on the control column. One
of the engines broke off and hit an
electricity cable, causing a black out in
the town. That same engine also crashed into
the farm of the Dros family. The father was
out that night with the fire brigade, and
his four children slept in the attic. they
were lucky to survive with their lives.
Aller Spanninga, who himself was a kid and slept a few doors down, contacted me in 2011 and wrote the following: ¨When we turned up for breakfast at about 7:30 that morning, Tuesday Nov 24th, a miserably dark, windy, rainy November morning, there was a deep crater in front of Dros' Bakkerij. At the bottom, we were told, was an airplane engine that had cut the electricity mains cable. The rest of the plane had crashed in the field behind the bakery.
Once inside the house (by candlelight), we children were shown an enormous hole in the bakery roof. The crashing plane had sheared off the rear third of the roof completely, before landing in the meadow near the church. There were no survivors but no-one on the ground had been hurt.
What I'm getting at, the Dros family did not live in a *farm* and did not sleep in any attic. The family slept one floor above the bakery shop. The rest of the details is correct. By mid-day on the 24th, my uncle and his fire brigade mates had covered the hole in the bakery roof with tarpaulins. And life went on.¨
It is not
certain what caused the JA932 to crash. Most
likely the plane was hit by flak, either
over the target or on its way back.
The whole crew
perished and were buried in Texel (Den Burg)
Cemetery on 25 November 1943, where they
rest today.
Sgt Pepper was
23. He is buried in Plot K. Row 2. Grave 43.
His brother
George became a night fighter and was also
killed (F/O George Pepper DFC and Bar, 29
Squadron, KIA 17 November 1942. Buried at
Bellville Cemetery, Ont.) Brothers Bill and
Frank joined the RCAF and Canadian Navy and
survived the war. in 1945 his brother Frank
met Jim's widow, Betsanne and married her.
(picture by Wim Bastiaanse)