Pilot Officer Jim Mooney, RNZAF

On the night of 16/17th April 1943 103 Squadron took part in a raid on the Skoda armament factory at Pilsen Czechoslovakia. This distant target proved very difficult to find and the raid was not a success.

Avro Lancaster W4848 and crew from 103 Squadron failed to return.

The crew consisted of:-

Pilot Officer J O B Mooney RNZAF

Sergeant S Biggs RAF

Pilot Officer A H Gipson RCAF

Sergeant H J D Rouse RAF

Pilot Officer F J Hudson RAF

Sergeant V J Merefield RAF

Sergeant R W Harley RAF

The aircraft crashed at 0038 local time on the site of a German Luftwaffe flak battery near Ludwigshafen am Rhein. It appears that the Lancaster hit the ground with considerable force and exploded. Both Sergeant Biggs and Sergeant Rouse baled out and survived to be taken prisoner of war at Stalag 357 Kopernikus. The other five members of the crew were killed and now rest at the Durnbach War Cemetery.

We are grateful to Peter Menges of Ludswighafen am Rhein for the photographs and information used in this item.

The same young German examines a propeller blade from the Lancaster. The depth of the crater made by the crashing bomber is clearly evident.

A young member of the German salvage corps poses with a Browning machine gun he has found in the wreckage. To the left is a Merlin engine from the aircraft. A German guard looks on with interest in the background.

Russian prisoners of war help to collect the wreckage from the bomber, which was examined and sent away for recycling.

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