On the night of October 4/5 1943 , Halifax JD463 with a mostly RAF crew departed for an operation on Frankfurt from Middleton St. George. It was to be a double loss night for 419 squadron. ( Halifax JD204 who lost four of their crew.)
JD463's crew, Sgt. Fare, Sgt.Chapman, Sgt.Renner, Sgt. Beach and Sgt. Winterbottom had been posted to 419 squadron on August 20th 1943, Sgt. Boyce had been with the squadron since February 27th.
The crew had been part of many operations into Germany including Berlin, Pilot F/O Fare was on his eleventh operation when he was killed, the other crew members had at least 8 operations completed. Their operation on Munich on the night of September 6/7 is the only operation recording seeing night fighters, the crew were not engaged in any activity against the night fighters on this occasion.
On this fateful operation to Frankfurt the crew had completed it’s bombing run and were headed back to base when they were attacked by a night fighter of Luftwaffe 1/NJG4 . The aircraft came down at Ham sur Heure (Hainault) which is 11 km SSW of Charleroi Belgium.
Sgt. Wilfred L. Renner, the only survivor of the crew became an evader and later after his return to Britain was able to give this report on the loss of Halifax VR-D. The Halifax was hit by enemy fire without the slightest advance warning. The target had been successfully bombed and the Halifax was over Belgium near Namur, flying through atmosphere that seemed absolutely clear of flak, searchlights, and other hostile element when it occurred. There was just one explosion and the aircraft went out of control. Renner stated that there was no sign of a fire, the engines appeared to be functioning satisfactorily, and no member of the crew was injured.
But the kite was rapidly losing height, and the pilot, Sgt. Fare found it impossible to control the aircrafts movements. He gave the inevitable orders, to bailout. Renner turned to get his parachute and then blacked out completely. When he came to, he was dangling from his open chute and was about to hit the ground. He landed at Cour-sur-Heure and sustained no injury in so doing.
During his black-out period, however, he had somehow suffered two broken ribs, which could have been a second explosion that threw him from the aircraft and wounded or hampered the other crew members in exiting the crippled aircraft. Later he learned that VR-D, had crashed three or four miles from where he had landed. According to onlookers it had fallen in flames and exploded upon hitting the ground.
(A member of the Underground was later to add that the bomber had been shot down by a night-fighter and that he had heard a claim to this effect made by the fighter pilot concerned.)
All six of Renner’ s crew companions were killed, three bodies being found inside the aircraft and three more in the immediate vicinity of the wreckage. The details of Renner's evasion were rather sparse. From information gathered from Renner after his release.
After a short sleep in the open, he began to "get on the move". Almost immediately, however, he met a doctor and a priest, who had apparently been looking for him. The latter sheltered him at his home for three weeks, after which the Organization sent him to a house in Laneffe, and then on to Fairoul, where he stayed for eight months. On 30 July 1944, the Germans began to retreat from the area around Fairoul, whereupon Renner was forced to vacate his hiding-place in favour of the woods. His evasion period came to an end four days later, when the town was taken by the Americans. He was transported from Brussels to Britain on September 3rd 1944.
