On the night of 12-13 August 1944, Bomber Command had received several bombing missions. One of these missions was for Rüsselsheim with 287 heavy bombers (191 Lancaster and 96 Halifax) and the target was the Opel engine factory.
This production unit was recovering without too much damage; a German report reports that only the tyre unit and some shipping and transport units, as well as a power plant, had been affected, and that most of the explosives would have fallen into the fields south of the factory.
On the British side, the losses were rather heavy: 13 Lancaster and 7 Halifax (or 6.7% of the forces engaged).
One of these aircraft lost was the Lancaster, registration HK564 (AA-P), belonging to the 75 Squadron of Bomber Command. His crew consisted of six New Zealanders and one British. According few sources, the bomber was intercepted around 23.40 hours by a night fighter north of Luxembourg, above Lieler. Only the navigator could have parachuted out of the plane, but he killed himself anyway. The other six crew members perished in the plane that exploded on impact near Ouren, Belgium.
But according the notice AG13- 21 AGP/33027/GR of the War Office of April 29th 1945, The HK564 collided with Lancaster ND444-GD-G over village of Ouren.
The first plane fell on Belgian territory, to Oure, the second at Weiswampach, G-D of Luxembourg.
All the victims except one (the navigator) were buried in a mass grave in Ouren churchyard. The missing body was that of F/O W. F. Hazard, which fell out of bordre, in Germany. He was buried in the Daleiden (D) cemetry.
After the war, their remains were transferred to the British cemetery in Hotton where they rest in the collective grave VI-G-1 to 6.
When you head from Ouren to Weiswampach (Luxembourg), exactly at the border and in front of a chapel, you meet a monument to the memory of the 13 airmen killed. 13 Indeed, because in this place two Lancasters were shot down in the night of August 12 to 13, 1944. In the other Lancaster, ME596 belonging to 61 Bomber Command Squadron, there were six casualties (4 British and 2 Canadians) and one survivor (Canadian) who was taken prisoner of war. This memorial was inaugurated on May 13, 2004.
Sources: * See here the official letters concerning the crash, courtesy of Mrs Colleen Russell
* Rik Verhelle-La Petite Gazette
Graves of the Aircrews, cemetery of Hotton
