On 27 july 1943, three mosquito's were sent to Duisburg. 1 mossie was lost. I think this must have been a mossie from 605 sqn, with Flying Officer William Martin Ross Reid URQUHART and Flying Officer Adam Gardener McArthur WATSON.

It probably was on an intruder mission to Duisburg? What would that entail? nuisance bombing?

These two gents are buried in Amsterdam's New Eastern Cemetery. I also would like to know, if possible, if anyone knows the place of crash.

A strange thing on this cemetery. A lot of men are buried in collective graves. You would think collective graves of members of the same crew. This is not the case. Many are buried with crewmembers of different planes who also came down on different dates. So, URQUHART is buried in a collective grave, not with WATSON, but with an unknown airman of the RAAF who died on august 14 1943!

There are numerous examples when men of the same crew were not buried with their crew mates but with airman from different crews, that died on different dates.

Quite strange, or am I wrong?

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I don't think that this can have been a 605 Mosquito, Stevin.

The three-Mosquito attack on Duisberg was a Light Night Striking Force operation of 8 Group (PFF) and was meant as a high-altitude 'nuisance' or 'spoof' bombing raid. Most likely this was a 'spoof' as this was, of course, the night of the infamous Hamburg 'firestorm'....

I don't have time this morning to look in greater detail, but the odds are that the one Mosquito lost at Duisberg was from 139 Squadron.

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I dug up another source. It was a 605 Sqn mossie on an intruder mission to Soesterberg. It was shot down by flak and crashed into the IJsselmeer (Zuiderzee), southeast of Marken, around 02.15

Previous info was from the BC diary on the official RAF page (http://www.raf.mod.uk/bombercommand/diary/jul43.html) It doesn't mention any intruder missions to Holland. Therefor my assumption.

Thanx for the reply, Martin.

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That explains it...

Unfortunately, good info about 'intruders' is not so easy to find. I can't even say what type of Mosquito this was, as during July '43 605 were in the process of converting from NFII's to FBVI's. All I can say for certain is that this aircraft would have taken off from Castle Camps, on the Essex/Suffolk border.

__________________
"Stand by to pull me out of the seat if I get hit" - Guy Gibson

intersting guys ! since this is when JG 300 was flying in the air with their single engine jobs and several pilots have mentioned in their memories about RAF intruder Mossies, but fortuantely for them they were able to dive away.

Martin do any of the RAF museums ever get night RAF and Luftwaffe vets for a hearty get-together ?
Gregs posting showing RAll and Yeager together gave me the idea to post....

~E