The Lancaster ME737 was only commissioned in the RAF in April 1944 and had flown for 114 hours.  The squadron letters were LE-S. (LE being 630 squadron)

On the 11th May the Lancaster, based at East Kirkby, took off at 22.28 hours on a mission to bomb German sites at Leopoldsburg (Belgium).
According to reports of survivors from that night, there was a lot of confuzing and they were not able to pin point their target?
Therefor they deceiced to turn back to East Kirkby.

 Around 23.45 hrs, the ME737 crossed nightfgtherace Heinz Rökker from the 2./NJG2 .
Soon it was clear that it was an uneven battle and almost immidiate the two engines were shot.

P/O Watt knew the plane was Unsalvable. According to eye-witnesses the burning plane flew two times around the city Herenthout, Belgium.
Possibly to give all the crew enough time to save themselves, Sgt Witham en F/S Stuart made grateful use of that.
Why the other5 crew members did or could not jump is a clue.

On 12th May around 00.20, the ME737 with 5 crewmembers crashed, while it was intense burning on a field next to the Itegemsesteenweg, on ca 1.5Km from Herenthout.

From reports from witnesses it was a huge explosion, seen from miles away. For the 5 remaining crewmembers all help was lost.

Thanx to pilot P/O Watt a big catastrophy was avoided, he still managed to crash an nearly uncontrollable Lancaster into a field next to the towncenter of Herenthout.
If the ME737, still containing his load of bombs,  would have crashed in the towncenter, the disaster would have been immence.

These 5 crewmembers gave their lives to save hundreds of citizens.

P/O Watt  , buried at Heverlee (War cemetery)
Sgt. L. St. C. Thompson , buried at Antwerp (Schoonselhof)
Sgt. P. Amies  , buried at Antwerp (Schoonselhof)
Sgt. A.F. Grant. , buried at Antwerp (Schoonselhof)
Sgt. P.R. Rowthorn , buried at Antwerp (Schoonselhof)

The 2 surviving crewmembers :

Sgt. R.V.C. Witham POW nr 3840
F/S K.A.M. Stuart  POW nr 3841

This story is not totaly complete, we are still missing some bits. If there is any one with more info about this plane and its crew, please conact us.

With thanx to :

Wim Govaerts  (Photo and Info)
Luc Cox   (Info)
Chris Van Kerckhoven (Info)
Colin Mitchell-Smith (Archivist at East Kirkby)
Allen Hudson  (Ex Airgunner from 57 SQN)
Cynrik De Decker (Book "Bommenwerpers vs locomotieven")
Jean-Louis Roba  (Book "Bommenwerpers vs locomotieven")
Gaston Verheyen  (Eye-witnesses reports)

Didier Jadot (info)
Planehunter Team

Thanx for all the good cooperation, without you this was not possible
Benny Ceulaers