ED603: Recovered Memory (Part III)

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ED603
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On 13 June 1943 a Pathfinder Lancaster Bomber, ED603, was shot down into the IJsselmeer off the Dutch coast. All seven men onboard died, with four bodies washed ashore within the next two weeks and three airmen never found, including Bluebottle's distant cousin Charles Sprack1. In the mid-1990s the location of this aircraft was discovered and In September 2023 the Dutch Government began the process of excavating the remains of the aircraft in the hope of finding the missing airmen on board. Close relatives of the crew of ED603, including Bluebottle along with his father and son, were invited to the Netherlands in September 2023 by the Dutch Government to attend a programme of commemorative events based around the recovery operation.

On the first day of the programme arranged by the Dutch Government and SMAMF, the Stichting Missing Airmen Memorial Foundation, we had visited the cemeteries of Workum, Hindeloopen and Stavoren where the four airmen whose bodies washed ashore were interred, as well as seeing memorials for the Dutch Resistance in Workum and Missing Airmen in Milkwerum before returning to the hotel where we were staying. Yet that wasn't quite the end of the day.

Martin's Just Zis Guy, You Know?

The quest to recover a Lancaster bomber had generated a degree of press interest, both at home in the UK and locally, and so some of the hotel's conference suites had been booked by media companies in which to give interviews. One I believe was being used by the local television channel in Frisian, while a different set of rooms was being used by North One TV, a British television company specialising in sport coverage and documentary programmes that are broadcast by British television channels and internationally. They had contacted my father after their research had revealed that he is a keen and published amateur historian to be one of three relatives of the ED603 crew they had chosen to interview for a documentary they were making that would cover the aircraft. The impression I got was that the documentary would cover and mention Lancaster Bomber ED603, but the intention overall was to make a 90-minute documentary about the Pathfinders, the elite force to which the crew of ED603 belonged.

The documentary was being hosted by lorry mechanic, motorbike racer and daredevil Guy Martin. He has previously hosted documentaries about Lancaster Bombers having been born and raised in bomber country, and he has also said that he was named 'Guy' after Guy Gibson, the leader of the Dambusters raid. My son and I were allowed to sit quietly at the back of the room and take photos if we promised not to use a flash or use any of the photographs taken on social media, and he launched into interviewing my dad for about an hour. Guy Martin came across exactly as he does on the telly, chatting merrily away and putting people at ease, and after the interview he came over and said hello to my son and I. My son was particularly delighted as Guy greeted him with, 'Hello boss!' and so my son keeps telling me that he's Guy Martin's boss.

The interview went well and Dad was delighted to have an opportunity to engage with an audience and talk about history –even though part of me suspects that Guy Martin wanted to play the amateur historian role and Dad may have supposed to be more the grieving relative. There was a bit of an awkward moment, though, when my father was handed a piece of paper and told it was related to Charles' will –unfortunately he didn't have his reading glasses with him and so had no idea what it said. Not wanting to interrupt the flow of the interview or admit he couldn't read it, he made a joke about 'where there's a will there are relatives'. It turns out Charles' fiancée wrote a letter asking why she had not inherited Charles' possessions, and that Charles had promised to leave all his worldly goods to her. I assume that despite this letter, everything ended up going to Charles' father Harry as the next-of-kin, even though they had fallen out when Harry remarried when Charles was 14, shortly after Charles' mother's death. I hope that they don't show that bit and portray our family as callously mocking a poor, heartbroken girl who had almost been my distant-cousin-in-law and laughing that she lost not only the love of her life but promised financial security. We're not the branch of the family who would have inherited. The RAF did make it easy for aircrew to write wills dictating who they wanted to inherit, but presumably Charles never did. That bit definitely wouldn't look good on camera, though –my Dad looking flustered after being asked why the fiancée didn't inherit and not really answering –but only because he had no idea and couldn't see to read.

It will be interesting to see if any of the interview ends up in the final programme, though I suspect they'll choose whichever interviewee cries the most. I have no idea when the programme will be shown –I asked but was told that it isn't up to them but Channel 4. North One have a few programmes in production so what show ends up in which slot is out of their control. On the one hand, if my dad ends up on the telly he'll be milking it to an insufferable degree for years, but if he doesn't, he'll be crushed.

Kornwerderzand Afsluitdijk Wadden Centre

ED603's Merlin engine.

At 8am the following morning we relatives were taken to the Afsluitdijk Wadden Centre, next to the Afsluitdijk dam near Kornwerderzand, arriving about half an hour before it opened. Presumably allowing time for bridges. Eventually the centre opened at 9am, when the building was surrounded by what we gathered was the Dutch equivalent of Community Support Officers, police officers labelled 'Handhaving'. I hope if they find a suspect they shout, 'Stop! I Want to Hold Your Hand!' They were there as a bunch of VIPs turned up, both military and political. We were introduced to the British and Canadian ambassadors –but I was disappointed by the reception as inexplicably we weren't given any Ferroro Rochet2. Despite this lack of ferret balls nevertheless there were various military and political attachés, the Mayor and Alderman, some members of the Dutch government including Hanke Bruins Slot who is the Minister of the Interior and Kingdom Relations, Minister of Defence Kajsa Ollongren, politician Stieneke van de Graaf and retired senator Jurn de Vries and a whole bunch of gold braid –General Onno Eichelsheim, Chief of Defence of the Netherlands etc. All of whom are the very models of a modern Major General or the rulers of the Dutch navy with assorted other high-ups in the various branches of the Dutch armed forces, and quite possibly their sisters and their cousins and their aunts.

Information Market

After gathering at the Wadden Centre we were taken outside to where an 'Information Market' had been set up. This was an area where parts of the aircraft that had been salvaged were set-up, and was where members of the press and other interested parties were taken. The first thing we saw as we walked in was one of the Lancaster's Rolls Royce Merlin engines, the unmistakable engine of freedom3. Sadly this was lying upside down on the back of a lorry, but looking unmistakeable despite having spent 80 years under the sea. Also having spent 80 years under the sea was one of the bomber's giant rubber tyres which had also been salvaged, and it still smelt like it had spent 80 years under the sea. Other recovered parts of the Lancaster included the remains of a radio, bomb rack, fire extinguishers, piston, the film cassette for the bombing camera, the film is still in it. The camera lens and bomb-aiming optic, aerial radio reel, rotary transformer, the parachute from a target indicator flare, a wooden stool (only the pilot had a chair) which was so well preserved that the parachute string in as good a condition as my shoelaces. There was also .303 ammunition, including from the mid-upper (dorsal) turret, where my cousin would have been.

There were members of the armed services there to talk to us about what had been found. I spoke to the forensic pathologist lady who was in charge of the hunt for human remains, namely those of my cousin and two of his colleagues. She told me ever since she was a child she's always wanted to see dead bodies. That comment may well have lost something in translation to English, but I can see how her career choice narrowed to the armed forces.

In addition to the artefacts there were also displays about Lancaster bombers, the crew in particular, aircraft ED603, information about Leemans the company contracted with its recovery4 and the work of the agencies and departments involved in the operation. I gather we were their first visitors and that they were opening up the site to the local media and other interested parties for the rest of the day.

Voyage of the Regina Andrea

Following the Information Market we boarded a tiny ship docked nearby, the Regina Andrea. The sun was shining down and the sea was blue and we looked forward to a 90-minute ish voyage on the upper deck, but instead we were ordered down below to the below deck bar, where various dignitaries gave Words of Welcome, speeches and presentations in front of a hanging-up tea towel5. We were each given a 36-page booklet on the history of the Lancaster ED603 written by the SMAMF, which was a lovely and moving touch. I got mine signed and then returned to the outer decks.

The ship continued on its journey across the IJsselmeer, surrounded by offshore wind turbines. As we travelled through the windfarm I wondered whether these turbines had been built on the Isle of Wight. Just as our destination was in sight we were invited below to have lunch. That made no sense to me whatsoever –the whole point of the programme was to travel to the crashsite where my cousin had lost his life, and just as we were approaching that very spot, we were asked if we wanted to have a sandwich? Nice as I am sure the sandwiches were, I chose instead to remain on the outer deck and see our destination approach.

Frankly My Dear I Don't Cofferdam

Cofferdam.

A cofferdam is a steel box built in the middle of a body of water that allows the water inside to be pumped out, revealing the dry bed beneath. This cofferdam had walls 30×30m and vibrated down into place surrounding the 80-year-old airwreck. Around the cofferdam a number of barges had been anchored containing offices, skips, digging and other equipment, which was known as the 'work island'. After the water inside is pumped out a layer of sand is scraped away and fed into an intricate Heath Robinson-esque conveyor belt system that shifts and sifts and sorts all sorts and understands what is sand and the remains are remains. That isn't how the engineers described it. Essentially interesting bits of the Lancaster are kept to one side for preservation, a lot is small scrap that end up in a skip and will be scrapped, as what else can you do with twisted, sharp-edged and jagged metal lumps that once upon a time were an aircraft? Everything slowly goes along a conveyor with a Geiger counter6. As the aircraft was used in night raids and having lights on would have made it an easy target, many dials etc used radium to glow in the dark. These dials are safe if kept intact, but as the aircraft crashed and has been under the sea for 80 years, no chances are being taken. The pathologist also scours the conveyor, which apparently moves very slowly, for signs of human remains. We were told at the time of our visit that these had been found, but no-one was prepared to say more. The sand itself is being stored on barges and will be placed back in the pit once the dig has been finished, before the cofferdam is lifted out and the sea is restored.

Remembrance

As we arrived on the cofferdam we were all told that due to health and safety regulations, we all had to wear a lifejacket and have a Hi-Viz jacket. Naturally, being from the Isle of Wight, I knew how to wear a lifejacket7 but was disappointed that the ones we had been issued were old and well-worn, so the Velcro holding them together had long-since stopped sticking, resulting in our wearing falling-off lifejackets for our time on the cofferdam. We had also been given plastic bags containing a Hi-Viz jackets, presumably as wearing big, luminous lifejackets designed to enable rescuers to spot easily wasn't visible enough. However we were told that we only had to have the Hi-Viz jackets, not wear them, and carrying them sufficed and that the jackets were ours to keep. Later on I discovered that these very nicely had 'ED603 Aircraft Recovery' and a picture of a Lancaster bomber on the back, although sadly presumably in the process of doing this, the plastic zips on the front had melted rendering the Hi-Viz jackets impossible to open in any case.

With a lifejacket on and with a melted Hi-Viz jacket in its packet in our hands, we were allowed to disembark the Regina Andrea and walked the gangplank to the cofferdam. Already on the cofferdam was Guy Martin and his television crew. Relatives of the three men believed to be still on the plane were pushed to the front as a Remembrance Service began, in English and Dutch. As the spoken words ended, the politicians and military figures laid a wreath against the cofferdam wall, seven in total –one each for each of the men who died on the aeroplane. This was followed by the Last Post and a minute's silence, followed by the Ode.

Fly By

Beechcraft flyby

After the service the Dutch Air Force's Beechcraft Model 18 D18S did a flyby, circling the cofferdam four times I believe before flying back to the aerodrome from whence it came. First flying in 1937 and with a twin-tailfin, it is probably the closest aircraft the Dutch military has to a Lancaster, though with two engines rather than four.

Remains of the Day

Cofferdam work island

After the fly by we were allowed to take photographs of the cofferdam and again Guy Martin did some informal chatting interviews with the people he had spoken to the day before, including my dad, who had thought that Guy was just having a chat and hadn't spotted the hamster-on-a-stick above his head. Looking down from the cofferdam's mezzanine that was across one corner of the structure we saw the parts of the aircraft that had been excavated so far, though work was due to continue for at least a further six weeks so the whole plane had not been excavated yet. As the bomber had flipped over, what was visible was the bottom of the wing, though where the landing gear and wheels would have been were visible too. Some canisters I was assured were oxygen tanks were next to the wing, as well as various other remains of the aircraft. And possibly the remains of my cousin.

On asking I was told that they weren't going to do DNA tests on the humans remains that are found, but instead will take stock of the body parts and if they find that they have sufficient, so for example three skulls or five upper arms, that will pass the Commonwealth War Graves requirements to allow the men to be buried with named headstones8, otherwise their remains will be buried beneath a gravestone engraved 'Airman known unto God'. It appears unlikely that enough remains to fill three coffins will be found.

Hopefully enough body parts will be found to allow the Commonwealth War Graves Commission to conclude that there are the three missing airmen present and that they will give the men –Charles Sprack, Arthur Smart and Raymond Moore –a proper burial. If so, it seems inconceivable that they would do so without informing us, their relatives, so presumably we would be invited back to the Netherlands for their internment. Which made this the first funeral/memorial I've been to where everyone said, 'I hope we do this again in a year or so'.

Final Thoughts: Needlessly Messianic?

It is a very bizarre experience, spending two days being repeatedly told in earnest seriousness by children, prominent politicians and members of the military that my cousin died for them. He certainly died doing his duty, and that involved protecting the ideal of freedom, but I believe that part of the Netherlands was liberated by Canadian forces, and they deserve credit and recognition. My cousin died having been shot down over the Netherlands on a bombing mission to Germany. Charles went from humble and unhappy origins to finding somewhere he felt he belonged, was recognised and rewarded, and died doing that duty, as thousands of others of all nations did.

The closest I can reason to my cousin dying for their freedom is to conjecture thus. If the intensive bombing campaign in Germany's industrial heartland hadn't taken place in 1943, then Germany's industrial output of war material would have been much higher. Without needing to keep the Luftwaffe close to Germany to defend against air attack and without using Germany's feared 88mm guns in an anti-aircraft role at home, Germany would have had been able to invade the USSR with much greater strength than they in fact did and used those 88mm guns as anti-tank and artillery weapons. You could conjecture that in this hypothetical scenario they would then have won the Battle of Stalingrad and possibly captured Moscow, knocking the USSR out of the war. Without an Eastern Front splitting Germany's forces, maybe D-Day would have failed and so the Netherlands would not have been liberated. That involves far too much second-guessing and assumptions, but in that sense, maybe. . . ?

Before the war my cousin was apprentice for the same company, JS White, where my maternal grandfather worked. There was built the ship, the ORP Błyskawica, that my paternal grandfather swore saved his life. My paternal grandmother worked in a factory making the 1,000lb bomb casings that my cousin's Lancaster would have dropped, thus showing the interconnectedness of all things.

So Now As I'm Leaving, I'm Weary As Hell

All in all it had been an intense trip –a phenomenal emotional experience and one that I am delighted I was able to share with my father and son, but it definitely was not a jolly boys' outing. Yet the following morning, before we were due to leave Sneek for the return trip home, my Dad suggested we go on a quick bike ride and see the town. Which we did, and cycling in Sneek was by far the most relaxing experience of the whole trip. The town is picturesque, the Dutch famously sensibly don't let cars spoil their towns too much and thus allow them to be places to live in, and the short 5-mile ride we went on was just enough to unwind and relax after all the tension we had been carrying since our arrival in the Netherlands. Just in time for my father to get stressed about the journey home, and worry about getting to Pompey in time for the last ferry.

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Bluebottle

16.10.23 Front Page

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1A number of numbers and removeds are involved somehow, but don't ask me to explain as it is all a bit complicated.2Ludicrously expensive chocolate ferret-flavour rocks.3The Merlin not only powered British aircraft during the Second World War such as the Lancaster, Spitfire and Hurricane to name just three, but also American Mustang and Kittyhawk and a tank variant, the Meteor.4Disclosure: they gave me a free pen and a bottle opener. Other companies that give out pens and bottle openers are available, although how many of them are experienced in recovering Lancaster bombers from the seabed isn't something I am able to comment on.5Wondering why there was a tea towel hanging up I later looked beneath it, only to discover it was hiding a female figurehead with more nipples than clothing.6A Geiger counter does not count guys but measures radiation.7A buoyancy aid is designed to help keep someone afloat but a lifejacket is designed to not only keep you afloat, but your head above water.8But their names will be completely chiselled off the Runnymede Memorial and wiped from all existence.

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