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1944-11-04 The Loss of Cor Goemans Halifax MZ930

Crash site: into the Rhine near Düsseldorf, Germany, about 300 meters South of the Himmelgeist ferry. Himmelgeist is a Düsseldorf suburb.

Source: RAF-AHB 12/2006

Crash cause: shot down by Flak, a shellburst instantly killed the pilot, Res 2Lt Vl C.J.M. Goemans. F/Sgt. F. Nuttall took over control; the rest of the crew abandoned the aircraft. The Sergeants Heath and Finnigan baled out on a single parachute. Sgt. Finnigan fell off when the parachute deployed, and was killed. His body was found that same evening, near Norf, 9 km SW of Düsseldorf. F/Sgt. Nuttall's body washed ashore from the Rhine later. Halifax MZ409 was also lost during this operation.

Name

1. Goemans, Cornelis Jacobus Maria (Cor)

C.J.M. Goemans Source: SLH

Rank

Res 2Lt Vl, F/O., pilot

RAF VR 183562

Decorations

None known

Born

6/11/1918

Place

Hillegom, NL

Squadron

RAF 640 Sqn Bomber Command

Ops/hr

39/182

Aircraft

Halifax Mk. III Nr. MZ930 C8-K

Base

RAF Leconfield, Yorkshire, GB; take off 17:35h

Mission

Evening attack on Bochum, Germany

Status

MIA, shot down by Flak

age

25

Missing

4/11/1944

Place

into the Rhine near Düsseldorf, G, about 300 meters South of the Himmelgeist ferry.

Source: RAF-AHB 12/2006

Known to

OGS

yes

CWGC

yes

Other crew

2. Sgt. Patrick Finnigan, Fe, RAF VR 1823313. KIA, buried Rheinberg War Cemetery, G, grave 14/A/21

3. F/Sgt. Fred Nuttall, Wop/Ag, RAF VR 1515745. KIA, buried Reichswald Forest War Cemetery, G, grave 8/D/14

4. F/Sgt. R.G. Purcell, Nav, Injured, POW

5. F/Sgt. H.D. Patterson, Ba, POW

6. Sgt. R.R. Heath, Ag, POW, Stalag Luft 7 (Bankau)

7. Sgt. G.W. Korner, Ag, POW, Stalag Luft 7 (Bankau)

Remarks

Trained in De Winton, Canada

Memorial

Runnymede, panel 206

GB arrival

Data

Confusion

OGS: Düsseldorf, G; died 5/11/1944. RAF: Rhine near Bochum, G.

Note: the Rhine River does not flow in or near Bochum; the much smaller Ruhr River does. Bochum is 45 km NE of Düsseldorf.

Grave of Sgt. P. Finnigan Rheinberg 070106 Finnigan P


Grave of F/Sgt. F. Nuttall Reichswald 080224 Nuttall F

2. Crash site confusion


Map 99. Goemans crash site confusion. Dusseldorf.jpg

The usual mixup exists between site of the crash, near Düsseldorf, and the target, Bochum. Res 2Lt Vl C.J.M. Goemans was killed in the air in the Neuss area. The body of Sgt. P. Finnigan, who baled out, was found in Norf, directly South of Neuss. F/Sgt. F. Nuttall ditched the aircraft into the Rhine, near the Himmelgeist suburb of Düsseldorf. His body washed ashore from the Rhine. The body of Res 2Lt Vl Goemans was not found, or was not identified amongst the bodies that washed ashore from the Rhine river.

3. Crash site data


Map 100. Halifax MZ930 ditched into the Rhine about 300 meters South of the former ferry between Himmelgeist and Uedesheim. Düsseldorf Himmelgeist.jpg

The crash site as seen in a hybrid view on www.map24.com

The crash area in the Rhine, 300 meters South of the former ferry between Uedesheim and Himmelgeist. The ferry ramps are at the blue arrows. The ferry, that served for centuries, was decommissioned in 1979, when the Fleher Brücke was opened. Uedesheim 070106-5


Map 101. The body of Sgt. P. Finnigan was found in the village called Norf. Düsseldorf 2.jpg

4. Where is the body of Cor Goemans?

The body of F/Sgt. F. Nuttall washed up along the Rhine river, and was buried locally. The Rhine river has thousands of current breakers, in Dutch 'kribben'. A body could wash out to sea with the current, but it could also become trapped at the upstream side of a current breaker, and be found there.

After the Liberation, F/Sgt. F. Nuttall's initial grave was relocated to Rheinberg War Cemetery, near Kamp Lintfort. If the body of Res 2Lt Vl Cor Goemans washed up too, then he may be buried as an unknown in Rheinberg War Cemetery, or equally possible in Reichswald War Cemetery, near Kleve. These are the only Allied concentration cemeteries in this area of Germany.

Bodies of aviators washing up from the Rhine is not unusual. We have identified 9 Allied aircraft that crashed in the Rhine, one that crashed on the river bank leading to one of its crew found in the river, and one that crashed near the Rhine, one of the crew who baled out drowned in the river, body found later. The period is 2/4/1942 to 19/2/1945. One Halifax, one Stirling, one Wellington and eight Lancasters. Four upstream of Koblenz, seven in the Ruhrgebiet downstream from Köln to Xanten. Of the 77 crew involved, six baled out and were taken POW, 12 bodies were found on land, and 59 bodies entered the water. Of these 59, no less than 40 washed ashore, all in Germany, most relatively close to the crash site, and within a few days after the crash, but with a wide range of 1 to 53 days. These were the ones that could be identified. A remarkable number, especially considering the flimsy Form 1250 document carried by these men as the only means of identification by the enemy. A document that would become unreadible after days in the water. The other 19 remained missing-in-action. A number of these bodies may have washed ashore too, but they could not be identified.

These statistics would lead to at least a 40/59 = 68% chance that the body of Cor Goemans washed up too.

The river Rhine, called Niederrhein in Germany in its trajectory after Düsseldorf, branches in Holland into the Waal, the Nederrijn and the IJssel. The IJssel ends in the IJsselmeer, the other two in the North Sea. Trajectories are about 200 km from Düsseldorf. The water flows with a speed of about 0,5 meters per second in October, to 1,5 m/s in January, 1,8 to 5,4 km/h. When Halifax MZ930 crashed, the minimum time for a floating object to reach the sea from Düsseldorf would be 200/1,8 = 111 hours, or 4,6 days. The Waal has a throughput of 1.480 m³/sec, the Nederrijn 400, and the IJssel 320. That would translate to a chance of 67% that the object would travel via the Waal, 18% via the Nederrijn, and 15% via the IJssel. Current patterns are straightforward as compared to the highly complicated ones in the North Sea. The current flows in one direction only: downstream. But this does not mean that the matter is a simple one. We see the following scenarios:

1. Goemans body may have remained trapped in the wreck. He died in the pilot's seat; it is unlikely that F/Sgt. Nuttall, who himself died in the crash, unleashed Goeman's safety harness. The wreck was most likely removed from the river, but only after the area was liberated. By then, the remains of Cor Goemans may have decomposed to the degree that they had been washed out from the wreck. If true, then we shall never find his remains.

2. Goeman's body may have been released by the wreck, relatively intact, days or weeks after the crash.

3. If his body was released from the wreck, then any of the following may have happened:

A. His body may have become trapped in front of an underwater object in the river, and decomposed there. If true, then little would remain to wash ashore anywhere.

B. His body may have washed ashore, or may have been found, anywhere along the downstream trajectory of the Rhine.

C. His body may have been washed out to sea, via the most likely Waal trajectory, or the least likely IJssel trajectory.

D. If B. would be true, than his body may, or more likely may not, have washed ashore from the North Sea.

E. If his body washed ashore from the North Sea, then this could have happened along the Dutch coast from Hoek of Holland to the Northeast, or at the Dutch Isles, or at the German North Sea cost, or even in Denmark.

F. The grinding action of sand and pebbles on the river's bottom may have fastened the decomposition process, to a degree that little remained to wash ashore anywhere.

Map 103. Flow path of the river Rhine, and its branches in Holland, from the crash site of Halifax MZ930. Rhine flow path.jpg

A body that washed up from the Rhine, in Germany or eastern Holland shortly after the crash, would be buried locally, grave to be concentrated later to most likely Rheinberg or Reichswald War Cemeteries. Note that the Flevoland polder, where the IJssel branch enters the IJsselmeer, did not yet exist in 1944.

For scenario 3.B. we see the following candidates for a grave of Cor Goemans:

Reichswald:

1. Unknown Allied Airman, 29/11/1944, grave 4/C/9

2. Unknown RAF, 06/12/1944, grave 20/F/6

3. Unknown Allied Airman, 11/12/1944, grave 4/C/15

4. Unknown Allied Airman, buried 19/12/1944, grave 4/D/8

5. Unknown Allied Airman, 12/12/1944, grave 4/D/9

6. Unknown Allied Airman, 12/12/1944, grave 4/D/10

7. Unknown RAF, 03/02/1945, grave 13/C/6

Rheinberg:

1. Unknown RAF, 30/11/1944, grave 17/H/21

2. Unknown RAF, 21/02/1945, grave 13/F/16

3. Unknown RAF, period of death estimated as Feb-March 1945, grave 10/A/17

Halifax MZ930 was the last-but-one Allied aircraft that crashed into the Rhine. On 19/2/1945 Lancaster Nr. PD336 WP-P of 90 Sqn crashed into the Rhine near Xanten, close to the Dutch border. Four bodies were found, on the South bank near Xanten and on the North bank at Bislicher, and initially buried there. Two of the casualties were reburied in Rheinberg, the other two in Reichswald. This would indicate that, after the liberation of the area, the Grave Concentration Unit did not recognize these field graves as belonging together. Once the bodies were delivered to the concentration cemeteries, the matter was laid to rest. Whilst the two graves in Reichswald are next to each other, the two graves in Rheinberg are spaced wide apart. The last two candidates on the Rheinberg list above could therefore also be the graves of one or two of the three men missing from this crew: F/O. T. Metcalfe RCAF, remembered on the Runnymede Memorial, panel 279, F/O. H.F.J. Carlton, Runnymede 266, and Sgt. L.A. Page, Runnymede 272.

If we assume that Goeman's body may have washed ashore further downstream, in Holland, he may have been buried as an unknown in a cemetery along the Rhine river in Holland. Or his body may have been buried there, to be relocated later. However, our database did not yield any possible matches with burials of unknown airmen in cemeteries along the Rhine river in Holland, or in concentration cemeteries in Holland.

For scenario 3.C.2., washing ashore from the IJsselmeer, our database does not yield possibles amongst the many unknown airmen buried in the many cemeteries along the IJsselmeer.

For scenario 3.E. the database yields only one possible match along the Dutch coast and Isles: an unknown RAF servicemen, buried in Velzen Zuid, with the date 8/12/1944 on the headstone.

The data above has been collected at the sites; it is not available from the CWGC. The data above excludes unknown servicemen that were not recognized as Allied Airforce, and airmen that were buried without date information. Checking on these would be a round two matter.

This database holds 495 burials of WW2 Allied non-US airmen, in 74 cemeteries in Holland, and is believed to be complete. Therefore, the Reichswald and Rheinberg graves mentioned above are the best candidates for a grave of Cor Goemans.

We now need burial data of these casualties. Where and when were their bodies found? This data is held by the CWGC. We hope that such data can link one of the graves mentioned above to Cor Goemans.

CWGC data, Peter Holton, 28/06/2007

Analysis

Searching for a grave of F/O. C.J.M. Goemans, R.A.F. VR Nr. 183562, missing-in-action 4/11/1944, lost in the Rhine river at Himmelgeist, Düsseldorf, Germany.

Reichswald Forest War Cemetery

Coordinates system: Modified British (Wartime) System, Nord de Guerre grid, first grid letter omitted. K50-52 are possibly the designations of GRU & GCU units.

Grave Ref.

Concentration Report

Completed British Wartime coordinates

Notes

Text on headstone

4.C.9

Dortmund Main Cemetery, K52, A 845360

RA 845360

Too far from the Rhine river. RA 845360 is Lünen, 16 km NNE of Dortmund. Dortmund Hauptfriedhof is Am Gottesacker 25, Dortmund-Brackel, 51.3044N/07.3201E. Coordinates of Lünen could be place where bodies were found. If true, then this could well be five members of one crew.

Unknown Allied Airman 29-11-1944

4.C.15

Dortmund Main Cemetery, 1/250.00 K52, A 845360

RA 845360

Too far from the Rhine river

Unknown Allied Airman 11-12-1944

4.D.8

Dortmund Main Cemetery, K52, A 845360

RA 845360

Too far from the Rhine river

Unknown Allied Airman buried 19-12-1944

4.D.9

Dortmund Main Cemetery, K52, A 845360

RA 845360

Too far from the Rhine river

Unknown Allied Airman 12-12-1944

4.D.10

Dortmund Main Cemetery, K52, A 845360

RA 845360

Too far from the Rhine river

Unknown Allied Airman 12-12-1944

13.C.6

Grave is identified. I think they meant 13.C.8.

OK

13.C.8

Gelsenkirchen-Huellen Cemetery. K52, A 583255

RA 583255

Gelsenkirchen-Hüllen, too far from the Rhine river.

Unknown R.A.F. 03-02-1945

20.F.6

Kirchellen Cemetery, K52 A 4334

RA 4334

Kirchhellen, too far from the Rhine river.

Unknown R.A.F. 06-12-1944

Rheinberg War Cemetery

Grave Ref.

Concentration Report

10.A.15

Denntal Germany, K 51, F 4605

WF 4605

Denntal not found. Derental? WF 4605 is between Dümpelfeld and Herschbach, 15 km South of Rheinbach. Too far from & upstream of the Rhine river

Unknown R.A.F., period of death estimated as Feb-March 1945

10.A.17

Grave is identified. I think they meant 10.A.15.

OK

13.F.16

None found.

?? Question still open

Unknown R.A.F. 21-02-1945

17.H.21

Sittarderhof Nr. Elsdorf, Isolated, K 51, F200578.

WF 200578

Elsdorf, Rhein-Erft-Kreis. WF 200578, 1 km SSE of Berrendorf. Too far from & upstream of the Rhine river

Unknown R.A.F. 30-11-1944

18.D.13 (Sgt. NUTTALL)

Esthal Cemetery, K50, R 182869

WR 182869

WR 182869 is Esthal, SW of Bad Dürkheim. Too far South, 306 km from Düsseldorf Himmelgeist. Sgt. Nuttall is buried in Reichswald 8/D/14 (according to CWGC database), not Rheinberg 18/D/13 (CWGC mistake). Rheinberg 4/A/21 is F/Sgt. Finnigan, who descended in Norg (my mistake, confusing the graves of Nuttall & Finnigan). The question about Sgt. Nuttall's initial burial is still open.



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