Operation: Stuttgart, Germany

Date: 28th/29th July 1944 (Friday/Saturday)

Unit No: 61 Squadron

Type: Lancaster III

Serial: LM452

Code: QR:T

Base: RAF Skellingthorpe, Lincolnshire

Location: Niederseebach in France

Pilot: WO. William Reddington MacPherson 1579079 RAFVR Age 26. KiA

Flt Eng: Sgt. William James Smith 1819575 RAFVR Age 19. KiA

Nav: Fg Off. Peter Paul Brosko J28773 RCAF Age 26. Murdered (2)

Bomb Aimer: Sgt. Raymond Gerald McMillan R134302 RCAF Age 20. PoW No. 750 * (1)

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. Gerald Harry Postins 1217077 RAFVR Age 21. KiA

Air Gnr (Mid Upp): Flt Sgt. John Wallace Allan Mackie R215883 RCAF Age 20. KiA

Air Gnr (Rear): Flt Sgt. David Fraser Currie R201612 RCAF Age 21. KiA

* Stalag 3A and work camps (Also Oflag 3-6) Luckenwalde (was originally an interrogation centre), Brandenburg, Prussia.

Above, left to right: Fg Off. Brosko, Flt Sgt. Mackie, Flt Sgt. Currie from their service records.

REASON FOR LOSS:

LM452 took off from RAF Skellingthorpe at 22:18 hrs on the night of the 28th July 1944 and joined fifteen other Lancasters from 61 Sqn tasked with a bombing mission on Stuttgart, Germany. LM452 was the only Lancaster from the Sqn that failed to return from the operation.

The aircraft was intercepted en route to the target and was claimed as a probable by Unteroffizier (Cpl) Bruno Rupp, his 8th Abschuss, from 4./NJG3 as a 4 motor west of Strasbourg at 4.600 m at 01:28 hrs. (Nachtjagd Combat Archive (24 July 1944 - 15 October 1944) Part 4 - Theo Boiten).

Feldwebel (Sgt) Rupp survived the war and was credited with 15 confirmed Abschüsse. He died on the 26th March 2014. (Luftwaffe ACES - Biographies and Victory Claims (Mathews and Foreman) - Volume 3).

The aircraft crashed near Niederseebach some 14 km (8½ mls) west of the German border..

Note: It was incorrectly reported by No. 2 MREU Casualty Enquiry No. G.1222 that the aircraft had crashed in the locality of Malsch, 1½ km (1 ml) SE of Neumalsch and was totally destroyed.

André Nierengarten has shared with Aircrew Remembered his research into the actual location of the aircraft crash and was able to interview two contemporary residents (two sisters) of the village of Oberseebach (now Seebach). They saw the plane fly low over their house and then knock tiles from the roof of their barn. The aircraft flew on in flames and as it left the village it lost one of its engines and finally crashed in the fields just before Niederseebach.

Fg Off. Brosko and Sgt. McMillan were the only two of the crew that parachuted from the aircraft.

(1) The following is an extract from the affidavit provided by Plt Off. McMillian to the British Military Court convened in Braunschweig (Brunswick). (See Ser 2).

“Our target was Stuttgart but we did not reach it as we were shot down over Alsace-Lorraine, 5 or 10 mls west of the Rhine. I judged we were about 50 miles from Stuttgart at the time.

We were supposed to have cloud cover to 20,000 ft but there was none above 6000 ft or thereabouts. When we got within 30 to 40 mls west of the Rhine we found about 25 to 50 enemy fighters in the area and some of our aircraft began to go down. It seemed to me that about 25 went down before we were struck.

The first warning we had came from the Wireless Operator. Through his visual Monica he picked up an aircraft about 600 yards astern and the pilot warned the gunners to be on the lookout, and about a minute later the Wireless Operator came back again and said that the aircraft was now about 250 yards astern. We were flying into the moon and the gunners could not therefore identify the aircraft as an enemy plane. Our height was about 17,500 ft. Just as the Wireless Operator finished reporting that the aircraft was about 250 yards astern we were hit by cannon shells.

They appeared to hit both starboard engines and possibly the fuselage. My inter-com went out of commission. I tried to talk to the pilot but could not get through. When I looked back our aircraft was already full of smoke and we were going down at about 300 mph in my estimation and beginning to spiral to the right. I could not see very clearly but I felt somebody kicking me and I concluded it was the Flight Engineer who wanted me to get out. I put on my parachute and threw off my helmet, jettisoned the escape hatch and baled out. I remember thinking at the time that the person who kicked me might have been able to get out but I do not know what happened after I baled out myself.

I landed in a small field and noticed that aircraft were still being shot down. I hid my flying suit, parachute and "Mae West" and managed to evade capture for 5 days by hiding in the daytime and walking at night. I twisted my ankle and could not move very far. I travelled in south-westerly direction and figure I covered about 30 mls.

At about 6 o’clock in the evening after 5 days travelling I stopped and hid in a potato patch. I noticed two peasants working in a field and children playing, before settling down to sleep for the night. Looking back I felt it was the latter who reported me.

I was awakened by a policeman wearing a helmet and pointing a gun at me. He took my .38 calibre Smith & Wesson with 12 rounds, my maps and escape money and walked about ½ ml with me and put me in the local jail. This place was about 10 mls straight west of Hagenau. An hour later we passed through Hagenau, and it was at the outskirts of the east side of the town that we went to an airfield where I saw Me110s and Ju88s and satisfied myself that a German night-fighter squadron was based there. I was there for 5 days and then taken to an interrogation camp on the outskirts of Frankfurt-am-Main.

I do not know what happened to the remainder of the crew. I never saw any of them again”.

Sgt. McMillan was appointed to a commission and promoted to J89930 Plt Off. whilst a PoW and transferred to Stalag Luft 7, Bankau near Kreuzburg. He returned to England on the 14th May 1945.

(2) The circumstances leading to the death of Fg Off. Brosko were determined by a British Military Court convened in Braunschweig (Brunswick) in Germany on the 22nd and 23rd October 1946.

Friedrich (aka Fritz) Kramer, a German national was charged that he at Oberseebach in Alsace during or about the month of July 1944 in violation of the laws and usages of war killed a Canadian Flying Officer, a PoW, believed to be Flying Officer P.P. Brosko, RCAF.

Kramer was a former Leutnant der Polizei (2nd Lt) of the Gendarmerie (State rural police) at Weissenburg in Alsace. He was also a member of the SS with a rank of Untersturmführer (2nd Lt).

The main evidence for the prosecution was given by three witnesses:

Georges Rott who was a farmer residing in Oberseebach;

Michael Becker who was a farmer residing in Oberseebach;

Johannes Hoffelder who was the former Hauptmann der Polizei (Police Capt) and the leader of the Kreis Gendarmerie (state rural police in Alsace).

The court heard that Becker had seen the aircraft crash at about 02:00 hrs. He, Rott and a number of other men went out in search of the aircraft wreckage. Rott had a bicycle and went ahead and when they caught up with him he was talking to a soldier who was wearing a blue air force uniform. Rott saw that the airman had a bandaged leg and a bruise above his eye and although he could walk he also saw that he was not at all right.

Gendarmes including Kramer then arrived in a car and took the airman to their vehicle and searched him. Rott and Becker guarded the airman for about 1½ hrs during which time he appeared to have fallen asleep in the and in their opinion had no intention of escaping. When the Gendarmes returned Rott and Becker were told to return to their homes. It was about 05:30 hrs and had become quite light. This was the last time the airman was seen alive by either Rott or Becker.

Around mid-day Becker was told by a woman that the airman who was alive earlier was dead. Becker returned to the scene to investigate and found a body of an airman lying in the ditch partially covered in a piece of aircraft wreckage not far from where the car had been standing earlier in the morning. Becker was convinced that this was the airman that he and Rott had been guarding. He could see that the airman had been shot in the head.

Hoffelder stated that Kramer had telephoned him sometime after mid-night about the crash and he instructed Kramer to investigate the crash site. Later that morning at around 06:00 or 07:00 hrs he saw Kramer, who reported that he had found five airmen dead and one alive, but he had shot and killed this airman.

On the 1st February 1946 a Capt. Rudolph J. Martin of the US Army Medical Corps accompanied a team of the Canadian War Crimes Commission to Oberseebach. He oversaw the disinterment of six coffins from the cemetery. The remains in five of the coffins exhibited injuries consistent with being recovered from a crashed aircraft. The sixth body was wearing battle dress with a RCAF Navigator’s brevet and Flying Officer strips on the epaulets. The only apparent injury was a fracture to the right side of the head. After he had completed his examinations the coffins were closed

When Hoffelder asked Kramer who had given such orders, he responded "Goebbels says every day on the wireless that these men are murderers; besides I have my orders from the SS". He made no mention of the fact that the airman was shot during an attempt to escape.

Later Hoffelder, in Strasbourg, had another conversation with Kramer during which he claimed that it was not easy to kill the man and that he had pity for the airman. He went on to say, "I drove him in front of me; the airman seemed to noticed something; he turned round repeatedly and looked at me. I had pity on him. I shot him through the neck at short range with the pistol". Again Kramer made no mention that the airman tried to escape.

In giving evidence at the trial Kramer stated on oath that he fired at the prisoner whilst the airman was attempting to escape and that he had no intention of killing him.

The court found Kramer guilty of the charge and sentenced him to death by shooting. He was executed at 11:05 hrs on the 9th January 1947 at Wolfenbüttel in Germany.

Burial details:

Fg Off. Brosko and the other five of the crew that perished were initially buried in the cemetery at Niederseebach in a single grave plot but in separate coffins. They were concentrated at the Choloy War Cemetery in December 1955.

Above: Choloy War Cemetery

WO. William Reddington MacPherson. Choloy War Cemetery 3.F.12. Inscription: "TO SAVE MANKIND- YOURSELF YOU SCORNED TO SAVE". Born on the 7th January 1918 in Toronto, Ontario. Son of William Edward and Margaret Evelyn (née Bollard) MacPherson. Husband of Phyllis Anne (née Breeze) MacPherson, of Castle Fields, Shrewsbury, Shropshire, England.

Sgt. William James Smith.. Choloy War Cemetery 3.F.7. Inscription: "WHEN WE MEET FAR BEYOND EARTH'S CROSS THEN WE SHALL KNOW THE REASON FOR OUR LOSS". Son of Alfred Edwin and Gertrude Smith, of Sawley, Derbyshire, England.

Fg Off. Peter Paul Brosko. Choloy War Cemetery 3.F.8. Inscription: "REST IN PEACE. MEMORY OF YOU WILL NEVER BE FORGOTTEN". Born on the 29th May 1918 in Cobalt, Ontario. Son of William and Mary (née Jigouski) Brosko; husband of Mary (née Kurello) Brosko, of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Sgt. Gerald Harry Postins. Choloy War Cemetery 3.F.11. Inscription: "DEEP IN MY HEART HIS MEMORY IS KEPT, I, WHO LOVED HIM, WILL NEVER FORGET. WIFE NORA". Born in 2nd Qtr of 1923 in Birmingham. Son of Harry and Elsie (née Jarvis) Postins; husband of Nora (née Hilton) Postins, of Oldham, Lancashire, England.

Plt Off. John Wallace Allan Mackie. Choloy War Cemetery Joint grave 3.F.9-10. Inscription: "BLESSED IS HE WHO GAVE HIS ALL TO SAVE OTHERS. EVER REMEMBERED BY FAMILY". Born on the 6th October 1924 in Gunton, Manitoba. Son of Robert and Margaret Ellen (née Johnson) Mackie, of Kenora, Ontario, Canada.

Flt Sgt. Mackie was posthumously appointed to a commission and promoted to J90349 Plt Off. with effect 27th July 1944.

Plt Off. David Fraser Currie. Choloy War Cemetery Joint grave 3.F.9-10. Born on the 13th July 1923 in Pictou, Landing, Nova Scotia. Son of James Alexander and Rhena (née Martin) Currie of Montague, Prince Edward Island, Canada.

Flt Sgt. Currie was posthumously appointed to a commission and promoted to J90350 Plt Off. with effect 27th July 1944.

Researched by Ralph Snape and Traugott Vitz for Aircrew Remembered. With thanks to Traugott Vitz for his work on the ‘VitzArchive’. Thanks to André Nierengarten for his research into the location of the aircraft crash site. (Feb 2024),

Other sources listed below:

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