Murder of Sq.Ldr.Drue R.C.Whyness & Crew

Lancaster III  PB 415  NG-180   KC-S  5 Group
Crashed Rheinweiler ,Germany October 7,1944 at 17: 13 pm
Pilot: Sq/Ldr Drue Rothwell Cullen Wyness, aged: 24  - Pilot ,buried Choloy, France Nav F/Lt Ronald Henry Williams ,aged: 22 buried Dürnbach Cemetery, Germany R/O  Operator/Air Gunner Bruce James Hosie RNZAFaged :21 buried Choloy,France F/O Bombardier Herbert A. Walter Honig , aged : 22 buried Dürnbach , Germany F/E Gunner : F/S Thomas James Hurdiss, aged: 23 Mid Upper Gunner : F/S Thomas Horrocks aged :21  Rear Gunner : F/0 George Edward Cansell, aged: 21    Last 3 are MIA commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial.
Capture & Murder of Sq/Ldr Wyness & Crew
Sq/ldr Attended Stretford Grammar School and Hutton School near Preston.Member of R.U.F.C.Married Miss Ruth Siddle in July 1941, the daughter of  Mr. & Mrs. W.K. Siddle of Cheadle Hulme.  The R.U.F.C.centenary book states that he was a Flight Lieutenant and was killed on operations on October 7,1944 .Listed on the RUFC Memorial.
The 30/04/43 edition of the local newspaper has an article on him - that he had taken part in bombing raids over both Germany and Italy, notably Creusot and Milan.   His aircraft was the first over Creusot Works and the B.B.C.asked him to broadcast his experiences as Captain of a Lancaster bomber in action in a latter raid which was a day light bombing of Italy .   Front raw left S/Ldr Wyness,here as F/lt earlier days                         617 Sqn's Bombing Raid on the Kemb's Dam - 7th October 1944 They took off at 13.10 hours from RAF Woodhall Spa in a Lancaster Mk I No. NG180 KC-S to bomb Kembs Dam.  Nearing the IP ( aiming point ) at 600 feet,they were hit by AA light Flak from the east and west side of the Rhine river mainly by Heimat Flak Batterie manned by college boys of Luftwaffe Heimat Batterie Flak Helfer 35/VII (on Alsace west bank ) and 37/VII (Weil Am Rhein- Maerkt east bank ). LwH Heimat Flack 35/VII Alsace recruits West Bank of the river 1944 While repeatedly hit prior and after reaching the Kembs barrage by AA  light flack from east side of the barrage by Heimat Flak Batterie 37/VII got fire on its port engines which had to be feathered out of action,they managed to drop the Tallboy flying further NE and NNW before forced to ditch on the Rhine river in between the Franco-German border near town of Rhineweiler, Baden Wuertenberg,Germany . Some sources  claiming they hit a power cable before ditching into the Rhine.   Reconstruction Sq/Ldr Wyness Lancaster flying northbound Reconstruction Sq/Ldr Wyness Lancaster near Rhineweiler     Reconstruction: Lancaster KC-S ditch landing on Rhine Oct 7, 1944 It's presumed that the aircraft hit the water at minimum speed while on fire thus allowing the crew to inflate and board the life raft . Research of the French archives in Colmar and Freiburg i.B archives have reviled that all seven crew members were seen boarding the dinghy ,however soon thereafter two crew members presumed Horrocks and Hurdiss were seen jumping the dinghy and reached the French Alsace bank of Rhine , the third crew member presumably F/O Cansell while observing German soldiers preparing a boat on the other side of the river also jumped out and reached the Alsace bank of the river. Whermacht Pioniere Rheinweiler Sept.1944   Reconstruction : The rescue Reconstruction : the capture (painting Elena P)  Reconstruction : the capture of 4 crews The remaining four crew members were order with warning shots by the approaching German boat manned by German pioneer units which were stationed at Istein and Rheinweiler to paddle to the German side of the river. The four airmen wearing wet coveralls surrounded by local residents were brought bythe soldiers to the town hall of Rheinweiler. An eye whiteness describes later on that awoman asked the soldiers to give the crew some dry clothes to which they shouted at her and threatened her. In due course of the events of the captured British airmen the mayor of Bad Belligen called by phone the Nazi Kreisleiter of Loerrach Hugo Gruenner and Gestapo Loerrach informing them about the British prisoners .  Reconstruction : Murder at the Rhein river (Elena P)  WWII RAF Flyers boots which I both 18 years ago from a Bellingen seller may be subject related    Navigator F/Lt Ronald H.Williams (reconstruction) Within a short time after rushing by car from city of Loerrach to Rhineweiler ,Hugo Gruenner accompanied by the Gestapo agent Meissner arrived to Rheinweiler . While captured by French soldiers in Loerrach in 1945 Hugo Gruenner describing the event at the Strasbourg War Crimes Tribunal as following  : On October maybe November 1944 I was making a routine inspection near Loerrach after an air raid in order to assess damages .Upon arriving to Rheinweiler I noticed a large crowd of residents gather near the town hall and I was explained by the mayor that four American or British airmen were captured by Whermacht soldiers in the Rhein river.Indeed I was able to determine that four airmen in wet khaki flying suits were held in the office of the mayor. I did not pay attention to their ranks or type of uniforms , they were of average height wearing nothing on their heads. Since I don't speak English I did not address them any question.  I don't know if someone around  spoke English though I don't remember interrogating them.  Since the German Army and the Mayor refused to take the POW's in custody I gave the mayor  the order phone and ask for four Jandarmen from Schliegen to be dispatched a.s.a.p.   40 minutes later three Gendarmes have arrived and I have explained them that I have been ordered  by Gauleiter  von Baden und Alsace Wagner to execute Allied POW's to which I was replied by the  Gendarme that this was the single available option. The Policemen recommended me to execute them  on the river bank because this was only 2.5 Km from the town hall of Rheinweiler .I have taken the  Gendarmes and POW's to the Rhine river bank where I have executed one by one from the back with my automatic rifle while on left side of every POW one Gendarme was standing .  On a later testimony at the War Crimes Tribunal in Strasbourg , Gruenner revised his earlier testimony citing Gestapo agent Erich Meissner from Loerrach as the one who shot the POW's upon his orders . After execution the four corpses were dragged away and thrown on Rhine river.  I admit however that it was me who gave the execution order . A day later I tried to reach by phone Gauleiter Wagner in Strasbourg to inform him about the execution though due inability to reach him I informed his secretary Adolf Schuppel that it was my responsibility to obey Wagner orders and execute Allied POW's . " Sq/Ldr Wyness and F/O Bruce Hosie corpses were recovered a few days later on the French Rhine bank by either French Vichy or German troops near city of Chalampe, Alsace some 15 Km north of murder place then buried on post war era at Choloy Cemetery France. The corpses of Fl/Lt Williams and F/O W.Honig were recovered further north on the Rhine river two weeks later and buried later on in Dürnbach Cemetery, Germany which leads me to conclude that Wyness and Hosie were shot first then followed by the remaining two. Reconstruction : Hugo Gruenner &  Erich Meissner the murderers As no details available on the fate of the other three crew members who swam to the French bank of the river, it's presumed that they were executed by the Gestapo agent Erich Meissner from Gestapo Loerrach who at that time was active in Alsace upon alarmed by Gruenner after their escape and possibly after their capture they were executed as spies and cremated at Natzweiler Struthof SS Concentration camp near Strassbourg. In a memo dated May 1944 Hitler's secretary M.Bormann recommended all party members no participation on lynching of Allied airmen something which Gauleiter Wagner and Kreisleiter Gruenner were fully aware of .   + Bruce Hosie R/O Operator RNZAF                                  Letters from front from Nav F/Lt Ronald Henry Williams  S/Ldr Drue Rothwell Cullen Wyness, aged :24 ,buried Choloy, France This what Tony Iveson who participated on the Kembs Raid wrote about Sqd Ldr Wyness  : "Every October I find myself remembering a particular operation 617 Sqd flew in 1944 one of which was the Kembs Barrage Raid near Basel Switzerland. Three weeks after returning from a base in northern Russia from which the first attack on German ship "Tirpitz " was launched , we were given the task in destroying the Kembs Maerkt Barrage which controlled the waters of the Rhine few miles north of the Swiss frontier at Basel . The request to RAF came through the US High Command as the US troops who landed in Southern France were fighting their way through "Belfort" gap towards the Rhine, which barred their advances into Germany. As the US troops approached the river it was feared the Germans would blow the floodgates releasing a massive tide against them .One way to prevent this was to smash the barrage first and let the floods disperse before the attack.  Only a heavy charge ,deep in the water right against the sluice gates would burst them and the only weapon for the task was a 5-ton Tallboy . Very accurate bombing was required so it would have to be a low level attack in daylight .The raid was planned for late afternoon on Saturday 7th October so at least the return flight would be in darkness. Sqd Ldr Drew Wyness DFC and I dined with Colonel Chris Melville from King Scotts Borderers who recently arrived at Lincolnshire to replace the airborne troops who had flown to Arnheim. After the meal the Colonel packed me an Drew in his Jeep and drove us to our crew barracks on Woodhall Spa airfield picking up our kits on the way.   "Have a good trip Drew " I said as we promised Chris Melville we would meet him for dinner on that evening at the Spa hotel. Drew had completed a tour with a 5 Group main task squadron before joining 617 Squadron in September 1944. He had an unlucky start having to make a crash landing 5 Km West of intended airfield at Kegostrov Russia while skidding on landing on Sept 11/12 1944 on a transit flight to Yagodnik, Archangelsk region which they never made due to bad weather and fuel shortage on the first operation against the "Tirpitz".  He flew on  that raid with me and returned to UK with half its crew on my aircraft . The rest were killed in an other aircraft which crashed in Norway on the return flight.                                             Wyness Lancaster at Kegostrov, Russia Perhaps his luck was about to run out !  At Kembs in the afternoon Wing Cdr Tate led 6 Lancasters at 500 feet above the Rhine river straight for the Kembs Barrage. It was heavily defended and the flak guns firing almost level from high river banks - had clear targets Wyness aircraft was repeatedly hit and was on fire before reaching the release point. He dropped his "Tallboy" before being forced to ditch on Rhine river.The aircraft came to rest in low water and three of its crew tried to swim to French side . They were never seen again.  The remaining four inflated the dinghy from right wing and paddled franticaly towards Swiss bank ( Tony may have made an error because the Swiss bank  was about 18 Km or more from Rhineweiler ) but they were intercepted by a German patrol boat and taken POW.                                                  Wyness Lancaster crash reconstruction They were put into two cars and driven to the village of Rheinweiler .From there after interrogation were taken back to the riverbank and shot and thrown into the Rhine river .Drew was recovered some 50 Km downriver and now rests in a Canadian Cemetery near Toul in France ( also here Tony makes a mistake,Drew's body was recovered about 14 Km north near Chalampe,France ) near him rests Bruce Hosie R/O from NZ . I visited their graves last year .  Burial site of an other RAF crew murdered near Pforzheim in 1944 S/Ldr Wyness grave Choloy France    F/S Horrocks grave Duerenbach,Germany   Kreisleiter of Loerrach and Muelheim H.Gruenner was arrested in 1945 by French troops and indicted for the murders .He was tried and sentenced to death by the tribunal then handed over to the Americans .He escaped in 1947 and was never recovered. ( Also here Tony has an error , he was tried by the French appealed and his appeal was accepted and freed ) then arrested by British Authorities again and put on trial .Shortly before the trial in Recklinghousen in 1946 or 1947 he managed to escape with help from inside (presumed ODESSA organization ) changed name and fled to Argentina  where he died in 1971 .Various sources stating that he visted numerous times Bad Bellingen in the post war era before his presumed death .   War Criminal , Gruenner Hugo   Having seen Wyness's flaming Lancaster go down I returned certain that he was killed when I told Melville that evening .That big though soldier had tears running down his cheeks . It was many years later -over 50- in fact before I learned about Drew's death . I wonder if he had some premonition that he would not survive the war for he was full of restless of energy and never wasted a minute. But to die in that way after being shot down attacking a legitimate military target is a crime I shall never forget . " Historian Herbert Gilgin from Bad Bellingen believes that he located the place where the four RAF aircrews were murdered by Hugo Gruenner and Gestapo agent Erich Meissner. Estimated crash site at Rheinweiler photos Sept. 2018  Wyness and Hosie bodies recovery at Chalampe France  Wyness and Hosie bodies recovery at Chalampe France  Emergency 8-Man Life Raft  Lancaster This is probably S/Ldr Wyness replacement Lancaster at Woodhall Spa on early October,1944  Maerkt Stauwehr (Kembs Barrage ) as of Oct 7,2018  References : RAF Archives, H.Giblin,Badische Zeitung, Landes Archives Baden-Wuerttenberg