www.militarysupport.ca 167 including forty-three Bomber Command four engine heavies. On this night, flying his radar equipped Me-110 night fighter, Drewes had already shot down a Lancaster near Amsterdam, his 43rd “kill”, just after 0200. Ten minutes later he stalked LK 879 as it approached the Dutch coast. It would have only taken a few second burst from Drewes’s 20 mm cannon to cripple the Halifax; the seven inside the Halifax may not have even seen the German fighter. It was all over at 0216. Drewes’ claimed his 44th victim. The stricken aircraft cleared the Dutch coast but soon after crashed into the North Sea off the Frisian Islands. There were no survivors – the bodies of Tabor, my cousin Robert and the rest of the crew eventuallywashed ashore along the northern Dutch province of Friesland. Bomber Command lost thirty other aircraft that night.When a Halifaxwent down so to did seven aircrew. The losses on the Sterkrade raid on that one night alone were almost equal to 40%
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTM0NTk1OA==