Memorial sculpture to Lancaster bomber crew unveiled by grateful villagers

Residents had decided it was appropriate to create a memorial to remember this incident which happened back on October 14, 1944 and so Tongs engineering of Spilsby was commissioned to make a metal sculpture of a Lancaster with an 18 inch wing span, placed on a metal pole in Fotherby Dock (pond).

The model sculpture took 40 man hours to complete.

As part of VE Day celebrations, villagers gathered for a two minute silence at midday and unveiled a plaque to explain the history of the sculpture.

Steve Mansfield, from Fotherby, said: "This will be a lasting reminder of the bravery of the crew.”

Steve explained that 31 bomber crews at nearby RAF Kelstern took off as part of the first phase of two massed raids on the German city of Duisberg.

The airfield at Kelstern had been in operation for a little over a year and was the home of 625 Squadron.

Flying Officer Lloyd Hannah of the Royal Canadian Air Force, was an experienced Lancaster pilot, mid-way through his tour with the squadron. He was instructed to take with him his own navigator and mid-upper gunner, together with the pilot, engineer, bomb-aimer, wireless operator and rear gunner of a new crew to give them some experience.

Their aircraft, Q Queenie, had barely left the runway at 6.30 am when an engine caught fire. With a full bomb load and more Lancasters taking off behind them, it was impossible to land.

Normal procedure was to reach a safe height, point the aircraft out to sea and then for everyone to bale out. But the fire was so bad, this was impossible and, just two minutes after take off, F/O Hannah ordered everyone to bail out.

The flight engineer was Robert Bennett and he remembers that when the order came to jump, the Lancaster was at just 600 feet. The pilot was struggling to hold the aircraft steady while the crew jumped and there was no chance of him escaping.

Q Queenie and its 16,000 lbs of bombs came down in a field close to a farm at Little Grimsby. In nearby Fotherby they were convinced that the pilot had managed to stay at the controls to lift his blazing Lancaster clear of their village.

The explosion left an enormous crater in the field, a crater so big that it later filled with water and was used as a fishing pond.

The bomb-aimer from the new crew, Flight Sergeant Lloyd Bennett, also died when his parachute failed to open.

A plaque was placed in St Edith’s Church, Little Grimsby in 1995, expressing grateful thanks to the whole crew for saving the villages and there is an annual commemorative service with representatives travelling from canada to take part.