Dakota Mk III KG399
On 21 September, 1944 while on a supply flight to drop oil and mortar bombs in front of the Hartenstein Hotel at Oosterbeek in the Netherlands, Dakota KG-399 was hit by flak over the drop zone (but only received light damage) but was strafed by a Focke-Wulf 190 on its return to England.
This started a fire which took hold on the port wing and fuselage.
Pilot officer Frederick Stephen William 'Fred' Dyer, wireless operator Flight Sergeant Jack Hickey, CPL North A, CPL Scott RL, DVV Warner J. and DVV Woodcock G were able to bale out at 800 ft (approximately 243 metres).
The Dakota crash-landed 3.5 kilometres from Hooge Mierde, about 110 kilometres to the south west of Oosterbeek, very close to the Belgian border.
Pilot F/O Ades Michael Ades and Second Pilot F/Sgt Kenneth Dorville were killed - excellent information on the pilots and their final resting places can be found here;
Dorville – Valkenswaard War Cemetery
Ades – Valkenswaard War Cemetery
Today on the left side of the street, on the grounds of the NV Ravago Plastics Factory at the end of the Poederstraat in Arendonk there is a memorial cross marking the crash site.
At the time of the crash, Ravago was a factory for explosives.
