EN

An American bomber crashes in the Spaarndammer neighborhood

Flying back from a mission in Germany, a Boeing B-17-G Flying Fortress was hit by German anti-aircraft fire and crashed in the Spaarndammerstraat.

After dropping bombs over Berlin, the plane was on its way back to home base in England when it was hit by German anti-aircraft fire.[1] Near Bremen, pilot Edward Stull ordered five crew members to jump while he and co-pilot Samuel Showalter flew on. Above Schellingswoude, the plane was shot at again, after which both pilots jumped out of the plane. The plane came down on a school in Westzaanstraat and partially in front of the rectory of the Catholic church in Spaarndammerstraat.

Anne Frank writes about these events in het diary.[2]

Footnotes

  1. ^ Information derived from EmielRos.nl: Bommenwerper op Spaarndammerbuurt 1944. Emiel Ros clarifiied his research of this plane crash in an interview on 20 March 2014.
  2. ^ Anne Frank, Versions A and B, 23 March 1944, in: The Collected Works, transl. from the Dutch by Susan Massotty, London [etc.]: Bloomsbury Continuum, 2019.