In three months it will be the 80th anniversary of the loss of the Coates crew on 25 March 1944. Prior to this we would be most grateful if friends, relatives, and other interested parties would get in touch.

Two kind and dedicated Dutch people, Ad van Zantvoort and Ingrid Verhoeven, are hoping to hold a remembrance ceremony for the crew on the anniversary of their loss. It is also hoped to create a memorial for the crew at the crash site.

Ingrid Verhoeven looks after the Coates crew graves in Woensel Cemetery, Eindhoven, Netherlands, for which we give our most grateful thanks.

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About the Coates Crew

Old, much-worn Chapman family photograph of Bill Chapman’s shared grave with John Baldwin.

The Coates crew flew on Black Thursday, 16/17 December 1943, and their ranks on that memorable night are given with their names below.

• Pilot: Sgt William Darby Coates
• Flight Engineer: Sgt Bertram Horace Nicholas
• Navigator: Sgt Stanley Nuttall
• Bomb Aimer: P/O John Moody Baldwin  (RCAF)
• W/Op: Sgt William Chapman
• Mid-Upper Gunner: Sgt William Lambert York
• Rear Gunner: Sgt Frank Thompson

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On return to England after the Berlin operation, the crew were diverted to the emergency airfield at Downham Market for reasons which will soon become obvious; they thus avoided the fog crashes which took such a toll of other aircrew on their squadron. They landed at Downham Market at half past one in the morning of 17 December, the very last 97 Squadron plane to land that night.

The crew’s survival was due to an astonishing feat of flying by their sergeant pilot. Shortly after their safe return to England, Airey, RAF Bourn’s Station Commander, and Dunnicliffe, the Acting CO for 97 Squadron, strongly recommended Bill Coates for the immediate award of the Distinguished Flying Medal, a very great honour for such a junior pilot, who had been on his first operation. On 22 December, Dunnicliffe wrote a report of the flight home after incendiaries and flak had crippled the Lancaster: “By his devotion to duty, prompt obedience of orders and superb captaincy, Flight Sergeant Coates saved his aircraft and crew.” This opinion which was seconded by Airey: “This NCO put  up an outstanding show which thoroughly deserves the award recommended by his Squadron Commander.”

Bill received an immediate commission, and the DFM recommendation was accepted. The DFM ribbon would be pinned on Bill by the Pathfinders’ AOC, Donald Bennett, in front of the entire squadron. The DFM award was cited in the London Gazette on 7 January, the citation concluding “In harassing circumstances, this airman displayed great skill, coolness, and resolution”.

CITATION IN LONDON GAZETTE, 7 JANUARY 1944

The crew flew many operations thereafter, but their luck ran out on Saturday, 25 March 1944. Their aircraft was shot down on the homeward journey from Berlin, at about half past twelve at night, near Luyksgestel, 12 miles from Eindhoven, close to the Dutch/Belgium border. The crash was so violent that it was impossible to identify individual remains, and the crew were buried together in a common grave at Woensel General Cemetery.

The aircraft’s identity would be confirmed in August 1946 by the Missing Research and Enquiry Service, basing their findings on the meagre evidence surviving – a number on the starboard fin and a single signet ring which had belonged to a member of the crew.

The Air Ministry breaking this dreadful news to Coates’s parents (they had lost their oldest son, Gordon, at sea in October 1943 when his ship HMS Charybdis was torpedoed) wrote, “It is hoped that the knowledge of your son’s resting place and that he lies in friendly soil may be of some comfort to you in your great loss”.

Bill Coates, Stanley Nuttall and Bertram Nicholas were subsequently identified and have individual graves. John Baldwin and Bill Chapman lie together, as do Frank Thompson and William York.

Crew pictures: RAF Pathfinders Archive, David Chapman,, and the Coates family

Woensel pictures: Glyn Elston