Owen Gerard Horrigan                     Updated: 05 MAY 2021

Airman: a107003.htm Surname: Horrigan Init: O G Rank: F/O Service: RAF Sqdn: 102

P_link: p007.htm Plane: WHI N1383 Operation: Attack DK Crash_site: Vildmosen

Crash_d: d260440 Buried_d: b280440 C_link: c107.htm At_Next: Vadum

"Under et angreb på Aalborg Lufthavn natten til den 26. april 1940 blev et Whitley fly skudt ned af flak. Flyets radioforbindelse med basen ophørte kl. 02.44. Da flyet nedstyrtede på "fenne 8" i Store Vildmose dræbtes 4 af de 5 ombordværende. Se p007MACR.

Begravelsen af flyverne fandt sted den 28. april under medvirken af en tysk feltpræst. Da præsten havde bedt Fadervor, blev der affyret æressalut, og mandskabet fra den kanon, der havde skudt flyet i brand, hilste en for en de faldne modstandere." (FAF)

Flying Officer (Pilot) Owen Gerard Horrigan, 26 år, var søn af Edward Horrigan og Margaret Ursula Horrigan, Southbourne, Hampshire, United Kingdom. (Kilde: CWGC)

"Fenne 8 flyet": Nedstyrtningsstedet er her - sydvest for mindestenen for de 4 flyvere fra WHI N1383 placeret her ved Blokhusvej 2, 9440 Aabybro.

Efter nedstyrtningen i 1940 skubbede tyskere ueksploderede bomber i krateret og fyldte det med tørvejord. I 1978 udgravede danske soldater stedet og bortsprængte en 250 punds bombe og en mindre granat. Den ene af de to 12-cylindrede Rolls Royce Merlin motorer er udstillet i Bangsbo Museum i Frederikshavn. (Informationstavle ved mindestenen)
1 flyver blev taget til fange. 4 flyvere blev begravet i Vadum. 5 flyvere.

"During an attack on Aalborg Airport on the night before 26 April, 1940 a Whitley was shot down by flak. Its radio communication with its base ceased at 02.44. When the plane crashed in "fenne 8" (field number 8) in Store Vildmose 4 of the 5 on board were killed.

The burial of the airmen took place on 28 April officiated by a German army chaplain. When he had said the Lord´s Prayer a salute of honour was fired and the crew from the gun, which had hit the plane so it caught fire, saluted the fallen adversaries one by one." (FAF)

Flying Officer (Pilot) Owen Gerard Horrigan, 26, was the son of Edward Horrigan, and of Margaret Ursula Horrigan, of Southbourne, Hampshire, United Kingdom.
(Source: CWGC)  He is remembered on The Walls of Names at the International Bomber Command Centre, Phase 2, Panel 184.

The crash site is here - southwest of the memorial stone to the 4 airmen from WHI N1383 placed here at Blokhusvej 2, 9440 Aabybro.

After the crash in 1940 Germans pushed unexploded bombs into the crater and filled it with peat soil.  In 1978 Danish soldiers excavated the place and blew up
a 250 pound bomb and a fairly small grenade. One of the two 12 cylinder Rolls Royce Merlin engines is on display in Bangsbo Museum in Frederikshavn.
(Information table at the memorial stone)

See No. 102 Squadron (Wikipedia) * No. 102 "Ceylon" Squadron (RAF) * Whitley *  p007MACR
Whitley N1383 DY-H took off from RAF Kinloss at 22.48 hrs on 25 APR 1940. (Source: Aircrew Remembered has this.)
1 airman became a POW. 4 airmen were buried in Vadum. 5 airmen.