Colin Richard Fowler                                                                             Updated: 12 JUN 2022

Airman: v999016.htm Surname: Fowler Init: C R Rank: Sgt Service: RAF Sqdn: 75

P_link: p372.htm Plane: LAN LM268 Operation: Minelaying Crash_site: Ørslev Kohave

Crash_d: d120944 Buried_d: v999 C_link: v999.htm At_Next: EVD

"Medens 240 RAF bombefly fløj til Darmstadt, fløj 76 Halifaxes og Lancasters til Kattegat og den vestlige del af Østersøen. Tre af mineflyene blev skudt ned af tyske natjagere." (FT 88-41-34)

"Under en mineudlægningsoperation blev et "Lancaster" fly natten til den 12. september 1944 skudt i brand. Flyet kom lidt over midnat ind over Sydsjælland, hvor det styrtede ned i en ejendom i Ørslev Kohave. (Her, zoom.) Herved omkom ejeren parcellist Pommergaard, hans kone og tre voksne børn.

Af de 7 ombordværende flyvere omkom de 5." (FAF)

"Det lykkedes Flight Engineer Sgt Colin Richard Fowler at holde sig skjult i bl.a. tårnet til Ørslev Kirke. Venligtsindede danskere hjalp ham dog hurtigt videre til Sverige, og den 28. september var han allerede tilbage i England." (FT 88-41-34) Se mere i Colin Richard Fowler i tårnet?

Fra LAN LM268 blev 3 flyvere begravet på Svinø og 2 i Ørslev. 1 flyver blev krigsfange og 1 nåede Sverige.
Se Lancaster fotos og Minelægningsområder. 7 flyvere.

"While 240 RAF bombers flew to Darmstadt, 76 Halifaxes and Lancasters flew to Kattegat and the western part of the Baltic Sea. Three of the minelaying planes were shot down by German night fighters." (FT 88-41-34)

During a minelaying operation a Lancaster was hit and caught fire on the night before 12 September, 1944. The plane came in over south Zealand a little after midnight, where it crashed into a small farm in Ørslev Kohave. (Here, zoom) The owner Carl Pommergaard, his wife and their three adult children perished.

Of the 7 airmen aboard  5 perished. (Source: FAF)

Flight Engineer Sgt Colin Richard Fowler managed to hide in the tower of Ørslev Church and other places. Friendly Danes very soon helped him on to Sweden, and he was back in England as early as 28 September. (Source: FT 88-41-34) Søren Lottrup, 2 years and 9 months old at the air crash, wrote to AirmenDK that he clearly remembers how his parents helped Fowler with civilian clothes. Søren Lottrup visited Fowler in England some years before he died in 2012 - and Søren Lottrup went to England to the ceremony when the urn with Fowler's ashes was interred.

3 airmen from LAN LM268 were buried in Svinø and 2 in Ørslev. 1 airman became a POW and 1 reached Sweden.
See No. 75 Squadron RNZAF. See Lancaster Photos and Minelaying areas.  p372MACR har mere.
75(nz)squadron has more, also 75(NZ) Squadron RAF Records from September 1944, find entry of 11/12.9.44, and see that this plane with Captain Hadley failed to return. 
Lancaster I LM268 AA-D took off from RAF Mepal at 19:35 on 11 SEP 1944. (Source: Aircrew Remembered has this+Archive Report.)  7 airmen.