Type: Douglas C-47A Skytrain
Part: 50 TCS USAAF
Crash date: 18th September 1944
Crash location: Bonegraafseweg, Ochten
Commander: Capt. L. Ottaway
Occupants: 24
This aircraft, number 43-15180, took off from the British Saltby airport on 18th September 1944. The aircraft contained a respectable 24 occupants. An American crew of 6 and 18 British paratroopers from the British 156th Parachute Battalion, who were supposed to be dropped at Arnhem. You can find an overview of all names here.
German Flak anti-aircraft guns, which had been set up somewhere in the floodplains near Ochten, managed to hit the C-47A. The aircraft crashed around 14:12 hours, near the Bonegraafseweg in Ochten.
All crew members and paratroopers were killed. They were temporarily buried at the crash site, but were eventually transferred and reburied at various different memorial cemeteries in 1947. The paratroopers at the Jonkerbosch in Nijmegen, the American crew at the cemetery in Margraten.
You can find more details about this crash here.
A Douglas C-47A Skytrain from the USAAF in full flight.
The crash site soon after the tragic event, with field graves and part of the aircraft wreckage.
The crash site of the C-47A Skytrain, in a meadow to the north of the Bonegraafseweg. Coordinates: 5415-7070.
Monument for the crashed Douglas C-47A Skytrain, number 43-15180 in Dodewaard.