Recovery of bodies and burial

Recovery of bodies and burial

Account of recovery of eight bodies from Ernest Tansley's aircraft and burial on 6 December 1943. Continues with account of bodies being exhumed after the war. Re-buried at Chalottenburg, Berlin.

One page printed document

This content is available under a CC BY-NC 4.0 International license (Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0). It has been published ‘as is’ and may contain inaccuracies or culturally inappropriate references that do not necessarily reflect the official policy or position of the University of Lincoln or the International Bomber Command Centre. For more information, visit https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/ and https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/legal.

MTansleyEH149542-181113-08

When all eight members of the crew of JB 529. DX-P were traced, two men with a wagon were sent to the crash site to recover their bodies. They were loaded on to the wagon, covered with a parachute, and taken the short distance to the nearby cemetery for burial. The burial took place on the 6th of December and was seen by a lady who lived with her family close by. The bodies were wrapped in a tarpaulin before being buried side by side in a communal grave. This was situated behind a tiny chapel at the far end of the main churchyard and a wooden cross was erected to mark the site. Written on the cross was... HIER RUHEN 8 BRITISCH FLIEGER.......(Here Lie 8 British Flyers). When the bodies were exhumed after the war by an RAF team of Missing Research and Enquiry Service officers, they were again seen by a local resident. She showed the officers where they were buried and then managed to watch while the first two bodies were brought out of the grave. They were laid out on the ground and each skeleton and skull was carefully measured. She saw no more as was soon made to leave when it was discovered that she had stayed to watch. These eight young men still lie side by side, but now in the Berlin War Cemetery at Charlottenburg.