Page 10 - John Francis Ryan

So, back to that night and John’s Lancaster crashing.

Two of the crew managed to bale out of the stricken Lancaster. The second crew member
baled out too low and landed into the burning wreckage. Sergeant Mervyn Hall the rear gunner
landed safely some 200 yards from the crash site. Mervyn was quickly apprehended by the local
landowner, Herr Carl Buekel who lived nearby and was forbidden to approach the wreckage. He
was later handed to the local Volkssturm, they in turn handing Mervyn over to German Wehrmacht
soldiers, who were barracked at the Fischer brewery in the village of Wieseth.

Subsequently Mervyn was collected by Luftwaffe personnel from between 03-40am / 04-00am
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next morning (17 March) and taken to a local Luftwaffe airfield, there he met a German soldier,
he being locked up in the same guardroom cell as Mervyn, this soldier having gone absent without
leave from his unit. They exchanged addresses and post war Mervyn was contacted by the former
soldier, he surviving the war. It is believed they kept in contact over the following years.
Next morning Mervyn would have been interrogated by Luftwaffe Intelligence then sent onwards to
a prisoner of war camp.

On the instructions of the village Burgermeister, the 6 crew members who perished, (the post
war report states) were removed from the wreckage next day and buried within one coffin in a
mass grave in the South Western corner of the village church yard with a grave marker stating
ʹ6 RAF unknownʹ. Herr Siechart (Who was later appointed the village Burgermeister after the
previous one was detained by the American Forces), arranged the funeral for the crew. The
Americans later occupying the area gave permission to the local scrap man, Herr Lechler from the
village of Feuchtwangon to remove the wreckage of John’s Lancaster.

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On the 27 August 1947 Major Sterling, Pilot Officer A.R. Gayen and Warrant Officer A.B. Garven
of No.3 M.R.E.E. (No.3 Missing Research and Enquiry Unit) visited the church at Wieseth
and (the report states) were present at the exhumation of the crews remains.
Positive identification of John, Sergeant Garnett and Sergeant Swift’s remains was established. In
John’s case his name was on the collar of his service shirt, the remaining three crew members
were not positively identified. John and his fellow crew members were transported that same day
by the British Army Graves Service to the newly established Dürnbach Commonwealth
War Graves Cemetery in Bavaria for internment.

The American War Crimes Investigation Team on the 3 October 1945 were informed that the
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fingers of two of the airmen had been cut off and the rings removed by one or more
of the German villagers. As this village was in the American occupied sector of Germany, one can
only speculate the request for an investigation to take place was made by the RAF, the
perpetrators were not identified and thus later, the case was closed.

John’s crew were not the only ones that failed to return from operations that night. John’s fellow
pilot and friend, Flight Sergeant Peter Sattler was also missing from the same operation. This
crew were claimed by Major Herbert Lütje of Stab (Headquarters Flight)/NJG6, the same fighter
unit that possibly shot down John. Peter being shot down 18.5 miles South/South West of
Nüremburg at 21-33pm, his Lancaster being at a height of 14,763 feet. Peter to date having
completing five operations with the squadron, they both having gone through basic and flying
training together. Peter, along with two of the crew survived and were taken prisoner by the
Germans, the other four aircrew were killed, with one missing. This airman is remembered at the
Runnymede Memorial, Surrey.

Runneymede Memorial