War plane find lets son bury father he never met
THE son of an RAF gunner whose plane vanished during the Second World War may finally be able to lay his father to rest after the bomber was discovered.
Sgt Leonard Shrubsall was one of seven crew on board the Short Stirling when it was shot down returning from a raid on Berlin.
His wife Beatrice was three months pregnant when she received a telegram informing her that her 30-year-old husband had failed to return from the operation on March 29, 1943.
He knew his wife was pregnant with their first child and while on duty wrote to her saying he was “the happiest man in the world”.
Now his son Richard, 76, has learned the bomber is to be recovered at the end of the month from Lake IJsselmeer in the Netherlands where it was shot down by a German night fighter.
Richard, from Iwade, Kent, said: “The plane was found submerged in this lake. The seven families of the crew have been informed and are led to believe their remains are still on the plane.”
Emotional
Richard and his wife Janice said they were flabbergasted when they received a letter saying that the wreckage had been found.
She said: “I opened the letter indoors, my husband was out in the shed. I said to him I’ve just got this letter. To be able to find the plane after all those years, we couldn’t believe it. It just came out of the blue.”
The family had always thought the plane had crashed into the North Sea.
Janice, 76, said: “The whole family was resigned to that fact.
“Nothing was ever said about any of this until last year. It’s just taken over our lives.
“We’re ecstatic it’s going to be recovered. It is emotional though.
“We think Richard is the only child of the crew members left.”
In 2008 a Royal Netherlands Sea Rescue Institution team went to help a boat with engine trouble in Lake IJsselmeer, The Netherlands’ largest lake, near Amsterdam.
As the crew raised the anchor they found a part of an aircraft’s landing gear was attached. The captain alerted Johan Graas, the Dutch chairman of the Aircraft Recovery Group 1940-45.
The organisation locates missing war planes and salvages parts for a wartime museum.
It launched a full-scale investigation the following year.
Divers found an array of debris and items including a pen, cigarette case and a tail section of the fuselage belonging to a Short Stirling bomber.
Mr Graas said: “We hope all seven crew members will be found to give them an official grave. It’s most important for the relatives to have a place where they can come to.”
The other BK716 crew members included the pilot Flying Officer John Harris, 29, flight engineer Sgt Ronald Kennedy, 22, wireless operator Flying Officer John Campbell, 30, navigator Flying Officer Harry Farrington, 24, the rear gunner Sgt John McCaw, a 20-year-old Canadian, and the bomb aimer Sgt Charles Bell, 29.