"BB329 Halifax bomber crash in Purmerend, Holland. May 22nd 1943."

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Halifax BB329, 138 Squadron S.O.E.

Crash-landed Purmerend, Holland. 22^nd May 1943
More information welcome please.

Crew of BB329 with Short Stirling in background. Far left:-A.W.Mureph 1382356 Wireless Operator.

Airman with cigarette:-P.B.Norris 1291204 Pilot. Other Airmen believed to be:-S.Boothroyd 636558(K),

W.H.Wild(K) 1504089, J.H.Dixon 113264, L.W.Tomlinson 656415, F.W.Green 1323355.

But who is who?

BB329 left Tempsford Airfield on the night of May 22^nd 1943 on mission Marrow 35 & 36 to drop seven containers and two packages on each target (target unknown at present) hit by flak, they crashed at 02.00 hours on polder Noordbeemster, five of the crew were taken prisoner while the other two crew members were killed. It is understood that after the crash, injured and suffering from burns, the survivors walked to a farmhouse a few hundred metres away where they were looked after by the occupants until being picked up by the Germans and taken to Wilhelmina Hospital, Amsterdam prior to transfer to POW camp. Norris 42782 in Kopernikus, Dixon 119 in Heydekrug, Mureph 42784 in Sagan, Green 152 in Kopernikus. Subsequently the farm where their wounds were dressed was renamed "Five Airmen Farm". Eye-witness accounts confirm that BB329 crash-landed between two farmhouses only 40 metres apart. No mean feat considering a Halifax Bomber has a wing-span of 31.75 metres. I would prefer to believe that the Pilot (my father P.B.Norris) showed extreme skill in crash-landing the aircraft between the two farmhouses but perhaps it was just luck. We may never know.