Bill Norman has researched this incident in superb detail and published a book displaying his research, I include the incident on this website to detail the loss but would
direct anyone with an interest to the late Mr Norman's work.
On 15th January 1942 this aircraft was attacking shipping and ports along the North East coast. It is thought that the crew had attacked various targets at Skinningrove and Eston
before bombing a ship off Hartlepool. The ship later sank but not before damaging the aircraft's engine. The Dornier then headed inland towards Middlesbrough and it's wing struck
a barrage balloon cable, it then crashed onto the railway sidings near what is now the South Bank railway station at 18.20hrs. Three bodies were found in the wreckage and
were buried at Thornaby Cemetery. Catterick's O.R.B. has the brief entry for this incident stating "Do17 crashed into balloon, South Bank, Middlesbrough".
As the crash occurred on a important railway line there was little time to do a full examination of the crash site, the crater was filled in and the track re-laid. A fourth airman was not located at the time and was listed as missing for many years.
On 26th November 1997 sewerage works were been carried out near the site when they unearthed the crashed aircraft again, a full examination of the wreckage found the body of the fourth airman. Following forensic tests, this airman was Heinrich Richter and as a result, the gravestone for one of the crew already at Thornaby Cemetery was changed to the name of Maneke. At the time of the crash it was thought that it was Maneke who was missing, not Richter. The burial of Heinrich Richter took place on the 14th October 1998 with a large crowd of ex-servicemen and other members of the public in attendance. The crash site was later built over with what is known as the "South Tees Business Park".
Pilot - Fw Joachim Lehnis, of Denzig, killed. Born 18/08/1918. Buried Thornaby on Tees Cemetery.
Wireless Operator - Uffz Hans Maneke, of Berlin, killed. Born 26/04/1918. Buried Thornaby on Tees Cemetery.
Observer - Lt Rudolf Matern, of Paderborn. Born 20/08/1917. Buried Thornaby on Tees Cemetery.
Gunner / Mechanic - Obfw Heinrich Richter, of Hirschberg, born 16/07/1911. Initially missing but now buried at Thornaby on Tees Cemetery. His family lost three sons during the War.
The graves of the four airmen killed in this incident. Heinrich Richter's grave always has fresh flowers on it and the wreath
on Rudolph Matern's grave is from "The People of Middlesbrough". This Luftwaffe loss is probably the most widely known incident in Cleveland
mainly through the efforts of Bill Norman. An initial account of this incident was given in Bill's "Broken Eagles" book. Credit for much of the research
into this crash must go to him. In 2008 he published a book dedicated to this one incident.
Some of the wreckage that was recovered in 1998 has since been placed on display within a small museum at Kirkleatham with information boards. The photographs above show part of this collection. Further items including a large undercarriage leg have been placed on display at the Warplane Wreck Investigation Group museum at Fort Perch, Wirral and the photograph shown below was taken by David Thompson.
Historian Eric Barton somehow obtained a few fragments of the aircraft following the 1997 re-discovery of the crash site, these items are currently with me awaiting a new home and are shown in the photograph above,
