On the early hours of 22nd September 1943 the crew of this aircraft were undertaking an operational flight to, what appears to have been, lay mines off the Yorkshire coast or in the River Humber. As it approached at low level and crossed the North Sea coastline in the Withernsea area it was illuminated by searchlights. The Luftwaffe crew attempted to fire upon one of the searchlight batteries but as they were flying at such a low height the aircraft then struck the ground just over a mile from the coast near Out Newton. The aircraft broke up on impact in the crash which occurred in the region of the Three Foot Lane and all four Luftwaffe airmen were killed. Later in the day a Royal Navy Mine Disposal team were attempting to disarm two unexploded mines when one of the mines exploded, fatally injuring two and seriously injuring a third. Robert Westall would later base his book "The Machine Gunners" on this incident and the story was later turned into a BBC television series. Despite this incident occurring in September 1943 it would turn out to be the penultimate Luftwaffe aircraft that crashed on Yorkshire soil, the last was some eighteen months later at Dunnington Lodge, south-east of York in March 1945.
Pilot - Fw Helmut Rumpff. Buried Hull Northern Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Wireless Operator - Gefr Arno Ehemann. Buried Hull Northern Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Observer - Fw Siegfried Vom Weg. Buried Hull Northern Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Gunner - Obgfr Kurt Stiegler. Buried Hull Northern Cemetery, Yorkshire.
Bomb Disposal - Lt Cdr Charles Graham Tanner GM RNVR, aged 35. Buried Tilford Churchyard, Surrey.
Bomb Disposal - Able Seaman Percy Fouracre BEM RN (P/JX 219932), aged 32, of West Buckland. Buried West Buckland Churchyard, Somerset.
Bomb Disposal - Lt Frank Henry Edmund Price RNVR. Injured.
The graves of the four Luftwaffe crew in Hull Northern Cemetery.
All three bomb disposal members were decorated for their actions in their work. Charles Tanner was awarded the George Medal and Percy Fouracre was awarded the British Empire Medal, both Gazetted on 20th April 1943, for their bomb and mine disposal work in October and November 1942 in the River Thames. Charles Tanner's service is now commemorated in the College Chapel at Marlborough College.
Frank Price was awarded the MBE for his work in bomb and mine disposal, Gazetted on 28th September 1943.
Historians Albert Pritchard, Eric Barton and Ken Reast sought landowner permission in October 2012 to pinpoint the location of where this aircraft crashed and located a few small fragments in the topsoil but enough to confirm the location. Unbeknown to them at that time the site is very close to a major buried oil pipeline, their search was somewhat abruptly halted with the arrival of some very concerned military police personnel who invited them to consider going elsewhere. As it turned out this site was one of the last sites the three ever searched for together.