Halifax JN954 VR-R is headed for the rail yards at Montzen. On board are Pilot P/O Roderick McIvor,
Navigator WOII John Bremmer, F/E Sgt. Stanley Rigden, Bomb Aimer P/O Stanley Goulding, WAG WO Walter Claridge,
Air Gunner P/O Kenneth Tucker, Rear Gunner P/O Edmund Dujay. The crew had a run in with two night fighters on a previous
operation and had proved their skills at evading the dangers. But on this night near the village of Heer, in the suburbs of Maastricht
they were unable to out maneuver and escape the attack. All on board were killed their burial was in the nearby Maastricht General Cemetery.
The events on the ground
At some point soon after the crash of the Halifax, the local civil guard were ordered to remove the wreckage of the aircraft. And any of the electrical
equipment that survived the crash was to be stored in Heer until called for by Luftwaffe officials. With the months passing and the front lines moving closer
the equipment was never picked up by the German officials. By September of '44 the American forces were in Heer and during that time some or all the items
went missing. Items which were of no value to the advancing troops but could be of use or have trading value to the people of the village.
The Find
Among the items that were stored awaiting to be passed on to German intelligence officers was a leather head set of one of the crew of JN954. From the
day the American forces came into Heer in 1944 until decades later when a small child finds the set in his grandmothers attic it was lost, possibly
the only remaining item from the Halifax lost on that night so many years before.
The search begins
Many years later still the child who rediscovered the head set began his search to find out all he could about the man who wore it and the others he flew with.
His search began in the local archives of Massstricht, which now encompassed the village of Heer. It was in these archives that reports made about the crash by the German
officials were found. The records had some of the names incorrectly listed but after the war it had all been corrected. He was also able to interview some of those from the village
who saw the Halifax as it crash landed. It has taken him awhile to bring it all together and with finding of the name of wearer of the head set still very faintly printed on it his search has
widened and he is anxious to present a small website on the crew of JN954.
