Mid December last year I received an enquiry from a young lady who had seen the pictures in the Old Walton Photo Archive of the remains of a Halifax Bomber being recovered at the Naze in 1973.

She asked if I could give her further information as she believed her grandfather had been one of the airmen who perished when this aircraft crashed. I was able to give her some information but even better I put her in contact with Geoff Rayner who had researched the incident for his book on Wartime Walton “Seaside Front Line”.

The result of this was that on Monday of this week Nina Hoeve travelled to Walton from her home in The Hague, Holland to visit the memorial to the airmen which was erected by the RAFA in 1978 on the Memorial Gardens. She also visited the actual site of the crash on farmland at the Naze. Both Geoff and I were on hand to meet her and show her around. This is the story as sent to the local press:

30-year-old Nina Hoeve from The Hague, Holland made an emotional visit to the Memorial Gardens at Walton-on-the-Naze to see, for the first time, the memorial to her grandfather who died in World War Two.

Nina was aware that her grandfather, RAF Sgt Douglas Cooke, died when his aeroplane crashed at Walton. In December 2008 she started researching the crash on the Internet and found on Putmans Walton Web Archive  pictures of his Halifax Bomber being recovered from the crash site

Nina contacted Pete Frost of Putmans who was able to put her in touch with Geoff Rayner who had researched the incident for his book on wartime Walton, 'Seaside Front Line'.

Royal Air Force Sgt Douglas Cooke was killed when the Halifax Bomber of 432 Squadron Royal Canadian Air Force in which he was flying as flight engineer crashed at the Naze as it returned from a bombing raid over Germany on the night of 5/6^th

March 1945. He was the only Englishman on board with seven Canadian members of the crew who also perished.

The remains of the aircraft were recovered in 1973 by members of 308 Squadron (Colchester & Clacton) Air Training Corps and in 1978 three of the propeller blades were erected as a memorial by the Frinton & Walton branch of the Royal Air Forces Association.

After visiting the memorial, Nina and Geoff with the help of farmer, David Eagle, visited the site where the aeroplane crashed at the Naze.