Dear All
My name is René Bosma en I live in the little Dutch town of Oosterwolde. Since 4 years I have been investigating the Air war over the Northern part of the Netherlands. It is my main objective to gather as much information as possible about the aircraft and the airmen which came down over the province of Friesland during the Second World War. We consider it very important to keep the memory of the Air war alive, especially the many flyers paid with their lives for our Freedom.
One of the aircraft I research is a RAF Handley Page Halifax Bomber of 158 squadron. The plane make a emergency landing in a farmland near a little Dutch village called Ter Idzard on the 14th of September 1943. The Halifax was on his way home from a bombing mission to Bremen, Germany. But when they flown above the northern part of the Netherlands the plane was attack by a German Night fighter. Luckily all the 7 crewmembers survived because they could leave the plane with their parachutes. All where captured by the Germans en was taken to POW camps.
The Rear Gunner on this plain was Flight Sergeant LeRoy John Soper. Leroy was a volunteer in the Royal Canadian Air Force en after his training stationed in England. He was born on the 27th of Augustus 1922 at Napa, California, USA. The family lives in the 40’s on 4623 Adams Street at Napa, Napa County, California. His parents where Richard J. Soper & Nancy Clough Soper. After the war he lived in 1947 on 463 Adams Street, Napa en in 1948 on 1540 Laurel Street, Napa. He also serviced in the Korea- & Vietnam war. Leroy passed away on the 18th of December 1994 at Colorado Springs, El Paso, Colorado en buried at the Fort Logan National Cemetery, Denver, Colorado.
At the moment I research this crash en hope to found some ancestors/relatives or someone who could tell me more about Leroy his family, his live before he get in service en his service life.
My goal with the information I put together is to make a as precise as possible reconstruction about the crew en their mission on that day. So the story of the brave man who gave their live for our freedom never will be forgotten.
Thank you in advance en hope someone could en will help me.
Kind regards
René Bosma, Oosterwolde, The Netherlands
my email:
rene_bosma21@hotmail.com