WW2 German plane crashes in St Audries Bay, West Somerset, England,

[Goldipaws]

WW2, I think, 1941, a German plane crashes or was brought down at my local beach at St Audries Bay in West Somerset. Two German airmen were then buried in the local church and there they lay being remembered each year by locals even though they were 'the enemy' and they now have a cross where they are buried. We would love to find out more about these men, and perhaps trace any family.
A few years after the war a letter and money was sent to a local lady asking for the money to be used to put poppies on the air men's grave , she and her son did this and the son still continues to do so after all these years. 
This November a cross was erected for the Airmen, but no names survive and sadly no letters survive either.
It would be lovely if Anyone with any recollections of the crash or suggestions of how I could find more information of Luftwaffer crash records would be wonderful. (Crash might not be the correct term?) to find out a little more about these young men and give them names would be great.

[KGarrad]

Welcome to RootsChat!

Probably best to look here: http://www.aircrewremembered.com/
Where they have an database of Luftwaffe personnel?

[Goldipaws]

Thankyou for the info I shall have a look. I don't have any names, flight numbers or anything to start with, but maybe I will find something there as I've not looked at that site. Again thank you.

[SwissGill]

Try here:

http://forum.12oclockhigh.net/showthread.php?p=192105

[Goldipaws]

Thank you for the info and having looked it up I think I will now leave it to the other guys who are also looking. Many thanks again. 

[Svenja]

Hi

There is an interesting Website about Luftwaffe Fighter Pilots missing in action.

http://www.luftwaffe.be/

Regards
Svenja

[Malcolm33]

You might be able to narrow it down a bit.   This site lists the raids - http://ww2db.com/battle_spec.php?battle_id=95

I've had a quick look through the early months of 1941 and there were a number of raids on Bristol and on Plymouth.    If the plane was hit over Bristol it might have made it as far as St.Audries Bay, or it could have been on the way back from Plymouth.

Wouldn't there be some identification on the bodies?   If their tags were removed before burial then they would surely have made their way to the War Office.   I wonder if German authorities would be interested in having the remains disinterred so that their families could be told?

[Goldipaws]

Thank you all for your help.

 I will scroll through Svenja, looks interesting, thank you.

And thank you Malcolm,
 re the identification tags, the bodies were washed up on the beach, but were headless, I guess through impact on crashing? I don't know if there was any wreckage of the plain. 
I am trying to help a friend who is interested as he's put poppies on the spot where they were buried since he was a child. His mother received letters with money for poppies for some years after the war, so mum and son put poppies on the graves till his mum died, and his son continues doing it now, he didn't want them to be forgotten either, they were just young men doing their duty for their country..  My guess is the letters were from the parents but after they died The letters stopped, it was many years ago and none survive.
I believe I'm right in saying the authorities were told, although which ones I don't know, and nothing was done. My friend is now 74 and has been trying to do something for them all this time.
Many thanks again,

[Malcolm33]

re the identification tags, the bodies were washed up on the beach, but were headless, I guess through impact on crashing? I don't know if there was any wreckage of the plain. 

    If there was no wreckage found then that makes a big difference as to which raid we are looking for.    In that case they could have come down in one of the Swansea Raids of February 1941 and currents then carried the bodies across the Bristol Channel:
19 Feb 1941
German bombers began a three-day campaign against the port city of Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom.
20 Feb 1941
German Luftwaffe bombed Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom for the second consecutive night.
21 Feb 1941
Swansea, Wales, United Kingdom was attacked for the third consecutive and final day as bombers flew over the port city from 1950 hours until after midnight. Over the course of the three days, 35,000 incendiary bombs and 800 high explosive bombs were dropped on Swansea, killing 230 and wounding 409, but the strategically important docks and nearby oil refineries were relatively unaffected.
 
    The fact that both bodies were headless tells us something.   I think it indicates that they would have had to have been in an aircraft where the canopy came off to behead them both simultaneously.    I think that rules out a fighter plane.  The JU 87 (Stuka) did have a gunner sitting behind the pilot but this plane was more or less ruled out by 1941.

     Perhaps we can find out who was lost in the Feb 1941 raids on Swansea?

     I checked out Henrietta's War, but there is little information of actual raids in that, save for one in May 1941 when Henrietta (fictional name used by the author Joyce Dennys) had an argument with a neighbour over who now owned an incendiary bomb and so had the right to put it out.   The bomb died while they were arguing.   Joyce lived in Budleigh Salterton.