A DUTCH war historian is seeking relatives of a Haworth airman killed during a bombing raid during the Second World War.

The researcher hopes to invite descendants of radio operator Jack Chaplin to the unveiling of a memorial in honour of Allied bomber crews.

Sergeant Chaplin, who lived in Rosslyn Grove, died along with crewmates in a Halifax bomber shot down by German night fighter in 1943.

Peter den Tek is investigating the backgrounds of various crews whose planes crashed near his hometown of Giessenburg in the Netherlands.

He and fellow volunteers will on May 2 unveil a stone commemorating the actions and service of the six aircrews.

MORE NOSTALGIA HEADLINES

Mr den Tek’s research has already uncovered background on the various missions and aircrew, and the website of Keighley’s Men of Worth Project – which records information about local people killed in wartime – reveals information about Sergeant Jack Chaplin’s part in the fateful raid on the night of July 13 in 1943.

Sgt Chaplin is interred at Crooswijk General Cemetery in Rotterdam, and his name is commemorated on the war memorials in Keighley, Haworth Baptist Church and Haworth Parish Church.

Sgt Chaplin’s Halifax serial number JB801, with a crew of seven, had already flown dangerous missions to Cologne and Gelsenkirchen that month before it set off from RAF Breighton to bomb railway emplacements at Aachen in Germany.

Among 17 other Halifax bombers, the formation flew across the North Sea and released their bombs at 2am, causing intense fires across the city, and heavy flak followed them as they headed back to England.

German radar found the bombers and directed Messerschmitt Bf110 night fighter pilots including Oberfeldwebel Karl-Heinz Scherfling, whose attack quickly brought down Halifax JB801.

The following morning local people saw the smouldering remains of the aeroplane in a field, and eyewitnesses’ descriptions of bodies in ditches and fields suggested they tried to bail out.

The next day Luftwaffe soldiers, probably from the local radar station, had their photo taken in front of the wreck.

Research by Mr den Tek and English war historian Steve Dyke suggest that Jack and his wife, Keighley woman Irene Stones, had five children, Eileen, Peter, Winifred, Barry and Joan, born between 1935 and 1942.

Electoral registers show that following Jack’s death Irene may have married Arthur Butterfield, and continued living for several years at 20 Rosslyn Grove. By 1957 Irene was living with Peter Chaplin – probably her son – in Keighley.

Anyone with information about Jack Chaplin’s relatives should contact Peter den Tek by e-mailing voorzitter@stichting-vliegeniersmonument-giessenlanden-wo2.nl or via Twitter @PeterdenTek.