Memorial Lancaster ED488 VN-M  crashed 2nd February 1943 at Hamont.

Departing at Skellingthorpe (Lincoln) air base, February 2nd 1943 on a raid to the city of Cologne in Germany.  On their way home, the aircraft of F/O Al Power and his crew was attacked by the German night-fighter of pilot Hauptmann Streib. The two air gunners immediately opened fire on the attacking German plane, but a second attack left them both fatally wounded. The steering mechanism was damaged and the plane caught fire. Since the plane was completely out of control, F/O Al Power instructed his crew to bale out, but as the last man to leave the plane, his parachute failed to open.  The Lancaster flew low over the nearby farm, owned by the Tijskens family and crashed in a swamp called 'de Papebos', in the Belgian village of Hamont at 9.27 PM

Sgt Clark, Sgt Holland, Sgt Mitchell and F/O Church, were able to leave the burning plane, survived the war although they were all interned in German prison camps.  The names of the two air gunners, Sgt Beadon and F/Lt Bousfield, are engraved in the R.A.F. memorial in Runnymede.  F/O Al Power was buried in Heverlee War Cemetery, Belgium.

At the chapel of De Haart in Hamont, a commemorative plaque mentions the names of the 3 war heroes of the 50th Squadron who lost their lives for our common freedom.