On 18 September 1944, carrying troops of the 156th and 11th Battalions of the Parachute Regiment during Operation Market Garden, the aircraft crashed. The right hand engine was on fire when it was approaching the drop zone near Wageningen. A forced landing was carried out and it crash landed about 3 miles from Rhenen on the River Grift.



See George Merz's account of the mission "The Great Underground Escape from German Occupied Holland" at https://amcmuseum.org/history/the-great-underground-escape-from-german-o...



Details of the crash are in the MACR 10283 at https://www.fold3.com/image/28730942



Some paratroopers bailed out before the crash landing on the riverbank.



Crew:

Pilot - Captain George C. Merz, wounded;

Co-Pilot - Lt. Ernest W. Haagenson, wounded;

Crew chief - T/Sgt. Richard W. Eastman, killed in action;

Navigator - Lt. Russell C. Stephens Jr., killed in action;

Radio Operator - T/Sgt. William G. Buckley, killed in action.



Infantry casualty:

L/Sgt. K.J. Metcalfe (British), 11th Battalion 4th Parachute Brigade 1st Airborne Division, killed in action. Buried in Rhenen, General Cemetery, Netherlands.