Sculpture ‘Near Miss’

On 21 September 1944, a ‘Short Stirling MK 4’ took off from the British airfield at Fairford to supply the 1st Airborne Division stationed in Oosterbeek. The airdrop was successful, but on the return journey the four-engine transport aircraft was fired upon by a German fighter, which had initially been mistaken for an Allied aircraft. An emergency landing was unavoidable. Batenburg would have been struck by the burning aircraft had it not managed, at the very last moment, to make a belly landing on the River Maas. Thanks to the swift action of circus performers staying in Batenburg, three occupants were rescued. Conry Candler, who was among the victims, is buried in Batenburg cemetery. In 2003, the aircraft’s undercarriage was found near Dieden, on the opposite bank of the Meuse,