On the south side of the road.

A rough-hewn stone monument featuring a rectangular plaque at its center written in German and English, honoring the sacrifices of two U.S. A-26B crews whose aircraft were shot down near Reken, Germany near the end of World War II. It commemorates two crash sites located roughly 8 kilometers apart: one involving aircraft 43-22353 in nearby Hülsten-Holtkämpe (GEOCOORD 51.802526, 7.103280), approximately 5.5 kilometers southeast of Reken, and the other involving aircraft 43-22359 in Voßplacke (GEOCOORD 51.837978, 7.017420), about 2.5 kilometers northwest of Reken.

On 21 March 1945, a formation from 642nd Bombardment Squadron (Light), 409th Bombardment Group (Light), Ninth Air Force, United States Army Air Force took off from Station A-70 Laon-Couvron in France to attack a rail hub in Dülmen, Germany as part of the interdiction campaign against German troop movements in preparation for the Allied crossing of the Rhine River on 23 March 1945. Two of those A-26B Aircraft, piloted respectively by 2LT Cotton (43-22359) and 2LT Hadfield (43-22353), encountered heavy ground fire while approaching the target area. Cottons plane sustained a direct hit to the wing, debris and shrapnel from Cottons plane struck Hadfields, and both plummeted to the ground near Reken, killing all six crew members onboard.

In April 1945, when US Forces occupied the area, two sets of remains were recovered from a common grave in Reken. Both these men were reburied as Unknowns in Netherlands American Cemetery in Margraten, and later identified by tooth charts as 2LT Cotton and SSgt Nord. No other US remains were located at that time.

In 2014, Adolf Hagedorn, a German military historian and archaeologist, discovered information about resident eyewitnesses to the 1945 crash on nearby farmland, and he began searching. The buried plane remnants were positively identified as A-26B aircraft, and the farm owner authorized excavations on his land. Defense Prisoner of War/Missing in Action Accounting Agency (DPAA) and the History Flight organization partnered to form a digging team and began investigation and excavation work in the Winter of 2016.

The human remains found at the farm field crash site were identified as belonging to 2LT Hadfield, Sgt Kalausich, and gunner Sgt Hamilton. Family members were notified about the positive identification in 2018, the remains of the Hadfield crew were repatriated in 2019 and buried with military honors.

It was not until later in 2019 that remains of another U.S. aircrew member was discovered at the second crash site in a pasture more than a 20-minute drive from the first. In September 2024, DPAA identified the last remains as SSgt Lord. In June 2025, Lords remains were finally repatriated to the U.S. for burial.

On 21 March 2025, the 80th anniversary of the crashes, aircrew family members, local officials and representatives of U.S. Army Garrison BENELUX and German Bundeswehr gathered in Hülsten- Holtkämpe to dedicate the memorial stone in remembrance of the fallen U.S. Airmen.

Source of information: www1.wdr.de, web.facebook.com/Deitert.Manuel, www.dvidshub.net

Source of photos: www1.wdr.de, reken.de

Zum Gedenken und zur Erinnerung

an die beiden US Besatzungen, die bei den Abstürtzen ihrer A-26B Invader Bomber

am 21. März 1945 in der Geimende Reken ihr Leben verloren haben.

In Memory and in Remembrance

to the two US bomber crews who lost their lives when their A-26B Invaders

crashed in the municipality of Reken on 21 March 1945. 

[line diagram of A-26B Aircraft]

Besatzungen / Crews & Absturtzorte / Crash-Sites

Nach über 70 Jahren wurden beide Absturtzstellen gefunden und die sterblichen

Überreste der Besatzungsmitglieder geborgen und in ihre Heimat überführt.

Over 70 years after being lost, the crash-sites of both aircraft where located

and the remains of the missing crew members recovered and repatriated. 

Dieser Gedenkstein wurde von der Gemeinde Reken und den

Heimatfreunden zum 80. Jahrestag am 21. März 2025 errichtet.

This stone was erected by the municipality of Reken and the

Heimatfreunde on the 80. Anniversary, 21 March 2025.