165 surveillance, Charles’s Halifax did not carry the regular payload of bombs, but explosives to destroy its secret instrumentation should the plane be lost in enemy territory. The explosives did their job, and the crash site was littered with debris. The crew would have died instantly in the explosion. One crew member’s body, still strapped to his seat, was blown over a neighbouring farmhouse and landed in the adjacent garden. The homeowners later turned the garden site into a shrine in the crew member’s memory. The Germans buried the bodies of the crewmen in Forte III in Antwerp, a secure facility preventing locals from honouring the grave sites. The flight record for Charles’s Halifax on the Karlsruhe mission reads simply, “FAILED TO RETURN”: After the war, the crew members’ remains were moved by the War Graves Commission to Schoonselhof Cemetery in the Antwerp suburb of Hoboken. The picturesque cemetery lies on the grounds of a former chateau and is lovingly maintained. A plaque in the cemetery reads: “The land on which this cemetery stands is the gift of the Belgian people for the perpetual resting place of the sailors, soldiers and airmen who are honoured here.” FLYING OFFICER C. W. C. CROWDY PILOT ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE 25TH APRIL 1944 AGE 21 REMEMBER THE LOVE OF THEM WHO CAME NOT HOME FROM THEWAR
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