This memorial page is dedicated to Percy Heppenstall, one of more than 725 war victims connected to the municipality of Deurne documented by Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers. The municipality of Deurne and the surrounding villages of Liessel, Vlierden, Helenaveen, Neerkant and Zeilberg were liberated in the autumn of 1944 during heavy fighting. Victims fell on all sides: Allied soldiers from countries such as the United Kingdom, the United States, Canada and New Zealand, and German soldiers.

But the archive covers more than just the combat victims on Deurne soil. Residents of Deurne who lost their lives elsewhere are also commemorated: civilians who were murdered in concentration camps, forced labourers who died in Germany, people who were executed or succumbed to the effects of persecution and oppression. In addition, residents of Deurne who entered German military service and were killed elsewhere are also included.

Stichting Oorlogsslachtoffers has been documenting the story of all these people since 1995, without distinction of nationality, side or background. The goal is to give every person a name and a face, and to keep their memory alive.

 

Percy Heppenstall

Name: Heppenstall
First names: Percy
Nickname: –
Date of birth: 14 September 1919
Place of birth: Doncaster
Residence: 91 Scawthorpe Ave, Doncaster
Rank / Occupation: Sergeant (Wireless operator/Gunner)
Identity tag: 998624
Unit: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 214 Squadron
Date of death: 16 April 1942
Place of death: Deurne, “the Barrier”
Cause of death: as a result of a plane crash
Cemetery: Woensel Municipal Cemetery “De Oude Toren”
Memorial site: ‘Het Rijtven’ War Memorial

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Additional information

Grave location: JJ. 54–56. (shared grave with Jack Ward and Vernon Ernest Egan)

Aged 22. Son of William and Beatrice Minnie Heppenstall, of Doncaster, Yorkshire.

The British twin-engine bomber took off in the late evening of 15 April 1942 from its home base at Stradishall in England to carry out a bombing raid on a target near Dortmund. During the flight, the bomber was ‘caught’ in a beam of light from German searchlights and shot down by anti-aircraft fire. Percy Heppenstall, Lawrence Malcolm Leech, Harry Arthur Shortt, Jack Ward, Geoffrey Malcolm Charles Turner and Vernon Ernest Egan lost their lives in the incident. The Wellington crashed in the hamlet known as “the Barrier”.

View all persons in the category: Allied soldiers killed in action