The lost German

At 11.23 pm on 11 May 1943 a searchlight on Lowestoft seafront illuminated a very low flying Luftwaffe Do 217 bomber approaching from the East. It is assumed that either the pilot was blinded by the glare of the searchlight beam, or was attempting to evade it when the aircraft crashed into the sea only 300 yds off Ness Point. There were no survivors. One of the four German aircraft lost on operations against Britain that night was a Do 217E-4, Werk-Nr.6163, U5 + FL from unit 3/KG.2. It had been despatched on a mine laying sortie off Cromer and the pilot, Leutnant Eberhard Pleiss was on his first operation. On 29 June 1943, the decomposed body of a Luftwaffe NCO was washed up on the North Beach at Lowestoft. His identity disk bore the No."57359/227" and the Germans identified the airman as Unteroffizier Wilhelm Stocker, the Beobachter (Observer) aboard Do 217 U5 + FL. He was buried in Section 24, Grave No.531 at Lowestoft Cemetery. It was not until November 1948 however, that the (then) Imperial War Graves Commission positively identified Stocker through captured German records, and were able to place a name on his grave marker. Aged 22.

Lowestoft Suffolk