A military aviation expert is appealing for help to find the relatives of a Bradford flight navigator who died when his plane was shot down over Holland during the Second World War.

Sergeant Fred Anthony Hatton was among five crew members killed when the 58 Squadron Whitely Bomber came down near the Dutch village of Best in June, 1941.

The aircraft was returning from a raid on the German city of Cologne when it was intercepted by a German nightfighter and shot down.

Adrian van Zantvoort started collecting information on Royal Air Force planes which crashed in south-eastern Holland during the Second World War more than 20 years ago.

He said he had recently been approached by a witness who saw the plane come down in a hamlet called Het Broek and was hoping to create a memorial near the site.

He said: “The only thing that the witness could remember was that there was a large bomber and only one crew member who survived. He was still alive strapped in his seat but both his legs were broken. There was a man who got the crew member (navigator Sergeant J.B. Jones) out of his aircraft and put him badly wounded by a tree. He was treated by a Dutch doctor but was handed over to the German authorities.”

Mr van Zantvoort said he thought it was important to remember the RAF crew members who died during the war.

“It seems that, because of remembrance of the liberation of Holland and Europe, lots of people have forgotten there was an air war which took place beforehand,” he said.

Sgt Hatton and the four other airmen killed in the attack were buried at Eindhoven General Cemetery, Holland.

Sgt Hatton had lived in Manningham before the war. His parents were Harold Bernard and Reneé Mary Hatton.

To contact Mr van Zantvoort, e-mail a.zantvoort@onsneteindhoven.nl or write to him at: Waterlinie 427, 5658NM, Eindhoven, Holland.