Sgt. John Peter Heinig – The Story of a Lost Aircraft that Kept His Story Alive
Information provided by Mary Demke.
On November 15, 2018, a WWII-crash site research team in Germany reached out to the Edmonton Journal to find the families of Halifax Mk.II bomber of 10 Squadron Royal Air Force, after having recently found their crash site.
The team was able to find the aircrafts code name – JD322 ZA-V – and found that the plane had crashed in the little village of Waldsee in the night of September 5th, 1943 after an air raid on Mannheim. It was shot down by a German night fighter (Me110) and anti aircraft guns. All seven airmen died at this newly found and almost forgotten crash site. Five of these men were English airmen (RAF) and two were Canadian airmen (RCAF).
The team found out that one of the airmen was from Ryley, Alberta, Canada. His name was Sgt. John Peter Heinig (RCAF-Service number R17856). He was 20 years old when he died.
Sgt. Heinig was the son of Elizabeth Dehmke and Max Hugo Heinig. He had two brothers, named Arnold and William.
Eyewitnesses of the crash recalled how "In the first night it was still quite dangerous because the wreck was burning and the ammunition of the machine guns kept exploding."
Photo: IG Heimatforschung RLP
Researcher Erik Wieman was able to identify the rest of the crew as P / O D´Eath, RAF; F / O McPherson, RCAF; Sgt. Astin, RAF; Sgt. Cooper, RAF; Sgt. Kearnes, RAF, and Sgt. Dee, RAF. His writing to the Edmonton Journal was a call for support in finding the family of the two Canadians so that they could participate in the unveiling of a memorial stone that was to be placed at the site. This unveiling occurred on August 31, 2019 and was attended by 3 of Sgt. Heinig’s third cousins: Karen Dyck (Demkey); Diana Demkey, sister-in-law to Karen; and Collen Lewis (Demkey), cousin to Karen.
Photo: IG Heimatforschung RLP