Wellington R1397 - report from the Commemoration in Holland

Hello Nicola

Best Wishes to you for your trip into Holland.

I am sure you will be given a warm welcome by the Royal Air Force's friends in Holland.

You said at The Petwood that you had not seen the entry in Bill Chorley's Bomber Command Losses for the loss of your Uncle's Wellington.

Per Ardua Ad Astra

Thanks very much Harry

 

Nice photos and memories Nicola. I met Peter Lambourn in Vught in May this year when he laid a wreath at the "Killing Place" (Fusilaade Plaatz). Nice man.

 

Nicola
Nice photos (I see you took the SLR after all) it looked a wonderful service and unveiling of the plaque and a good trip

 

Nicola

Thank you for the report and photos.

 

Great report Nicola.

Having been to something similar last year in Belgium, it is fantastic and makes you feel proud to see how they commemorate our Airmen.

 

Nicola
Nice photos (I see you took the SLR after all) it looked a wonderful service and unveiling of the plaque and a good trip

Yes Oldman, I lugged the DSLR across the channel and all the way up to North Holland on my back lol. Nearly had a fit going back through security at Schiphol. For some reason my bag (I carry it in a ruck sack as hand luggage) caught the eye of the security scanner operative and they had to take it out. The woman had to take everything out and wouldn't let me touch anything. She put the camera and flash in trays and took them away!! Only a couple of metres, but I've never been separated from them like that & got very jumpy . I kept saying Please be careful with my camera. She got a bit pissed off and said I heard you the third time madam!!!

 

I can't find it either, it was very small. I think it is near Dearsum, which is to the right. I was told it was like 3 points on a triangle and as the crow flies, is very close, but we had to go in the coach to get there. It turned just before a main road and then parked up in a farmers yard (can you imagine? A coach and about 20 cars all in a yard and the coach had to turn as well).

 

Can't find Kreitrep on GoogleMaps can find Boazum though.

Am I reading post #20 right?
The chaps in the cemetery aren't the ones marked on the gravestones?
CWGC :: Cemetery Details

Yes they are the same, its just that one of them they don't know who it is.

 

Can't find Kreitrep on GoogleMaps can find Boazum though.

Am I reading post #20 right?
The chaps in the cemetery aren't the ones marked on the gravestones?
CWGC :: Cemetery Details

There is a place close by called Klaeiterp.

 

It is Klaeiterp. I typed "ceremony at Klaeiterp" into the search engine and this popped up. English people confusing Dutch place names. Very common mistake.

Ken Baker,

Brussel, Belgium.. writes.

On the 25th July 2011, there will be a ceremony in the village of Wiuwert near Leeuwarden in the Dutch province of Friesland in the North of the Holland, to commemorate the sacrifice of an air-crew under the leadership of New Zealand Pilot Officer Mervyn Sydney LUND (40979 RNZAF), who were downed and killed by a German night-fighter exactly seventy years previously on the 25th July 1941. The crew were returning from a night-raid on Emden in Germany, but like so many others, never made it back to their base. Amongst the turmoils of war and bureaucratic bungling on all sides, the whereabouts of the crash-site and the graves of the crew remained unknown until very recently. It was only as a result of the efforts over many years, of a dedicated group of researchers from the Stichting Missing Airmen Memorial Foundation in The Netherlands, that the crash position of the Wellington bomber R1397 at Klaeiterp and location of the remains and identity of the crew have been established.

Our cousin Robin, a niece of Mervyn LUND, will be representing the LUND family and proudly attending this ceremony along with the New Zealand Ambassador, the British Military Attaché, the Mayor of Littenseradiel and local dignitaries, representatives of the Royal New Zealand Air Force, the RAF and the Royal Netherlands Air Force and the general public at the unveiling of a memorial plaque at the place of the crash of the Wellington. This ceremony will also be attended by family of the other crew members and others from our wider family in New Zealand

The air-crew is buried in a communal grave in Leeuwarden’s main cemetery with an inscription Four Airmen of the 1939-1945 War, Royal Air Force, 31st July 1941, Known unto God. The various authorities got the number of airmen wrong, the date wrong and affiliation wrong.

The website it is on. Scroll down and you will find it.

Poppies of War ~ Lest We Forget

 

You've lost me there .
Are you getting confused between the Wellington from the new memorial and Stirling EF 347 from 15 Sqn whose crew that is, that's what confused me.

No Owen, I've posted 2 lots of info. The ceremony was for the guys from Wellington R1397 but the photos of grave stones are from a different war grave that we visited. Not all of us were invited to or went to the cemetery where the R1397 guys are buried.