A 68 old mystery has now been solved. 68 years ago, on 210443, a British Halifax bomber was shot down over Denmark over the small town of Halskov. The crew just managed to drop their bombs on a nearby field, before crashing. All crew members died. Whatever was left of them was buried in Bispebjerg Cemetery. By the Germans that is. No one knew their names, so they was buried in a anonymous grave, and a monument was raised. Police reports of the incident does not exist anymore. Now a Danish teacher, Anders Straarup age 67, has solved the mystery about who they were, and they now have their names on their graves. Their Family has also been notified.
Anders Straarup have a web site and has recorded all information about gunned down airplanes during the war. 461 was gunned down all together, 3063 airmen, This bomber was No 152. The Germans reported seven killed, because that was the normal crew size for a Halifax, but Straarup found out that there was actually eight members on board this particular bomber. Pretty good. The extra crew member was a young pilot of 21 years, Deryk Martin, who was on the plane to get combat experience.
Here is a link to his web site. It's in both English and Danish, of course.
Allied Airmen - Allierede flyvere 1939-45 DK
His site is actually really interesting and thoroughly made. Of course. He is Danish.
Denmark is a small country, so it should be easy to find the crash sites for interested Brits. Maybe an idea for a short holiday with a MD? As long as it's on private land, it should be really easy to get permission from the owner, especially if you are British. A bottle of Whiskey will do. I can read from the map that by far the majority of the crash sites is on the country side.
I hope you guys will find this interesting.
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