Dutch Villagers Care For Airmen's Grave

Chronicle (Levin), 6 August 1948, Page 4

Dutch Villagers Care For Airmen's Grave

On November 17, 1940, an R.A.F. bomber was brought down by German fighters near the village of Winkei, 'in Holland, ahd the' six members of the crew wer'e killed, terminating a galiant part in the operations condUcted at that time oVer Europe against overwhelming odds.* The bodies of the airmen were bwied- by viliagers, who later erected a handsome headstone to their meinory . - Every year now ' on November 17, the anhiversary of their death,- and also on May 3, the day when the Dutch. remember the fallen of World War II, the people' pay impressive tribute. One of the members • of ' the crew of the bomber was Pilot Officer Donald E. Larkman, brother of Mrs. E.- Tomlins'on, of Kent Street, Levlh, who' has recently received the following letter from M. J, R. vah Stipriaan, of Winkel, who also ehclosed a photo of the grave: "On Saturday evening, May 3, the anniversary of the pefished people during the second World War, the population of our village went in a solemn procession to the .cemetery, in which the mortal remains of

your brother and those of the otheri five airmen are- buried. "Many persons present there made grateful use of the opportunity of lying down flowers and soon the foot of the monument, which has been erected by the people of Winkel, was covered with a wealth of flowers. The church choir sang 'Ecce quo Modo Moritur,' by Handel, after which at eight .o'clock there was a silence of two minutes in respectful memory of the dead people. The solemnity was finished in playing 'God Save the'King' and Wilhelmus' (the Dutch national hymn) by the village brass bahd."