大象传媒

As some of you already know this farm is placed on the route the English bombers flew during that period of the war crossing The Firth of Ringkoebing and then turning south.

Nearly every night at midnight we heard the aircrafts going south and at four o'clock in the morning they returned on their way back. Mostly we just woke up at 12 and 4 and slept well again other times the Germans attacked and caused very much noise and fear.
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On this particularly Sunday morning the Germans were very aggressive -were flying very low -using their machineguns and making lots of holes in our roof on the stable. We were all awake, gathered in my parent's bedroom where we talked about what happened. My mother tried to comfort us, our father stood outside to see what happened.

Suddenly he saw an aircraft on fire high up in the sky. He therefore asked us to dress, ready to leave the house. Of course it was difficult to see where the aircraft would hit the ground; worst of all it could hit the buildings.

When it hit the ground we were of course shocked. My father went to our nearest neighbour, C. F. Wellendorf to talk the situation over. Then we walked up to the crashed aeroplane to have a look. It was still dark an difficult to see anything clearly, but besides the machine there were lying two very big 'things' and we were afraid it could be bombs, so therefore we decided to contact our local policeman, constable Christensen from Kibrek. Later we found out, that it was the wheels lying besides the plane.

Because the policeman didn't know exactly where we lived, it was decided that Wellendorf should go to Clasonsborg to meet him. But some German soldiers came first and Wellendorf was ordered to put his hands behind his neck. We spoke German very well, so he was able to communicate with the soldiers -but they thought he was an English spy, so he was forced to stay until Christensen came and released him. But now the Germans took over and placed a guard around the wreck.

During the daytime hundreds of people visited us to see the wreck. 6 of the crew-members sat burned up on their places and the 7th lay on the ground a few feet from the plane with the back of his head smashed. No one took him away during the Sunday but someone stole his boots from him!

During the day more and more German soldiers came, and my mother was told to make food for them, so the kitchen and the sitting room were filled with Germans. Later on they moved to the barn, where their weapons and equipment hung over the threshing machine, the grinding mill and wherever.

On the field north of the crash we grew potatoes and the tops of the plants were pretty high at that time. Several things from the plane had spread over the surrounding areas so we found ammunition, a parachute and hundreds of small pieces of wreckage all over. Most of the ammunition my father hid in the loft. After the war we found out, the home guard could use it in their guns. Some of it he buried in the ground behind the yard, but unfortunately he couldn't find it again after the war.

The following days the Germans cut the plane to pieces and took it to the train station in Sdr. Felding to bring it to Germany. That was a period with much noise, especially when they changed guard at 2 a.m. in the morning, and the animals thought it was morning and started yelling for food, and so on, and we couldn't sleep. Especially I and my brothers were frightened by the noise.

One day we saw some people (Danish men working for the Germans) digging a big hole just outside our vegetable garden. My father asked them, what they were during, and he was told, that they were digging a grave for the English crew.

Again he contacted Constable Christensen and they took contact to Frederik Laursen, the owner of Clasonsborg, because they wanted the crewmen buried on the churchyard. Our problem was that our farmhand was in the peat bog with horses and wagon to bring peat home, so we had no chance to bring them to Skarrild. But Fr. Lauersen had, so he got hold of a wagon and carried the bodies to the churchyard. Our local carpenter was asked to make 2 coffins and our vicar buried them even if there were some difficulties and some obstructions from German officers who found our Christian behaving pro-English. But the crew were now buried in consecrated ground and only the rest from their bodies were buried outside our kitchen garden.

When my father came home from the burial he was met by the leading German officer who condoled with him and showed his sympathy with the words: "they were also human beings". Then he showed us some photos taken a year or so before showing his wife and a small child in her perambulator, and he told us, that he didn't know if his family were dead or alive. His family was living in Koningsberg ironically just the town the crew had been bombing on there last raid over Germany.

He and three other German soldiers had to stay 14 days after the others had left. They were easy to communicate with in spite of the the language problems. They were anti-Nazis and deeply hoped the war would come to an end.

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Anastasia Travers from WM CSV Action Desk on behalf of Knud Erik Green and has been added to the site with his permission. Knud Erik Green fully understands the sites terms and conditions.

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