People in Megchelen do.
Hello Pierre,
Some weeks ago Maarten Koudijs and Ronny Bosmann and some members of the Aircraft Research Group Achterhoek found these relics by a detector. Spitfire SM-208.
These parts are been preserved and keep saved for the community Megchelen as an remember to our liberators specially Hank Byrd who died 3 weeks before the Liberation of that town.
Kindly regards,
Hennie Berendsen
Holland
These photos are parts of the wing of Spitfire flown by Pilot Officer Hank Byrd who crashed on 19 March 1945 in Megchelen (Holland).
Courtesy Hennie Berendsen
Courtesy Hennie Berendsen
Courtesy Hennie Berendsen
Courtesy Hennie Berendsen
Courtesy Hennie Berendsen
Courtesy Hennie Berendsen
Who else remembered Hank Byrd?
Collection Walter Neil Dove courtesy Greg Bell, Walter Neil Dove’s grandson
Collection Walter Neil Dove courtesy Greg Bell, Walter Neil Dove’s grandson
Collection Walter Neil Dove courtesy Greg Bell, Walter Neil Dove’s grandson
It’s amazing that even a village of just 1.000 inhabitants like Megchelen can find at least four men, ready, willing and able to face the damp and the cold to find pieces of a crashed Spitfire. And as long as they are prepared to do this, heroes like Pilot Officer Hank Byrd will never be forgotten.
Amazing isn’t John. November 11th is just around the corner.
It’s good to know that our European friends are so keen to embrace out heroes. They take the deaths of the allied pilots very seriously and are erecting a good number of memorials in their memory. Thank goodness, as it is the resting place of so many.
I feel very proud about letting the world know about those unsung heroes. I will keep doing this as long as the Internet works…
Hopefully that will be for years to come. They deserve a lot of exposure. I had the good fortune to meet a group form Holland who were over here a month or two ago and have been doing exactly this, you may follow their blog too 115sqn Lancaster.
Can’t find the blog.
I’ll find a link and send it on.
Here it is. https://mylancasterstories.wordpress.com/2015/09/16/update-2019-boek/.
Also interesting http://www.arga-nl.nl/ from the Netherlands
I had visited that Website a few years ago.
Most impressive!
I made a boo boo here, they are not Dutch but Belgians! Apologies for getting it wrong!
Reblogged this on RCAF No. 403 Squadron and commented:
Who still remember?