49 Sqn pilot to be honoured in Netherlands

Antipodean Andy · Apr 23, 2008

Finally laid to rest with his crew.

World War Two Pilot To Be Honoured In Netherlands (from Bucks Free Press) - great photo at the link

THE family of a heroic World War Two pilot who was killed in action is travelling to The Netherlands to see him properly laid to rest with his former comrades.

The twin daughters of Warrant Officer Christopher Saunders, who now live in Princes Risborough, will see the funeral ceremony take place on May 7.

It will mark a symbolic reunion for the four airmen who died together in 1941.

Jackie Purser and Frankie Newman, both 69, now live together in Poppy Road, Princes Risborough. They will be joined by WO Saunders' grandchildren and great grandchildren.

Mrs Purser said: "We're looking forward to it but it's going to be a little sad - it's something we never had for our father at the time. We're very pleased that it's happening.

"It was strange, because we never really grieved for him then - we were three years old. We grieved later and we felt a little closure for him now they have found his plane. The thing is he was so young - just 28."

The four man crew of Hampden P1206, of 49 Squadron, took off from RAF Scampton in Lincolnshire on November 8, 1941 .

It was on mission to Bocholt in Germany, but was attacked over the coast by a German night fighter and crashed into farmland along Berkhout, North Holland.

The remains of WO Saunders and Sgt James D'Arcy, were recovered by the Germans and buried in Bergen General Cemetery.

*But the bodies of Sgt Stanley Mullenger and Sgt John Kehoe lay with their aircraft, until an excavation by the Dutch Air Force and the Dutch Army in September 2007.

Now, their remains will be laid in a single coffin beneath headstones lying back to back with the graves of their old comrades.

His daughters remain proud of their father, and as children joined him on a visit to Buckingham Palace where WO Saunders, originally from Essex, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal.

She said: "He was a very modest man. My grandma told me that when he walked into a room everyone used to gravitate toward him - he had a lot of charisma. He loved flying."

But WO Saunders did not want people to mope after he died. Mrs Purser said: "He told my mother, "if you put on Widow's weeds' I'll come back and haunt you."

She has seen the grave only once before, when she was 35, but her mother's ashes were scattered with her father after her death in 1995, aged 85.

She hoped people would remember the courage of the airmen: "In the climate in the world today, it brings it home to people that there were very brave men who fought and died for this country."

The burial will follow a church service in the town of Bergen. Then, after a civic reception, a memorial to the airmen will be unveiled close to the original crash site at Berkhout.
Click to expand...

*A link to Kyt's thread about the excavation of the aircraft last year:
http://ww2chat.com/forums/air-campaign-against-germany/61-excavation-hampden-p1206.html

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