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BERKHOUT - Dick Schilder
places flowers at the cross on his land, while his wife Annet (l), sister in
law Erica and her son Jacco are watching.
He did it on the day it was exactly 66 years ago, a British bomber crashed.
The commemoration was in the name of the next of kin of the crewmembers. But
Dick did it also because the wreck of the warplane was here his entire life,
containing the human remains of two airgunners. After the excavation in september
everything that is left in the field is de concrete cross with their names,
John (Jack) Kehoe and Stanley Mullenger.
The flowers were also a tribute to pilot Chris Saunders and navigator James
d'Arcy, who are buried in a commonwealth grave in Bergen.
Dick says novemer 8th was always a special day. ,,Often I stood in the evening
at nine o'clock staring in the dark towards the crashsite, trying to imagine
how it went down.''
In 2005 and 2006, de crash in the field was remembered with a memorial service,
and the ground was blessed. Now the human remains are taken out and everyone
is waiting for the reburial.
The Irish family of Kehoe, who asked for the excavation, attended a mass in
the local church in Tullamore, where the familygrave is where his name is allready
on the stone. Where Jacks sister had hoped to bury him.
Sheila Hamilton, daughter of the fiancee of Kehoe, asked Schilder to place the
flowers at the cross. On sunday, Remembrance Day, when the British remember
their war deads, her mother will place a small cross for him at the churchyard
near the air force base of Scampton. Scampton is the base of the bomber who
crashed at Berkhout.
Dick Schilder
places flowers at the cross on his land, while his wife Annet (l), sister in
law Erica and her son Jacco are watching.
Marcel Rob takes a picture for Noordhollands Dagblad