Bodies of two Luftwaffe pilots relocated after 70 years.

marcsignal

A fitting burial after 72 years: Bodies of two Luftwaffe pilots that have lain in unmarked grave since 1940 to be relocated after historians finally identify them.

Nazi airmen's Dornier bomber was shot down by Hurricanes over Kent during a Blitz raid in 1940. Coffins of four other German servicemen were buried on top of theirs so when the bodies were exhumed 20 years later they were left behind.

A campaign has been launched to move the bodies of two Luftwaffe pilots to a German war cemetery after their single, unmarked grave was discovered 72 years on.

The airmen were buried in the same grave in a Kent churchyard after their two bombers were shot down during a raid on London in August 1940.

Three days later another German bomber crashed in the area, resulting in the remains of four men to be buried in one coffin on top of the other two men.

More than 20 years later the German War Graves Service had the remains of all its servicemen killed in Britain in World War Two exhumed, and interred at the Cannock Chase German Military Cemetery, in Staffordshire.

But the two airmen - Oberleutnant Horst von der Groeben and Oberleutnant Gerhard Muller - were left behind as it was not realised their coffins lay underneath the top one.

They have remained in the unmarked grave in Whitstable cemetery ever since.

Two local historians have now unravelled the macabre mystery and have identified the unknown airmen through their identity disc numbers.

After realising their names were not on the Cannock Chase Memorial, Joe Potter and Andy Saunders researched local records and archives and were able to pinpoint them to 'War Grave Number 1' at Whitstable.

Now the family of Oblt von der Groeben, the two historians and the Whitstable Royal British Legion are calling on the authorities to move the bodies to Cannock Chase.

Mr Potter said: 'It is a rather bizarre and macabre mystery.



Luftwaffe pilot Oberleutnant Horst von der Groeben was killed when his bomber crashed into the shore near Whitstable

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An Interesting piece I thought.

Jawgap

Interesting story.


I was in Middlesbrough when something similar happened....

Dornier Do217 at South Bank, Middlesbrough


When the bomber originally crashed it severed the rail line and priority was to repair and re-open it because it was the only line serving the Dorman Long Iron Works.

When it was uncovered over 50 years later there was a lot of interest. I interviewed one chap who had been a school boy at the time. He told me how the kids were there first combing the site for souvenirs.

There was concern that ammunition might have been taken and to get it back the police went around all the local schools and left amnesty boxes where the kids could return whatever they took without getting into trouble.

Some ammunition showed up along with bits of fuselage etc but some kid also returned his souvenir - an amputated finger from one of the poor airmen!!!

There was an impressive turnout at the funeral of the crewmember they found in the aircraft.