Roadside and other memorials

[Lord Flashheart]

I wasn't going to trouble the Forum with pics of me in cycling gear but I occasionally ride past roadside memorials to fallen aircrew or other historical features which would otherwise probably simply fade into the background of time. I think they deserve a little recognition here.

These simple memorials often show that the community they're in have not forgotten and they almost always bring a true moment of poignant reflection. This morning a memorial to Flight Sgt Johannes Bartholomeus Jat Van Mesdag in Lawshall, Suffolk dedicated in 2009.

 

[Blackboxr1200S]

Out and about on the black boxer, I often notice memorials along the way here in Flanders Belgium.
Always stop and take some pictures

Lancaster crash site.
Boys went to (succesfully) bomb a railwaystation in Aachen Germany, plane caught fire on the way back to England
28/05/1944
Avro Lancaster Mk II
Serialnr. / code:
LL652 JI-C
514 Squadron

 

[Blackboxr1200S]

Another one...

2 pilots...335 Fighter Squadron, 4th Fighter group

1st Lt Robert H. Homuth and Captain Carroll B. McElroy end up in a storm and collide.
Captain McElroy survives the crash.

 

[Blackboxr1200S]

Colonel Remy Van Lierde, DFC & Two Bars (14 August 1915 – 8 June 1990) was a Belgian pilot and fighter ace who served in the aviation branch of the Belgian Army and the British Royal Air Force (RAF) during the Second World War,
shooting down six enemy aircraft and 44 V-1 flying bombs, and achieving the RAF rank of squadron leader.
Returning to the Belgian Air Force in 1946, Van Lierde was made Deputy Chief of Staff to the Minister of Defense in 1954.
In 1958 he became one of the first Belgians to break the sound barrier while test flying a Hawker Hunter at Dunsfold Aerodrome in England.
He went on to hold several important commands before retiring in 1968.

 

[MauldinFan]

F4 Phantom Crash Site Memorial - Tennessee Historical Marker and Monument Database

tennesseemarkers.wikidot.com

This wreck memorial is a simple plaque and one of the engines left in place from where an RF-4 out of Shaw AFB with a Luftwaffe pilot and a cadet in the backseat. I got to see the area a month or two after it had happened. Holston Mountain is a long chain near Elizabethton, Tennessee. The Phantom came in at a slight angle, struck the ground, bounced back into the air, was tossed several hundred yards, re-impacted and exploded.
When I saw it that winter (just over 2 months after the crash), the trees were still very clearly cut where the F4 came through before hitting the side of the mountain. We walked over to the spot where the tree cuts lined up, to the exact spot of the initial impact. There were small pieces of metal and film from the cameras scattered all over the place (I didn't take a piece, and to this day I wonder why not) but all the big stuff and what tiny pieces of the crew that were found had already been removed.
My uncle (a WW2 vet) was running a TV relay transmitter near there that night when it happened. He heard it clearly, and if they'd been a few hundred feet higher, that F4 might have gone right through his building as it was perfectly in line. He called it in and the USAF later thanked him as it'd taken a much longer time to have found it otherwise.

 

[Smithy]

Being a Kiwi, I was humbled by how many memorials there are here in Norway to Kiwi crews who were killed attacking German installations and shipping in Norway.

On ANZAC Day 2008 I had two old Norwegians come up to me out of the blue and thank me for the sacrifice of my countrymen over Norway. One of them said to me "Your boys came from the other side of the world to liberate us. They died here and we won't ever forget that. They lie here from battle so they are as much Norwegian as New Zealander." That kind of stuff is really special and put a tear in my eye.

 

[Lord Flashheart]

Cycled through Chedburgh today. A Heavy Conversion Unit aerodrome I gather. Not one I know much of but the Lanc on the village sign is notable. And elsewhere a lovely carpet of cowslips in a little patch of meadow. No aviation connection just pretty.

 

[Dumpster D]

Here is Springbrook memorial. My friend said these are likely captured German guns, one of them has a nice bullet hole through the barrel.

This spot was a rare find here in an untouched far corner. Likely they will be moving the guns anytime as the historical stone building next to the memorial has already been removed unfortunately. You can still see the building from google maps.

I'm surprised no one successfully 'liberated' these guns from their resting place, looks like someone did have a go, and bent the stands where they are bolted to the blocks but gave up.

Very interesting spot. Nothing changed here since the 1800's.

It's mostly *coughredneckcough* I mean.. Mennonite country.

Passing by and had to slam on the brakes and turn around for a quick snap, if you blink you would miss this.

I remember these things from 30 years ago as a kid, they've mostly vanished without a trace now in more populated spots and towns. Rare sight!!

 

[Smithy]

Being a Kiwi, I visited two here in Norway, one for a Kiwi Lanc crew from 75(NZ) Sqn shot down attacking the U-boat pens in Bergen and the other was for a Beaufighter crew from 489(NZ) Sqn in Trondelag.

I was really touched as at the one outside Bergen there was an older couple there who heard me speaking English. When the older lady found out I was a Kiwi she gave me a hug (nearly unheard of for Norwegians to do to strangers) and said "Thank you for what your countrymen so long from home did for us."

One of the most touching things I've ever had from a stranger.