Lancaster R5679 - Grønhøj 2015     4. maj 2015   4 May 2015    På dansk          Updated:  17 MAY 2015

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Grønhøj commemorated the 70th anniversary of the liberation     Viborg Stifts Folkeblad on 7 May 2015.

THE OCCUPATION  by Jens Peder Østergaard, jepo@berlingskemedia.dk  (translated by AS)
(Caption of the photo seen in the original version in Danish: The Scotsman David Geddes, the nephew of one of the crashed airmen, attended the great 4th May event
of the Danish Home Guard at the Grønhøj Kro. Private photo by Knud Gaarn-Larsen)

GRØNHØJ: The public commemoration by the Kongenshus Company of the Danish Home Guard of the 70th anniversary of the liberation from the occupying forces of Germany was a draw.

About 100 people attended an event, both solemn and festive. The centre of the event was the Grønhøj Kro and the Memorial Stone to the 7 Allied airmen who were
shot down and killed with their Lancaster near Grønhøj on 25 September 1942.

One of the airmen on board managed to bail out - but too late - and he fell into a tree in a garden in the village of Grønhøj. One of his relatives, Bill Emerslund of Canada,
had gone the long way to join the commemoration of the liberation. So had David Geddes of Scotland, both of them with a companion. The plane and the 6 other
airmen on board crashed into a field some 1.5 km north west of Grønhøj. The crash site was also visited in connection with the Home Guard event the other day.

At the inn Major Lars Eluf Pedersen made a speech about the occupation, the liberation and the time after that. He retold an account given by one of the soldiers who fought against the superior German Wehrmacht which crossed the border on 9 April 1940. He also talked about people who fought illegally during the occupation and
in a number of cases lost their lives doing so.

Lars Eluf Pedersen also drew the attention to battles that must be fought all of the time to protect our democracy and values. After World War II there was the Cold
War against communism and since then the still ongoing battle against terrorism and extremism.

David Geddes, who also visited Grønhøj at the unveiling of the Memorial Stone a couple of years ago, also made a speech the other night. In an anecdote he told
about another member of his family who also served in the Allied forces. On 2 May 1945 in Germany he was heading north with his unit with tanks, and here they
met Russians, also advancing. They would like to know how to go to Denmark, but the Scotsman made it clear to them that they had to stay where they were.

According to accounts handed over in the family that is one of the reasons why British soldiers and not the Red Army liberated Denmark.