Unveiling of memorial stone was a draw   Links   Memorial Stone   In Danish with photos   Updated:  21 JUN 2013
 

Article by Jens Peder Østergaard jepo@berlingskemedia.dk in Viborg Stifts Folkeblad on Monday 27 May 2013.

Captions to photos by Agata Lenczewska-Madsen:
There were lots of standards, speeches, songs and music from a bagpipe when the memorial stone to the 7 Allied airmen was unveiled at Grønhøj Kro on Saturday.
During the flypast one of the four planes broke out of the formation to symbolize the loss of an Allied bomber near Grønhøj on 25 September 1942.

GRØNHØJ: There were 27 standards, an abundance of speakers and an attendance of about 250 people when the Memorial Stone to the 7 crashed Allied airmen was unveiled on Saturday at Grønhøj Kro.

"It was totally overwhelming. Many more than I had expected" states Anders Straarup of the so-called Lancaster Team behind the memorial stone and the ceremony.

Anders Straarup is very grateful for the great positive attitude and the support from the area as well as from the Royal Danish Airforce that impressed with two flypasts. During the first flypast one of the four planes fell out of the formation to symbolize the loss of the Allied Lancaster bomber on 25 September 1942, but during the second flypast all four of them flew in one formation to show that new planes will replace the lost ones.

The ceremony lasted a little more than an hour with speeches by Straarup, Mayor Søren Pape Poulsen of Viborg, Colonel Steen Ulrich of Helicopter Wing Karup,
David Geddes, the nephew of one of the crashed airmen, and others. There was also time for community singing and music from a bagpipe.

Anders Straarup emphasizes that he talked to a number of eye witnesses to the air crash nearly 71 years ago. So did David Geddes who as a kind of guest of honour
was more than satisfied with the events before, during and after the ceremony

"In a way I have been on stage for four days and now I am a bit tired, but it has been bigger and better than I had expected. I have learned a lot and talked to a lot of people. Tomorrow, on Tuesday, I fly back to Scotland, but I'll be back. Maybe for the anniversary of the liberation on 4 May 2015," the Scottish nephew states. During
the visit he has stayed with Knud Gaarn-Larsen in Frederiks and later with Anders Straarup in Randers. A visit to
The Fregatten Jylland in Ebeltoft will be the last part
of his stay.
 

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