Fanø Weekly                            Thursday 4 April 2019 No. 12

Impartial - Unpolitical - Weekly advertisements and news

Airman buried on Fanø?

Do you know more about Tunstall - or can you find one who might know more?

E.T. Tunstall's plane was shot down over the North Sea on 13 August 1944.
Later his body was washed ashore on Fanø, where the Germans removed his
Identification Disc and buried his body "on the spot" on the beach according
to the standing procedure at that time of the war.

After the war the ID-disc was found in an office in Hamburg and returned to
the family in England. It still has a taste of salt!

On 13 December 1944 a letter in German from Fanø to an office in Aabenraa emphasized that inhabitants of Fanø from time immemorial have been seafarers
and therefore they are highly sensitive to the procedure of just burying the
deceased on the beach. A suitable regulation of this matter must be found!

The letter with quite a few howlers in the text must have been written by a Dane.

The unknown airman in Sønderho was found on the beach by the German Wehrmacht and NOT buried on the spot but in Sønderho New Cemetery.
However, it was without any ceremony.

On 12 June 1947 the Air Ministry wrote to the family that due to the ever changing conformation of the beach caused by the action of tides and winds the conclusion
is that it will probably not be possible to find the body of E.T. Tunstall.
That does not change the fact that in 2010 his family would still like to have
erected some kind of memorial to their loved one.

The case has rested with me in Randers till I have recently got useful tips from Henning Brinch, Fanø i Atlantvolden, Fanø in the Atlantic Wall.

The work with AirmenDK www.airmen.dk about Allied airmen shot down over Denmark or Danish waters during World War II has now taken more than
11½ years.

There are clickable maps as easy entrances. In this connection you may follow
the link to Sønderho New Cemetery www.airmen.dk/c099.htm and see details
about airmen buried there. There is a link to Tunstall and his story and many possibilities of moving on. About AirmenDK has more including contact details
at the bottom of the page.

I would be pleased to receive e-mails!
Anders Straarup, mail: straarup@linksbuketten.dk