Ronald Gordon Whitmarsh Photo: Knud Riis Updated: 05 OCT 2021
Airman: a014186.htm Surname: Whitmarsh Init: R G Rank: Sgt Service: RAF Sqdn: 90
P_link: p245.htm Plane: STI EF191 Operation: Minelaying Crash_site: At Hemmet
Crash_d: d021243 Buried_d: b171243 C_link: c014.htm At_Next: Esbjerg, A. 8. 20
STI EF191
styrtede ned ved Hemmet i Vestjylland
natten til den 2. december 1943 i forbindelse med en minelægningsoperation. Hele
besætningen blev dræbt. Alle 7 flyvere blev begravet i Esbjerg den 17. december
1943. (Kilde: FAF) Se
monument for besætningen fra STI
EF191 - og hvordan du finder stedet!
Damgaard Hansen og hans hustru så i den
stjerneklare nat den brændende maskine tabe højde, mens den stadig skød tilbage
mod en angribende natjager. Det så ud som om maskinen ville styrte ned i
landsbyen Hemmet, inden den pludselig drejede til venstre og kom ud over et øde
område. Den eksploderede nogle hundrede meter over jorden, styrtede ned og
dannede et stort hul, der snart blev fyldt med vand. Tyskerne samlede kun de
rester af de ligene, der lå oven på jorden. De blev begravet i Esbjerg. De, der
lå indfiltret i den begravede maskine, blev liggende.
Damgaard Hansen og "Stur Jens", en gammel fisker og jæger, fik juleaften 1943
rejst et hjemmelavet kors med inskriptionen "God bless you" på
nedstyrtningsstedet. (Kilde: Beretning om flystyrtet i Houm Enge den 1. december
1943, samlet i oktober 1993 af Niels Andreas Jensen, Hemmet) Se
beretning fra Ove Medum.
Sergeant (Air Gunner) Ronald Gordon Whitmarsh
var fra United Kingdom.
(Kilde:
CWGC)
STI EF191 crashed at Hemmet in western Jutland on the night before 2 December 1943 in connection with a
minelaying operation. All of the crew perished. All 7 airmen were buried in
Esbjerg on 17 December 1943. (Source: FAF) See monument
to the crew of
STI EF191 - and how you find it!
In the starry
night Damgaard Hansen and his wife saw the burning plane lose altitude, while it
was still firing back at an
attacking night fighter. It looked as if the plane would crash in the village of
Hemmet, until it suddenly turned left and came over a desolate area. It
exploded some hundred metres above the ground, crashed and made a big crater,
which soon was filled with water. The Germans only collected parts of the bodies
visible on the ground. They were buried in Esbjerg. Parts of bodies entangled in
the wreck of the plane in the crater were just left.
On
Christmas Eve 1943
Damgaard Hansen and "Big Jens", an old fisherman and hunter, erected
a wooden cross of their own making with the inscription "God
bless you" at the crash site. (Source: Account of the air crash in Houm Enge on
1 December 1943, collected in October 1993 by Niels Andreas Jensen, Hemmet)
Sergeant (Air Gunner) Ronald Gordon Whitmarsh
was from the United Kingdom. (Source: CWGC)
He
is remembered on
The Walls of Names at the
International Bomber Command Centre, Phase 2, Panel 264.
See account from Ove Medum *
No. 90 Squadron RAF
- Wikipedia *
Short
Stirling
Stirling III EF191 WP-H took off from
RAF Wratting Common at 1513 hrs on
1 DEC 1943. (Source: Aircrew Remembered
has
this.) 7 airmen.