Joseph Ralph Gordon Srigley

Joseph Ralph Gordon Srigley Updated: 09 MAR 2021

Airman: a022002.htm Surname: Srigley Init: JRG Rank: F/O Service: RCAF Sqdn: 428

P_link: p339.htm Plane: LAN KB751 Operation: Bomb G Crash_site: Sea SW of Sejerø

Crash_d: d170844 Buried_d: b310844 C_link: c022.htm At_Next: Fårevejle

"17. august 1944 kl. 02.10 blev en engelsk bombemaskine, som var på vej vestover sammen med et
stort antal andre bombere, der kom fra Stettin (Szczecin) og Königsberg (Kaliningrad) iflg den
engelske radio, nedskudt i kamp med en tysk jager. De fleste Sejerøbeboere var oppe den nat, da den
megen larm fra maskiner og maskingeværsalver havde skræmt folk fra sengen. Den ramte maskine kom i brand højt oppe og ramte havet med knusende fart og kraft ca. 2 sømil sydvest for Sejerø havn. Da det
lysnede gik 2 fiskere i deres både ud for at se om nogen af besætningen var at finde. Man fandt hurtigt
stedet, da olie kom op fra bunden og viste vej. Man kunne se maskinen på bunden, den var helt knust, og
en masse ting fra den lå og flød omkring stedet."
("Hændelser fra Sejerø under besættelsen" af Jens Frederik Petersen).

"Den 30. august fandt man ved Veddinge Strand (omkring her) liget af J.R.G. Srigley, der blev bragt til Fårevejle Kirkegård. Sognets befolkning havde været meget oprørte over den måde Sgt Dyckhoff var blevet begravet på, hvorfor man nu fra dansk side søgte at kile sig ind på forløbet af den kommende begravelse.

I løbet af natten til den 31. august fremskaffedes en kiste, hvori liget blev lagt. Endvidere pyntede man,
også om natten, graven med grønt. Den følgende morgen kl. 8 mødte en tysk officer og 4 menige op på kirkegården for at foretage nedgravningen. Fire af sognets mænd, kirkeværgen, ringeren, sogneråds-
formanden og kommunekassereren, stod imidlertid da klar til at bære kisten til graven, hvilket de derpå
gjorde. Den nye grav lå lige ved siden af den først begravede flyvers, der denne morgen var et fuldstændigt blomsterhav. Dette bragte tyskerne i harnisk, så de krævede blomsterne fjernet omgående.

Fra dansk side foreslog man så, at blomsterne kunne blive lagt på Srigleys kiste. Det gik den tyske officer med til. Tyskerne forblev ved graven, indtil den var kastet til og gjorde opmærksom på, at sympati- tilkendegivelser i form af kranse og blomster ville blive opfattet som provokation mod den tyske værnemagt.

Umiddelbart efter at tyskerne havde forladt kirkegården, hentede politifolk fra Nykøbing S., der var tilstede, store blomsterbuketter fra deres bil og lagde som de første blomster på graven. Samtidig kom de mennesker, der havde fundet liget, ligeledes med blomster og kranse.
En time efter begravelsen var der bragt et væld af blomster fra hele sognet op til graven, hvorpå der under resten af besættelsen aldrig siden manglede friske blomster.” (FAF) Se monument rejst af danske, afsløret 2. september 1945.

Flying Officer (Air Gunner) Joseph Ralph Gordon Srigley var fra Canada. (Kilde: CWGC)
His name is engraved on the Memorial Wall at the BC Museum of Canada. The Canadian Virtual War Memorial has this.
He is remembered on The Walls of Names at the International Bomber Command Centre, Phase 2, Panel 246.

LAN KB751 styrtede ned omkring her. 1 flyver begravet på Sejerø, 1 i Fårevejle, 3 har ingen kendt grav, 1 begravet i Sverige og 1 blev ført til Tyske krigsfangelejre.
Se Wartime Diary of Robert E. Toomey med Photo Album. 7 flyvere.

On 17 August, 1944 at 02.10 an English bomber heading west with a great number of other bombers (coming from Stettin (Szczecin) and Königsberg
(Kaliningrad) according to English radio) was shot down in a fight with a German fighter. Most residents of Sejerø had left their beds because of the noise from
planes and machine gun rounds. The plane which was hit caught fire high up in the air and hit the sea at a crushing speed about 2 nautical miles south west of Sejerø harbour. When the day broke 2 fishermen sailed out to see if they could find any of the airmen. They quickly found the crash site, as oil came up from the bottom and showed the way. They could see the plane at the bottom. It was totally crushed and a lot of debris floated around the site.
(Source: "Events on Sejerø during the occupation" by Jens Frederik Petersen) Actually this bomber was of the RCAF.

"The body of J.R.G. Srigley was found on Veddinge Beach (about here) on 30 August and brought to Faarevejle Churchyard.

Residents of the parish had been very incensed by the way in which Sgt Dyckhoff had been buried, so now they tried from the Danish side to wedge themselves into
the course of the coming burial. During the night before 31 August they procured a coffin and laid the body in it. During the night they also decorated the grave with greenery.

Next morning at 8 o´clock a German officer and 4 private soldiers turned up to carry out the burying. However, four men from the parish, the churchwarden, the bellringer, the chairman of the parish council and the municipal cashier were then ready to carry the coffin to the grave, and they did so. The new grave was just next to that of the airman, who was buried first, and this morning it was a sea of flowers. This infuriated the Germans, who demanded the flowers to be taken away immediately.

From the Danish side it was then suggested that the flowers could be placed on Srigley´s coffin. The German officer accepted that. The Germans stayed at the grave till
it was filled in and pointed out that demonstrations of sympathy such as wreaths and flowers would be taken as a provocation against the German Wehrmacht.

Immediately after the Germans had left the churchyard policemen from Nykøbing S., who were present, fetched big bunches of flowers from their car and as the first
placed flowers on the grave. At the same time the people, who had found the body, also came with flowers and wreaths. An hour after the burial a wealth of flowers
from all of the parish had been brought up to the grave, which never lacked fresh flowers rest of the occupation." (FAF) See monument erected by Danes, unveiled
2 September, 1945.

Flying Officer (Air Gunner) Joseph Ralph Gordon Srigley was from Canada. (Source: CWGC)
His name is engraved on the Memorial Wall at the BC Museum of Canada. The Canadian Virtual War Memorial has this.
He is remembered on The Walls of Names at the International Bomber Command Centre, Phase 2, Panel 246.

LAN KB751 crashed about here. 1 airman buried on Sejerø, 1 in Fårevejle, 3 have no known grave, 1 buried in Sweden and 1 was taken to German POW-Camps.
No. 6 Group and the Canadian Squadrons * No. 428 (Ghost) Squadron RCAF * Bomber Command Museum of Canada * Lancaster BC * Lancaster Photos
Lancaster X KB751 NA-Q took off from RAF Middleton St. George on 16 AUG 1944. (Source: Aircrew Remembered has this + Archive Report.) See p339MACR.
See Wartime Diary of Robert E. Toomey with Photo Album. 7 airmen.