Article by Knud Mogensen knud@amtsavisen.dk

A. The memorial stone placed between the old travellers' stable at Grønhøj Kro and the Museum of the Potato Germans in the red building.
B. Anders Straarup here photographed at the memorial stone at the drop zone Mustard Point on 5 May this year. He was the guide of people who had come by bus
from the Skanderborg area. Vicar Benedikte Vejlby Baggesgaard, Hylke, is reading the moving letter from Kirstine Fiil Sørensen, called Tulle, to Dr. Werner Best
after the execution of the Hvidsten cell. (8 of the 16 members. AS) The photo was taken by Henning Dam. In 1997 the memorial stone was erected on his initiative.

War history. Former teacher Anders Straarup is an expert on Allied airmen buried in Denmark.

Anders Straarup, a former teacher of Havndal Skole who now lives in Randers, was born in 1944, so he has no personal memory of the German occupation, but for
more than 5 years he has worked so goal-orientedly with the subject Allied airmen buried in Denmark that it is no exaggeration to call him an expert on the subject.

Tomorrow on Saturday 25 May a memorial stone will be unveiled at Grønhøj Kro on Alheden to 7 British airmen who were shot down by a German night fighter on
25 September 1942. That happens on the initiative of Anders Straarup.

A number of people of the area have worked without pay, and innkeeper Gregers Laigaard has provided the space for the memorial stone. Big information posters
with texts by Anders Straarup will be placed in the travellers' stable. They can be seen without charge.

On www.airmen.dk Anders Straarup has much information on the 1,030 Allied airmen who are buried in Denmark. Most of them were British, but there were also
airmen from Canada, Australia, USA, and even Poland involved in battles against German planes, or they were on bombing raids over Denmark.

Radar near Assentoft
On 24 September 1942 the British Lancaster R5679 had dropped bombs over targets in Northern Germany and it was on its way back to base. On the return flight
the plane was spotted by a German radar station near Assentoft. Fliegerhorst Grove (now Karup Airport) was called and a German night fighter took off.

The plane crashed about 1500 metres west of Grønhøj at 0122 hours on 25 September 1942. All of the crew of 7 perished. Later the airmen were buried in
Frederikshavn. As a matter of fact one of the airmen managed to bail out, but he was so close to the ground that his parachute did not deploy.

The pilot was Lewis Wilson Morrison. His nephew, the Scottish dentist and Major David Geddes, earlier expressed his wish that a memorial be erected for the lasting memory of his uncle and the other airmen. Now a memorial stone with the names of all of the deceased airmen and the date of the crash is ready.

The crash site found
With the help of two friends from Aarhus and their metal detectors the crash site was located and pieces of wreckage were found, among them a toothed wheel and
a piece of burned Perspex.

A small forest road leads to the crash site area. It would not make any sense to place a memorial stone here. At Grønhøj Kro the stone will be placed not far from
the Museum of the Potato Germans.

The stone will be unveiled by two girls, Laura Laigaard, 13, and Sofie Laigaard, 10. A piper has been procured for the event. Planes from Air Base Karup, members of
the Danish Home Guard, Air Force Chaplain Kåre Egholm Pedersen and others take part in the ceremony, and there will be short speeches by Anders Straarup,
David Geddes and others. The song about the liberation of Denmark "A Lark Ascended" (En lærke letted) will be sung simultaneously in Danish and English
accompanied by a trumpet.

At the end of the ceremony "Always dauntless" (Altid frejdig) will be sung, also in Danish and English at the same time. Everyone is welcome at the event which commences at 1400 hours.

The air crash near Estruplund
Anders Straarup gives a number of talks on Allied airmen and their history. One of them was in the village hall in Voer some months ago. A man from Estruplund
reacted, as he could point out fairly accurately out where another British plane crashed during the war.

With a metal detector Anders Straarup has again been able to point out the exact crash site. The British airmen are buried in Estruplund Churchyard.

Anders Straarup states that in his search for information Anders Bjørnvad's book "Fallen Allied Airmen" has been a great help, and that senior master Kirsten Klitgård, Randers Statsskole, has proofread texts in English on his website.

In this part of war history it must be mentioned that quite often the deceased airmen were not buried in the area where they were shot down.