FRA
UGE-AVISEN KARUP - FROM KARUP WEEKLY Updated:
09 MAY 2014
LAN R5679 crashed
west of Grønhøj on 27 SEP 1942. All 7 airmen perished.
Pilot L.W. Morrison was the uncle of David Geddes,
see
Photos and texts from David Geddes.
KARUP WEEKLY has been involved via innkeeper Gregers Laigaard,
Grønhøj Kro.
See 26 SEP 2012: My uncle fell down in Grønhøj by editor Knud
Gaarn-Larsen.
A very important source of this article was
the first email from David Geddes to Gregers Laigaard.
This is the article one week later, in week
40 on 3 October 2012. Go to the Danish edition Lokale oplysninger om flystyrt i Grønhøj for 70 år siden
to see photos.
Local information on air crash in Grønhøj 70 years
ago by Knud Gaarn-Larsen,
UGE-AVISEN KARUP.
A number of our readers have approached the
KARUP WEEKLY with information on the British Lancaster that was shot down
over Grønhøj on 25 September 1942.
One of them is Warner Dürr who related
that he has a lighter that in all probability is from that plane. Warner was
only 4 years old at the time of the crash, so he
does not remember anything
himself, but he has inherited the lighter from his parents who according to
Warner have found it on Kongenshus Heath after the war.
The fuel tank of
the lighter is dented, but the rest of it works perfectly. It is a bit uncertain
how long it has been on the heath before it was found.
The crash site
Kirstine Filbert, since 1952 a resident of Vestergaard, Grønhøj, has a
precise impression of where the plane fell down. Her husband told her about
the accident when
she came to the area, and he took her to the crash site. It was in a grass
field near the boundary to Kongenshus Heath. In 1952 when she first saw the
place she remembers that there was a depression in the grass field, but
today it is nearly impossible to find the site as trees have been planted
in the area.
Gunnar and his brother Thomas Filbert were
the first to get to the site after the plane had crashed. They were also
some of the closest neighbours. According to
Kirsten the two brothers saw members of the crew in the burning aircraft,
but they were unable to do anything. Shortly after German soldiers from
Karup came and
shooed them away.
Air war
The British aircraft had dropped mines into the waters off Kiel and was on
the return flight to England, but apparently it had lost its bearings when
it crossed the central part of Jutland. It was not a very good idea to fly
that near to Karup because a German plane took off from Karup (Fliegerhorst
Grove -
here)
and the two planes had an aerial battle. Bent Krath witnessed that.
- I was 18 years old then and I worked as a farmhand in Fløjgård for Niels
Knudsen, Fløjgårde 5. I and the others on the farm were awakened by a
tremendous noise,
and we ran out to see what was up. It was hard to see anything in the
darkness, but I heard the sound of the engines and also rounds of machine
gun fire when they
shot at each other. A number of bullets hit the gable of a neighbouring farm
and one of them went through the window and hit the foot of a bed. Fortunately
nobody was hurt, Bent Krath relates. Out of curiousity he went to the
wreckage the next day to see where it had crashed.
- Here I saw a bird-cage in the cockpit with
4 dead carrier-pigeons with ringings, Bent Krath relates. He wonders if they
were in the plane to be let out in case of an
air crash. In this case it failed.
Topic at school
Teacher Jann Rasmussen relates that as a young teacher at the
Frederiks Skole in 1968, he had a topic about World War II. The pupils were
invited to bring
items from their homes, if they had any. Then Ryan Petersen from Grønhøj
brought a number of pieces of wreckage from the plane and they were on
display at the
school, while they worked with that topic. Jann Rasmussen thinks that there
must be a number of items in lofts in Grønhøj. It was said that some
people from
the area had secured for themselves a part of the tail.
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