It is with great gratitude and even greater humility that I stand here today at the unveiling of this memorial stone.

I almost feel that I am part of the area and the history of this place. Since I was born not far from here in Guldborgland plantation and an eighth generation
”potato-German”, local history and events have always been close.

I have known for years that in this neighbourhood a plane had been shot down and that the whole crew perished. By the efforts of Anders Straarup light has
now been shed on these events.

The gratitude to participate is both personal and on behalf of the Home Guard.

I am especially grateful because, as a representative of the Home Guard, particularly the Home Guard Company Kongenshus, which shares its name with
the heath where the plane was found, I have been allowed to make a small contribution to this afternoon.

It is remarkable that so many years later we still erect memorials. In this case we commemorate a crash in which 7 Allied airmen perished.

That this event interested us so much is not least due to the fact that the crash site is situated in the middle of the area of our responsibility. On several
occasions I have pointed into the forest area not far from here and said that somewhere lie the remains of a British plane. Today we know exactly where it is.

Humility came into the picture when I read the letter from David Geddes to the Karup Weekly. By reading this several times it became clear to me how much
it means that ”someone” does something in gratitude for a special effort. It was a special effort to fly over Denmark during the occupation, in this case to drop
mines in the Baltic Sea or other actions in Germany. I am sure that if anyone had told the crew that if they perished, 71 years later a group of people would
be standing here to unveil a memorial to them – I can hardly imagine they would have believed it.

So much stronger is the impression made by the event here today where we can see that people are willing, even many years later, to set a milestone in
grateful remembrance of those who sacrificed everything.

To this very day people still perish in service around the world.

With the inauguration here today, I hope that many will subsequently take a look at this stone, maybe even stop and let their thoughts go back to the many
who died, you can almost say in order that we can be here in this moment. We owe them a lot! May this stone have its proper significance.

Thank you.