The article Mindesten for nedstyrtet flybesætning in the

Memorial stone to a crashed aircrew

Memorial stone Next year a memorial stone will be erected to the aircrew that crashed near Grønhøj in 1942. By Jens Peder Østergaard jepo@bergske.dk

Caption at the photo of a Lancaster: On 25 September 1942 a British Avro Lancaster aircraft crashed near Grønhøj after an exchange of fire with a German fighter.
Soon a memorial stone to the fallen crew will be erected at Grønhøj Kro.

Grønhøj: On the night before 25 September 1942 a British Lancaster bomber crashed into a field a little west of Grønhøj. All of the crew perished after an aerial battle against a German night fighter.

4 days after the crash the 5 Britons and 2 Canadians were buried in Frederikshavn Cemetery. Now, 70 years after the crash, they are likely to have a memorial stone
in Grønhøj. It will be erected at Grønhøj Kro. Then Gudrun Laigaard, soon 93, lived at the inn. She is one of the few existing witnesses of the air crash.

Earlier she related in Viborg Stifts Folkeblad that she woke up when her bedroom was filled with light at the same time as a tremendous noise was heard. It came from
the burning Lancaster that came so close when it was about to crash that Gudrun Laigaard became afraid that it would crash into the inn. However, it fell to the ground
half a kilometre off Grønhøj.

A crew member failed to save his life by bailing out. He crashed into a hen house in Grønhøj. Here his body was found the next day. Like the bodies of the other airmen his body was fetched by the German Wehrmacht.

Via Anders Straarup, a retired teacher from Randers, the article about the event reached the Scotsman David Geddes whose uncle was the pilot of the crashed plane.

David Geddes and his family have announced that they will come to Grønhøj in the late spring of 2013. It is likely that the memorial stone will be unveiled on that
occasion, Gregers Laigaard states. He is the present innkeeper in Grønhøj and the son of Gudrun Laigaard.

The local carter in Grønhøj will donate the stone but it might cost about DKK 6,000 to carve an inscription with the names of the crew and a little more.

At 7 o'clock p.m tonight on Monday 26 November the people behind the initiative will hold a meeting at the Grønhøj Village Hall. One of the purposes is to collect
money for the project.