Book on Mosquito NS906 crashed in the Grib Forest         På dansk         Updated: 10 MAR 2021

From Michael H. Ahlström to www.airmen.dk on 5 November  2009 on MOS NS906, links added and this text translated by Anders Straarup.
See Google Map p377 Mosquito NS906 with all of the route and details. See also
Mosquito Photos and Google Map 14 Mosquitoes DK.
Title translated Through Battles to the Stars, An Air Crash in the Grib Forest 1944.

In the afternoon of 30 September 1944 the Royal Canadian Air Force 418 Squadron had 4 Day Ranger missions to Germany, Austria and Denmark. The mission to Denmark, carried out by 2 Mosquitoes, had fatal consequences for one of the planes and its crew.

The 2 planes were TH-W, NS906 with Flight Lieutenant (Pilot) R. H. Thomas and Flying Officer (Navigator) G. J. Allin and TH-S, HJ821 with Flight Lieutenant (Pilot)
H. E. Miller and Sergeant (Navigator) W. Hooper.

These Mosquitoes took off from RAF Coltishall at 15.25 hours (Danish time). Their purpose was to shoot down and/or destroy as many German planes as possible at the airfield at Grove (Fliegerhorst Grove - Karup - here), the airfields at Aalborg (Aalborg West, Rødslet, photos here, now Aalborg Airport here - and  Aalborg East, here,
see more here and photos here) and Copenhagen Airport, Kastrup (here). See Google Map p377 Mosquito NS906.

At Aalborg the 2 planes engaged a German fighter which was shot down.

From here they flew over Sjællands Odde (here) to close to Hvalsø (here) in the central part of Sjælland (Zealand), where they attacked the locomotive of a passenger
train. Then the planes flew in a crescent over the Køge Bugt (Bay) (here) and over Copenhagen Airport (here).

When they came over the Sound they were exposed to flak from flak-batteries in Flakfortet (here) and Middelgrundsfortet (here). At full speed the planes flew to the
north following the Sound till they passed the coast of North Zealand at about Espergærde (here). The two pilots had radio contact, when they flew over Esrum Sø
(Lake) (here). They had not been hit by flak. One minute later the Mosquito with Thomas and Allin hit two tall trees near Gribskovlejren (here). The left part of the tail
was torn off and the plane crashed! (The Memorial is here at the crash site.)

Shortly after Miller and Hooper noted that they had lost radio and visual contact with NS906. They took a course that would bring them back to their base in England
as fast as possible. When they passed between Skovby and Holse (about here), app. 8 km south west of Bogense (here) in Fyn (Funen here), they attacked what
they believed was a black German staff car. Actually it was a taxi from Bogense. The passenger was killed and the driver was injured.

Miller and Hooper left Denmark north of Rømø (which is here) at 19.00 hours. They landed after a flight of nearly 2,000 km in Coltishall Airfield to a debriefing at 20.50 hours. The entire mission had lasted 5½ hours and cost the lives of half of the aircrew.

Through the latest seven years Michael H. Ahlström from Gribskov Arkiv has collected evidence about this air crash to try to uncover what the 2 planes
were to do over Denmark, details about the circumstances of the air crash and what it meant to the residents of the area.

For 65 years one of the big questions has been where the bodies of the two airmen are. Apparently the Germans removed them in spite of serious attempts from the
vicar to have them handed over, so they could have a decent burial. However, the Germans refused that.

In the summer of 2008 Gribskov Arkiv in cooperation with Gilleleje Museum, now a part of Museum Nordsjælland, carried out a metal detector search in the Gribskov
to establish the exact crash site and to see if new light could be thrown on the accident.

Now a book about this has been written in Danish. See Michael H. Ahlström: Gennem Kampe Til Stjernerne, et flystyrt i Gribskov 1944. DKR 149,-
published by Strandbergs Forlag A/S (www.strandbergsforlag.dk), ISBN 978-87-7717-217-5.