This account was written by Mogens Pedersen who was 8 years old at the liberation in 1945 - the son of Herluf Pedersen. On 29 April 2012 sent to www.airmen.dk.
Read more about Samuel Woodham, Richard Gee and Patrick J. Moloney from STI LK 238 which crashed here near Vemb in Western Jutland on 7 October  1944.

This is what I remember about what my father told me about the British pilots. (October 1944)

A farmer from Oestrup, Asger Kring telephoned my father telling him to watch out for people around his house (he had let the pilots stay overnight) he had also taught them to say “Skovfoged Pedersen” . On their way from Oestrup to our house Elkjaerhus (here), in Sophie Amalie-Gaard Forest, they walked through a little wood
called Estrup Birke. Here they met haulier Joergen Blak and Rasmus Staer.

They were out with a horse and cart fetching firewood. The British Pilots had learnt to say “Skovfoged Pedersen so Ras as Rasmus Staer was called drove them a
couple of kilometres to Sophie Amalie-Gaard Forest where he tried to explain where my father lived. Rasmus did not speak English so they misunderstood him and
walked to a farm called Sophielund, Here they met the herdsman Otto Pedersen who then took them towards our house. On the way they met my father.

I remember my father told me that he had said to Otto “you have never seen these people”, and he kept his promise. He never told anybody at all. The Germans were
desperate at this time, one could risk being arrested or even worse shot if one helped the Allies, one has to have experienced it to understand the fear of those times.

The British airmen were hidden in a little hunting lodge up in the forest. In the evening when my sister and I were in bed the airmen came to our house, washed and got something to eat. They could not live in our house as there were always people about, forest workers and other people buying timber, laths and firewood.  But my
father got them to the hospital in Hornslet where they were treated by Dr. Thomsen who was in the Resistance. 

How my father got in touch with the Resistance I do not know, maybe through Dr. Thomsen maybe through Captain Feddersen who lived with us for periods of time
under the name of Forest Appraiser Rasmussen. My father was also in contact with a Surveyor Schroeder. 

The British airmen were to return to England via Sweden. The Resistance people brought them civilian clothes (they had been wearing their uniforms until now).
At first they did not want to change into civil as they were afraid that if they were caught they would not be treated as prisoners of war but as spies and shot.
They were given half an hour to make up their minds or the Resistance people would drive away again. They put on the civilian clothes and were taken to Aarhus.

My father took their uniforms and buried them in the forest. I remember clearly how my father took my sister me and a wheelbarrow out in the forest on 5th May
1945 and dug the uniforms and the boot shafts up. Their boots were made in a way that when the boot shafts were cut off, they looked like shoes. My parents got a
suit made for me, a copy of a British pilot uniform as it was very difficult to get hold of clothes during the war.

The airmen were taken to Frederikshavn from Aarhus by a man from the Resistance. They were to be sailed to Sweden from here. I think they went by train but I am
not sure.

Unfortunately no ships went to Sweden because of German control with everything. The man from the Resistance got hold of a taxi put a pistol to the driver’s stomach
and ordered him to drive to Grenaa. Luckily the driver wanted to help so he told him to remove the pistol and said they could drive to his home and get some petrol
then everything would go faster. (One used a gas generator; the gas was obtained from wood in a sort of stove that was fixed on the cars, as petrol was rationed
during the war.)

The airmen got to Grenaa and from here to Sweden and safety. From here they were able to return to England.  Their names were Samuel Woodham, Richard Gee and Paddy Malony.

Paddy Malony was sent to South Asia where he fell in action. Richard Gee visited us after the war together with his wife and little boy. Samuel Woodham sent us Christmas cards every year. When my father died he kept writing to me and when he died his son wrote and suggested that when our fathers could write to each other
for 50 years so could we, which we have done ever since.

My father was Forester Herluf Pedersen, “Elkjaerhus”, Sophie Amaliegaard Forest, Hornslet

This account was written by the son of Herluf Pedersen – Mogens Pedersen. Dianalund 29th April 2012

Translated by Sandra Diane Rebild daughter of Keith Abbott, Captain in the Gurkha Rifles. (You may see Elite UK Forces and Gurkha Rifles. AS)