(Coming very soon .....)

There is so much new information coming to light surrounding the W7531 crash, that's it hard to list it all. Suffice to say as soon as we have conducted the last interviews in Denmark and verified some new geographical evidence, I'll post a new page up to explain it all.

As a 'taster' here's what is coming .....

Eye witness accounts of the crash that completely change the previous reported press accounts (from the German media of the period and taken as reliable evidence for many reports since that time). What they describe shows a different approach angle into the forest, and helps to explain the localised devastation caused by the impact. We have a new overlayed map showing the position of the battle cruiser that hit the Reply, and explain how the starboard engine being on fire pulled the aircraft into an arc due to drag from the non-turning propellor.

In addition to the above we now have evidence of larger debris taken away immediately after the crash by the Germans on a low-loader, presumably for closer inspection of weapons, etc. Also some new photo's of items collected intact by the local villagers in the area. The earlier presumption that the fire engulfed everything may not have been wholly accurate, and I'll post up our latest supposition.

Location (and pictures) of the ditch adjacent to the crash site that my father scrambled into to escape the fire and subsequent explosion of the sea mine. Although he lost his hair and a great deal of skin in the explosion, he would have died if the ditch had not been there to shield him from most of it. The ditch has been found and, although overgrown now, clearly goes from the crash site to the sea shore where he was taken by the Danish people who helped him. We will retrace that journey for the first time in 60 years ...

Get this - we have found one of those original Danish rescuers! Now 89, he still remembers the incident, and can confirm the route taken and the other people involved, including the (now famous) Doctor Ulrich who first treated the injured Sgt Jeffs. His account will feature here soon.

We now know where and how the Germans captured my father, and where he was taken. This fills in the 'blanks' before his own recollections start after he recovered from his injuries. I'll be filling in the next stage of his story from Denmark, to Germany, then to Poland and incarceration in Stalag 344.

I've also now found a RCAF airman who was at Peterhead on the day that the first Reply, N6086, hit the spitfire on take-off (www.macrobertsreply.com/gallery5.htm). So an eye witness report will feature here soon.

Lastly one of my Danish friends has managed to find many names for the people shown in the photographs of the 1949 visit. These people showed great kindness to a young airman who returned to Denmark to face his own nightmares a few years after the war.

I am hugely grateful to the researchers who are helping me on this project in Denmark. I'm also looking for help in tracking down the history of Sgt Ryan (www.macrobertsreply.com/ryan.htm) so if anyone out thee is from New Zealand and wants to help ...? Lastly, many thanks to the huge support from other website owners who understand the effort needed to keep a site like this updated. Your kind words are a huge lift, especially from 'North of the Border'!

More to come soon - keep watching ....