Continued ....

The German military arrived at the crash scene at 02.30hrs and quickly enlisted the 'help' of the local fire service that had already arrived at the site under the supervision of the Chief Fire Officer Jensen. C/O Jensen organised his teams into two parties. The first would fight the fire raging around the wreckage and threatening the surrounding forest. The second 'Falck' (salvage) team would find anything at the crash scene that could identify the plane and its crew, and would remove the bodies for later burial. The first fire crew fought the fire for two hours before the salvage crew were ready to move in. Immediately the local residents formed a human blockade to prevent the Germans from moving onto the crash site; a galant gesture of defiance and tribute to the fallen allies. A standoff ensued for many tense minutes. The German commanding officer ordered weapons to be readied and issued instructions for the locals to depart otherwise they would be shot. Reluctantly they were forced to retreat, but one man still refused and was taken into custody, later to spend the rest of the war in a prison camp for his defiance.

The Germans knew the plane downed was a Stirling and their salvage crew had collected a total of 7 'dog tags' from the remains of the young allied airmen. It was well known that a Stirling's usual compliment was seven, so once the tags were found it was naturally assumed all the crew had been accounted for. One of the first people at the crash site had been a local man, Willy Schmidt, with a couple of colleagues. Realising that the Germans would arrive quickly he conducted a simple search for bodies, braving the severe flames and continuing explosions of the mines. Willy spotted a crew member some distance from the main wreckage, obviously thrown just beyond the centre of the inferno, but still badly burned. As he approached he heard a cry, and at that moment the burning body opened it's mouth to try and speak. Sgt Jeffs was blind, scarred with burns, and with multiple injuries, but he was alive....

Several days after the crash, and when the Germans had left the site, the local residents returned to honour the airmen who had given their lives for the liberation of the occupied countries of Europe. Seeing the huge rock gauged out of the ground by the crashed aircraft, they banded together to roll the massive granite stone back to the place it had originated from, on the edge of the crater formed during the crash, before the Germans had moved it aside. Simple winter flowers and foliage were laid on the stone as a memorial that day. It stands in that same spot to this day, still standing guardian over the crater, and is still the focus of a memorial service in May every year. The people of Denmark will never forget the sacrifice of those brave airmen.

Back in 1942, Willy and his friends take a badly injured Don Jeffs down from the crash site to the edge of the forest, by way of a drainage ditch which runs towards what is now a popular tourist beach at Gals Klint. The ditch is still there. From there he is taken to the nearby Adler Hotel where Danish Resistance members are summoned to help. To avoid capture by the Germans, Don is kept in the loft of a large shed adjoining the Adler, and below are some photo's of that same shed as it appears now in 2002. (click on them for larger image). My thanks to Bo and Axel for their help in getting us to this stage of the story, and for Don and Willy's verification of the sequence of events ..... more to follow soon.

(click any images for larger size)

The crash site	In the distance the lane to the sea
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This is the lane Sgt Jeffs stumbled down	He could hear the sound of the sea
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The Adler of the story	The sign Don remembers
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Axel with the 'shed'	Pretty much as it was ..
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The perfect hiding place	The shed is beyond the trees
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View from the shed to the sea