Home
Books New Book by Steve Smith
Search this site by entering search words: |
Lancaster I ME726 crashed at Gamtofte 16/5 1944. Part of the fuselage
Pilot F/Lt Ernest J. Presland DFC
Air Gnr. Sgt Arthur G. Wright DFM
Navigator F/O Mark L. Abramson RCAF
Pilot P/O Albert E. Slade
Wreckage in Gamtofte The tail
An unfortunate crewmember An unfortunate crewmember An unfortunate crewmember
The crashsite
Assens cemetery
A visit to Gamtofte and Assens. During a search of this website to learn about the fate of her uncle, Sgt Arthur George Wright DFM, Kathy Hooper exchanged a good number of e-mails with me. She subsequently very kindly sent a photo of Sgt Wright giving me the sole authority to publish this unique image of her uncle. This series of contacts led to the thought of Kathy actually visiting the crash site and then go on to see the cemetery where Sgt Wright rests. It followed that Kathy and her husband Brian Hooper decided to visit Denmark and arrived in Billund Airport on 3rd March 2012. After meeting them in the airport we had breakfast at my private address and then travelled by car to the crash site in Gamtofte village. Here we saw the crash-site memorial to the crew of the Lancaster, which was quite a moving moment for Kathy. After spending some time by the memorial we walked around the village, our thoughts going back to the 16th of May 1944.
Where the mine exploded
Afterwards we moved on to the cemetery in the town of Assens where we easily found the graves of the crew. Before getting there Kathy wanted flowers for the grave so we stopped at a florist. Once in Assens Cemetery, Kathy laid the flowers reverently on her uncle's grave and was left alone to collect her thoughts.
It was comforting to see that the graves were in a very good condition, made possible as always by the Cemetery authorities and not least the Commonwealth War Graves Commission. Afterwards we had coffee by the harbour and then returned to Billund. After a couple of hours there, Kathy and Brian were taken to Billund airport to catch their plane back to the UK.
|
|
Copyright © Søren C. Flensted 2004 - 2024 |