German farmer demands money..

[spike7451]

This makes me angry! My Dad,being a Lancaster pilot himself,would be spitting bullets & turning in his grave at this!!

Me thinks 617 Sqn should do some low flying over his farm to remind him who won the war!!!

German farmer demands cash for lost bodies

By David Harrison, Sunday Telegraph

Last Updated: 12:35am BST 12/08/2007

A German farmer is refusing to allow British families to recover the remains of crew members of a Lancaster bomber shot down during the Second World War - unless they pay him €7,500 (£5,080).

The families of the crew are furious at the farmer's demands and are refusing to pay. They say that the farmer, Horst Bender, must not be allowed to make a profit from allowing them to give their dead relatives a proper burial with full military honours.

One relative described his demands as "shockingly greedy and insensitive".

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Four British airmen and two Canadians were in the Lancaster MK1 bomber reported shot down over Germany. The bomber, marked EM-J with serial number PD216, was part of 207 squadron.

It took off from Spilsby in Lincolnshire on August 25, 1944, heading for the German city of Darmstadt, but was shot down before it reached its destination.

Local people recovered body parts of three of the men and buried them in an unmarked grave. When Allied troops arrived in the area they moved the remains to a military cemetery - two in individual, named graves and one in a collective grave.

But the rest of the remains and the aircraft were hidden under farmland in Geinsheim, near Darmstadt, until they were discovered by German historians in 2003.

The farmer gave permission for an excavation in 2005 but then suddenly demanded money. At first he wanted €5,000, but recently he put up the price to €7,500.

The Lancaster was piloted by Flt Lt Maurice Harding, with Sgt Leslie Gower as co-pilot. The other British crew were Flt Sgt Thomas Jones, Pilot Officer Maurice Savage and Sgt Hugh Hamilton. The Candian crew were Pilot Officer Stephen Sims and Flt Sgt Edward Kisilowsky.

The co-pilot's son, Terence Gower, 65, who lives in London, said that he wanted nothing more than to give a proper burial to the father he last saw when he was two-years-old.

Mr Gower said: "It is my dearest wish and on the day it happens you can bet I will be will be standing in that field. I am waiting for the 'yes'."

The pilot's daughter, April Copeland, a management consultant, said she had always been unsure of her father's fate.

"After the war my mother got a ring back from my father, and we were told that his body was probably one of the three that were recovered, but we never knew for sure," she said. "I visited the grave site but I never liked to ask too closely who was in there."...........

Telegraph story

[Mentalguru]

This makes me angry! My Dad,being a Lancaster pilot himself,would be spitting bullets & turning in his grave at this!!

Me thinks 617 Sqn should do some low flying over his farm to remind him who won the war!!!

German farmer demands cash for lost bodies

By David Harrison, Sunday Telegraph

Last Updated: 12:35am BST 12/08/2007

A German farmer is refusing to allow British families to recover the remains of crew members of a Lancaster bomber shot down during the Second World War - unless they pay him €7,500 (£5,080).

The families of the crew are furious at the farmer's demands and are refusing to pay. They say that the farmer, Horst Bender, must not be allowed to make a profit from allowing them to give their dead relatives a proper burial with full military honours.

One relative described his demands as "shockingly greedy and insensitive".

advertisement

Four British airmen and two Canadians were in the Lancaster MK1 bomber reported shot down over Germany. The bomber, marked EM-J with serial number PD216, was part of 207 squadron.

It took off from Spilsby in Lincolnshire on August 25, 1944, heading for the German city of Darmstadt, but was shot down before it reached its destination.

Local people recovered body parts of three of the men and buried them in an unmarked grave. When Allied troops arrived in the area they moved the remains to a military cemetery - two in individual, named graves and one in a collective grave.

But the rest of the remains and the aircraft were hidden under farmland in Geinsheim, near Darmstadt, until they were discovered by German historians in 2003.

The farmer gave permission for an excavation in 2005 but then suddenly demanded money. At first he wanted €5,000, but recently he put up the price to €7,500.

The Lancaster was piloted by Flt Lt Maurice Harding, with Sgt Leslie Gower as co-pilot. The other British crew were Flt Sgt Thomas Jones, Pilot Officer Maurice Savage and Sgt Hugh Hamilton. The Candian crew were Pilot Officer Stephen Sims and Flt Sgt Edward Kisilowsky.

The co-pilot's son, Terence Gower, 65, who lives in London, said that he wanted nothing more than to give a proper burial to the father he last saw when he was two-years-old.

Mr Gower said: "It is my dearest wish and on the day it happens you can bet I will be will be standing in that field. I am waiting for the 'yes'."

The pilot's daughter, April Copeland, a management consultant, said she had always been unsure of her father's fate.

"After the war my mother got a ring back from my father, and we were told that his body was probably one of the three that were recovered, but we never knew for sure," she said. "I visited the grave site but I never liked to ask too closely who was in there."...........

Telegraph story

Simply.. :w***:

Edited August 12, 2007 by Mentalguru

[Gary West]

2 things to say.....

- This just may be inaccurate reporting, and he's actually asking for a "disruption" fee. I'm sure that his land would be returned to the condition it was found anyway, but being a farmer he may be asking for compensation for loss of use of a field etc? As an aside, remember that German land owners have made a mint out of foreign forces over the years, destroying their land during exercises.

If the report is accurate, then no to 617 flying over his field, but yes to a Paveway from 10,000 feet.

[spike7451]

Thing is he never kicked up a stink when it was the Germans who were doing the original dig,now the families want their relatives back it's a different story.