WIX Archives
Re: Funeral for Airman from Wellington Recovery (3)
Posted by Harold Mulder on Thu Nov 28, 2002 02:09:54 PM
In reply top Funeral for Airman from Wellington Recovery in Holland posted by Harold Mulder on Thu Nov 28, 2002 11:02:20 AM
Since i can't get the link to work here is the article.
WILNIS, Holland - Flight Sergeant Joseph White and his crewmates were laid to rest Wednesday with full military honours, nearly 60 years after their bomber crashed in this small Dutch town.The former Thorold resident, along with crewmen Flight Sergeant Joseph Evariste Thibaudeau from St-Eustache, Que., and Warrant Officer Robert Moulton from Brockville, were honoured by Dutch mourners as heroes.
In his heart, Joseph's brother Samuel White, a 77-year-old Thorold resident, always had faith that this day would come. In fact, he was instrumental in making it happen by writing a letter to the Dutch government supporting a salvage operation so that the airmen could be given a proper military funeral. "I'm no hero," said Samuel, who travelled to Wilnis with three family members for Wednesday's funeral. "I just wanted to see my brother at peace." In the early hours of May 4, 1943, the airmen's Vickers Wellington bomber, part of No. 428 Squadron of the Royal Canadian Air Force, was shot down over Wilnis by a German fighter plane. White and his comrades were returning to their base in England from a night raid on Dortmund, Germany. When it crashed, the bomber sliced open a drainage ditch and water engulfed the wreckage.
Within a day, virtually the entire aircraft had sunk out of sight in the waterlogged soil. At the end of the Second World War, the Dutch government had no funds for recovery operations. The plane was left undisturbed and was not made a priority until a group of Dutch citizens began to wage a lengthy campaign of increasing pressure on the municipality and the Dutch government, through media and a growing public support network. The Salvage Vickers Wellington 1943 Foundation was not officially formed until 1998, but from that point on, its members were determined to succeed. Foundation secretary Jan Rouwenhorst is one of the many local residents who was passionate about the need to recover the remains of White, Thibaudeau and Moulton.
"This was necessary because they honoured us by fighting for our freedom. No one told them to come, they were volunteers. They did the duty they were supposed to do.
"It is our duty to do what we are supposed to do, and that is to honour them in return by giving them a known grave -- to close the circle at last." The salvage operation began last September, and took four weeks to complete. The site of the crash was shrouded Wednesday in a ghostly mist. A little farther down the road, the lights glowing in the small Dutch Reform Church in Wilnis shone in sharp contrast. A simple funeral service was organized co-operatively between the Canadian Department of National Defence, Veterans Affairs Canada and the Dutch municipality of de Ronde Venen. After the church service, the caskets were carried to the nearby cemetery. The streets along the way were lined with Dutch citizens and 100 local schoolchildren formed an unofficial honour guard. A Canadian air force band played, as well as a piper and bugler. Canadian Forces personnel stationed in Germany provided the bearer parties and a firing party, and the Dutch air force made a fly-past. During a reception after the ceremonies, Mayor of de Ronde Venen Marianne Burgman outlined plans to erect a local monument to honour not only the aircrew, but all the men and women who gave their lives. The Canadian government was represented by Carmen Provensano, parliamentary secretary to Minister of Veterans Affairs Rey Pagtakhan, Canadian Alliance MP Roy Bailey and Canadian ambassador to the Netherlands Serge April. "Our Canadians will live forever, here in sacred Dutch soil, as their squadron motto, 'To The Very End,' " Provensano said. Sitting in the audience was Wilnis resident Paul van Leeuwen, now 75. He was a teenager in 1943. Back then, on the night of the crash, he was working the late shift. He remembers looking up and seeing the bomber coming toward him, already in flames. It passed right over him, and crashed about 100 metres away. "I was scared, everything was on fire. I didn't know what to do," he recalled. Van Leeuwen was moved by the day's events. "I had always wanted to meet the families of those boys. I would never have expected that this day would come. At least, I didn't think I would be alive to see it. Incredible. It is the most beautiful day of my life." About his brother, who was 21 when he died, Samuel White said: "He was a nice guy. I'm not just saying that as a brother. He was really great. And I miss him still, but I know where he is now. I'm happy."