{"id":1000,"date":"2012-03-29T19:34:45","date_gmt":"2012-03-30T01:34:45","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?page_id=1000"},"modified":"2012-03-31T18:35:56","modified_gmt":"2012-04-01T00:35:56","slug":"408-returns-to-oudenburg","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/?page_id=1000","title":{"rendered":"408 Returns to Oudenburg"},"content":{"rendered":"

408 Returns to Oudenburg<\/strong><\/span><\/h2>\n

By Captain Jeffrey Bird\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 408 SQN<\/h3>\n

At 17:55 local time on November 9, 1941 a formation of nine aircraft took off for a night raid from Syerston airfield, ten miles to the north east ofNottingham.\u00a0 One of these aircraft was a Handley Page Hampden bomber from 408 squadron with the following four crew members:<\/p>\n

Douglas Victor Markall<\/strong><\/em> \u2013England, Sergeant, navigator, Royal Air Force volunteer reservist, 21 years of age;<\/p>\n

Evan Bertram Te Makahi Robertson<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 New Zealand, Sergeant, Observer, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 29 years of age;<\/p>\n

Douglas Frederick William Norton<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 England, Sergeant, gunner, Royal Air Force volunteer reservist, 19 years of age; and<\/p>\n

John Cayley Wilson<\/strong><\/em> \u2013 Canada, Pilot officer, Royal Canadian Air Force, 27 years of age.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0 <\/span>Their target was in the vicinity ofOstendbut a German flak battery engaged the aircraft resulting in a loss of a wing and part of the tail.\u00a0 Witnesses reported the aircraft lost control and the aircraft crashed near the town ofRoksem, now part of Oudenburg, at approximately 2200 hours.<\/p>\n

All four aircrew were lost and they were buried by the Germans with full military honours in the town ofWestkerke, which is also now part of Oudenburg.\u00a0 Their gravesite is considered to be the smallest commonwealth war cemetery inEurope.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Members of 408 squadron around the monument.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

From Left to Right:\u00a0 Cpl Joey Dumouchel-Jasmin, MWO Jacques Friolet, LCol John Casey, Capt Jeffrey Bird<\/p>\n

Almost 70 years later on October 29, 2011 the city ofOudenburgalong with NSB Westkerke (veteran\u2019s organization) commemorated the crash by inaugurating a monument, not too far from the crash site, honouring the four crewmen that died in the crash.\u00a0 Four members of 408 squadron were invited to attend the inauguration and they were LCol John Casey, Capt Jeffrey Bird, MWO Jacques Friolet, and Cpl Joey Dumouchel-Jasmin.\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 We arrived in Oudenburg on October 28 where we met our point of contact Mr. Dirk Jonckheere.\u00a0 He was the primary organizer of this event and had spent the last two years ensuring a successful commemoration.\u00a0 We also met three relatives of Evan Robertson that flew in fromNew Zealand.\u00a0 Evan\u2019s nephew, Peter Robertson was last here in 2008 for a ceremony honouring his Uncle and the other three victims.\u00a0 There are photos of this in the 2009\/2010 newsletter.<\/p>\n

\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

\u00a0Dirk first took us to visit the crash site.\u00a0 There was an old barn that was still standing from the time of the crash.\u00a0 The crash was within 50m of a home.\u00a0 Dirk then showed us the gravesite that sits just outside of a church in Westkerke.\u00a0 Later in the day, we attended the last post ceremony in Ypres.\u00a0 Every evening at 2000, since 1928, there\u2019s a daily ceremony in remembrance of the victims of the First World War.\u00a0 We attended the 28649th<\/sup> last post ceremony.\u00a0\u00a0\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

The next day, we attended the ceremony where the new war monument was inaugurated.\u00a0 The monument is located just a few hundred metres from the crash site.\u00a0 The ceremony was attended by many dignitaries fromBelgium,New Zealandand theCanada\u2019s defence attach\u00e9 toParis.\u00a0 Dirk was also able to organize a three plane fly pass by volunteers from a local flying club.<\/p>\n

Following the ceremony all parade participants marched to the church in Westkerke, about 10 minutes, away for a church service and ceremony at the gravesites of the 4 victims.\u00a0 The ceremony included the playing of the national anthems of the victims as well as speeches from the honoured guests.<\/p>\n

The city of Oudenburg, NSB Westkerke, and Mr. Dirk Jonckheere deserve many thanks
\nand recognition for the planning, hosting of this ceremony and for honouring our fallen 408 brethren that paid the ultimate sacrifice for freedom.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

408 Returns to Oudenburg By Captain Jeffrey Bird\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0 408 SQN At 17:55 local time on November 9, 1941 a formation of nine aircraft took off for a night raid from Syerston airfield, ten miles to the north east ofNottingham.\u00a0 One of these aircraft was a Handley Page Hampden bomber from 408 squadron with the following four crew members: Douglas Victor Markall \u2013England, Sergeant, navigator, Royal Air Force volunteer reservist, 21 years of age; Evan Bertram Te Makahi Robertson \u2013 New Zealand, Sergeant, Observer, Royal New Zealand Air Force, 29 years…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"parent":431,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","template":"","meta":{"wikipediapreview_detectlinks":true,"footnotes":""},"class_list":["post-1000","page","type-page","status-publish","hentry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1000","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=1000"}],"version-history":[{"count":7,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1000\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1074,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1000\/revisions\/1074"}],"up":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/pages\/431"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.forfreedom.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=1000"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}