Bear with me. TLDR crowd move on. Also, if this is in a bad spot, mods feel free to move it.

As some of you might know, I'm Belgian, and I make a habit of stopping at memorials when I'm out and about on the motorbike, or out cycling. I take a few photo's, then when I get back home I try to find out what happened. I try to contact relatives, but as you can imagine that's very rare. I managed to contact the relatives of a Canadian airman who lost his life in WO2 a few years back though.

Anyway. With the 75th anniversary of VE-Day (07 May 1945) just behind us, I'd thought I'd share another one. Wife and I stopped at a nice spot while biking a few days ago;



There was a plaque;



"On May 13 1940 near the Kempinberg ('Kempin mountain') a British plane crashed, the Blenheim N6173 of 59th Sq. 3 Pilots lost their lives"

Couldn't find anything about Seldon or Hands, but I did find a post about Croydon Chamberlain. I found his page on the Auckland War Museum online memorial. It has his picture;



Anyway, I dug further and I managed to find a post on a forum from his half-brother. I send him an email, he responded. He told me Croydon and his 2 friends were buried locally at the site, and in 1955 they were moved to the Commonwealth Cemetery in Hotton, Belgium. They lay under a marker 'three airmen of the 1939-1945 war'. Only in 2017 were they finally identified as the crew of N6173, and they were reburied during a ceremony that the half-brother attended in Hotton.

Next weekend we rode our motorcycles to Hotton.



At age 20, he came from New Zealand all the way to Europe to fight for us. Nazi Germany attacked the low countries on May 10 1940. He and his crew died only 3 days later, not knowing how the allies would even try to face the onslaught of the Germans. They fought and died in uncertain times. They never knew what defeats lay ahead, and they never got to see the victories. They never saw Europe liberated.

The spot will go into my list of memorials, and I'll go around there once or twice a year. There was a memorial service planned at the crash site on May 16th but it was cancelled due to the Corona situation. Next year I will be there.

Never forgotten.

That’s pretty cool. God bless you for keeping memories alive

Today, the OP was a cool guy.

Thank you.

Very nice & well put together.

Thanks OP.

OP is Too-Kewl.  Thanks for posting.

Fascinating post.  Thank you for the effort and the history!

A fitting tribute, OP, thank you!

As an aside, only a few of the Bristol Blenheims which sortied over France and the Low Countries in the Spring of 1940 survived; they were obsolete by the beginning of the War, and tactically outmatched by the Luftwaffe. By May 13th, this crew knew the odds of surviving their next mission were very slim - it took real courage and dedication to take to the air that day.

God Bless them all.

Thank you OP.

I have to admit to getting a little bit emotional knowing that people like you and your wife are still out there and care about the sacrifices that far too many people have made over the course of human history.

Thank you for sure.

Thank you all!



You would be surprised how many of us still remember, if that helps. We don't forget.

Just yesterday I passed a Belgian WW1 cemetery, very well kept with flowers at the entrance. Right across the street was a house, old guy came out to talk. He was the caretaker. I thanked him for his work, 'Ohno that's my grandson. He took over a few years ago. It's a family thing'

Lots of these memorials are kept by locals.

Very interesting OP. Thank you for sharing.

Brave men honored by those they defended.

I was wandering around some back streets in Paris a few years back when I happened upon a small wall plaque commemorating an RAF crew that died when their bomber crashed there.

Good work OP.

This will get snowed under propably, but I've found another one!

I was out on the motorcycle, around the Durbuy area. Very nice roads. As I came around a corner, I saw "US AIR FORCE MEMORIAL" out of the corner of my eye. I just managed to slow down enough to make it into the layby.



In the shade there's a memorial;



Closeup;



In case you can't read it, "For our liberty on the 12th of April 1944 a crew of eleven men of the U.S. Air Force died in this place"

It's definately not as well-kept as the last one, it's going on the list and I'll take some cleaning product next time we pass by. There were some flowers though!

I'm starting to look into this memorial, looks like it's a B24J from the 700th squadron of the 445th Bomb Group. During their mission they were attacked by German fighters from II./JG. 26, FW190's. 3 Of the attackers were shot down. 9 Bombers were shot down, 5 of the 445th (they launched 26 out of Tibenham in the UK). It was B24J 42-100203 that crashed here. The crew was recovered by the Germans and buried first at Sint-Truiden (over 90km's away, and the town where I live!). After the war they were reburied at the Allied War Cemetery in Magraten, Holland.

Here's a picture of the crash site taken by the Germans on April 13th.



Anyway. Let's remember them tonight.

what does this mean?



Thank you OP do you have a blog with the rest you have visited? Thank you for the history lessons

Well with the whole situation in the USA this topic won't last long before it going down the list. But I figured it might be of interest to some of you.

I thought about the blogging thing, but I admit most of my info already comes from local blogs and Facebook groups of the towns where I find them. I don't post often, and in topics about Europe I often read 'they have forgotten we liberated them in.....'. I just like to point out we haven't. We remember. :-)

OP: if your travels take near Han-Sur-Lesse, there's another memorial to another Allied air crew just like the one you posted today, in a valley just outside of town. I used to pass it every so often when I was out walking.

Thanks for the tip, I'll put it on the list in yellow (to verify) next time we go that way.

Thank you.

You are a true history buff OP, pretty cool what you do.