Brits pay thanks for a place to mourn.

Stone marked crash place in Staatsforsten Exactly 72 years after the crash, a foundling that discovered the bomber that had been shot down, reminded of the death of the eight young soldiers. Relatives yesterday thanked him for this gesture.

Cloppenburg. In a moving celebration, the city of Cloppenburg and the family members yesterday in Staatforsten unveiled a memorial in honor of eight young soldiers who died on 6 October 1944 in the crash of an allied Lancaster bomber. Four of the men between the ages of 21 and 35 would not have found a grave to this day, reminded Debbie Bartlett one of the granddaughters of the killed board mechanic Ronald P. Barton. “This memorial site gives us a place where we can mourn”. Together with her sister Julie Barton (53) and Douglas Stewart, the son of the pilot, Bartlett thanked yesterday in a short speech at the railway tracks of Staatsforsten, the city, the people of the village and the society “fliers - airplanes – fates” for the clarification of the circumstances of death and for the support in the intensive investigation of the soil.

That the excavations only reveal wreckage today is a guarantee that no human remains have been forgotten in the soil said Enrico Schwartz. His organization MAACRT (Missing Allied Air Crew Research Team) had set up one of the two teams that had been sweeping the ground for three days in May last year. The granddaughters dug with their bare hands at the place that Volker Urbansky from Cloppenburg had localize. Urbansky who nonsalaried investigates flier fates thanked the city for their willingness and help.

Andreas Krems the general representative of the mayor regarded the memorial as a peace mark and a sign of remembrance, he stated that " These things can only be achieved when there are people who donate it”. That reconciliation was possible, Germans and Britons would have experienced in a laborious and protracted process. “The silent commemoration is a moment of wondering what the dead of that time have to say to us, and what we can do today against war and violence” said Krems to about 60 guests of the public celebration.

Representatives of the Heimatvere in Cloppenburg, of the parties in the Council and of the interest group to the preservation of the neighboring Luftschutz-Bunker also participate. It stands only a stone's throw away from the new memorial. What the victims of the second world war still feel today was made clear yesterday by private narratives. Douglas Stewart, who bears the name of his father, believed that his father had crashed over the North Sea in the squadron of the returning bombers, up to the investigations of the volunteer aviation historians. As a soldier, the son was stationed in Nienburg and made a friendship there with a German, with Ursula Kastenschmidt. She accompanied him to the memorial service yesterday. Debbie Bartlett reported that her grandmother until her death had been expecting her missing husband to come sometime healthy through the door. “We humbly hope that we can make a contribution to preserve the dignity of the victims”, Enrico Schwartz said.

Photo - (Left) Unveiling at Staatsforsten: (from left) Douglas Stewart, the son of the pilot, with the two granddaughters of the board mechanic, Julie Barton and Debbie Bartlett, as well as Andreas Krems, the general representative of the mayor. (Right) The graves of Flt/Lt. John C. Barlow, Sgt. Ronald Paul and two unknown airmen, when first buried at Becklingen War Cemetery.