This is a video is a tribute to our Great-Grand Mothers first husband, Ted who was a pilot in the Second World War, he was killed while on a mission over Emden, Germany flying a Vickers Wellington Bomber. He was a New Zealander flying with 405 (R.C.A.F.) Squadron, which was Canadian. When we were researching our holiday to Europe, we discovered that there are only two surviving Wellington Bombers in the world, and only one that actually flew in enemy action during the war. That plane is now known as the Loch Ness Wellington Bomber (N2980) and is located in England at the Brooklands Museum. We decided then that we had to include this in our trip. then we decided that in that case we had to go to his grave, it was a total mission to get too as it is located in the North West of Germany, near Bremen and a 2 hour drive in a rental car from Hamburg where we trained too. It was freezing cold and we managed to turn the drive into a mission as we got lost on the back country roads.
The Cemetery is immaculately maintained and we were saddened to find so many men who gave their lives, there were 816 graves, mostly airmen killed in action over Germany, there were 34 New Zealanders. Ted was buried with his aircrew, all were killed when their plane was shot down. It made us sad to see, such a terrible loss of life and such a horrible period in history, for both sides in the war.
When we were at Brooklands we also discovered that this is the only surviving Brooklands-built Wellington. During a training flight on the 31st December 1940, it developed engine trouble and ditched into Loch Ness. It was located in 1976 and recovered in 1985 and was brought to Brookland Museum by British Aerospace on 27th September 1985.
3 окт 2024