At Slootdorp, the crew of the bomber that was shot from the air on 25 July 1943 was honored yesterday afternoon. Debris from the plane ended up in a large area around the Dolfijnweg. One crew member managed to save himself. His son was at the unveiling with the installation of the memorial pole.
“The story of how he survived is unbelievable,” said Dave Loudon, son of tail gunner Jack Loudon. “He was sucked out of the plane by the air current and put on his parachute as he fell. At about 300 meters it went down. open. He was extremely lucky. But the guilt of being the only survivor has never left him.”
It is now the 10th monument that has been placed by Stichting Herdenkingspalen Hollands Kroon. And it’s actually the story that started it all. “My grandfather and grandmother told me about the plane. Then I tracked down Jack Loudon, who was still alive at the time. He didn’t want to write down his story, but I was allowed to visit him. I then spent a week at his house.” , says Mark Hakvoort of the Hollands Kroon Memorial Poles Foundation.
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His grandfather and grandmother were not the only witnesses. The boy next door from then, Johan Juurlink, can still remember it. “We were awakened by mother and father that a plane had shot down from the sky and that we had to stay calm. I had to go back to school the next day so I went back to sleep. I was a cool frog so that worked out well.”
The next day, the family sees the consequences. “There was a fire near the chicken shed. And behind the pigs. There were fires everywhere. And I also saw a crew member, there was a German who kicked it and then got a reprimand from his boss,” explains Juurlink off.
The visit was special for Dave Loudon. “We have been to the church tower of Slootdorp. There were the German guards who saw my father come down with his parachute. My father told a lot about the war, other veterans did not. But to stand here now, in the real place Yes, then the puzzle pieces will fall into place”