Junkers 87 Stuka Loss – August 1940.

In the last few days I have had communications out of the blue from the family of a Stuka pilot lost during the attack on Tangmere on 16 August 1940.

It turns out that the family thought their relative had no known grave and had been lost in the English Channel. I was able to tell them otherwise, inform them where he had originally been buried and direct them to his grave today at Cannock Chase. His sister was immensely pleased and relieved, but it was sad that his mother died not knowing.

Despite their misguided cause in 1940 it brings home the fact that these airmen lost over the UK were somebody’s son, brother, father or husband. And there are still relatives out there who care.

It makes doing this kind of thing all the more rewarding when things like this happen.