Busy year for visitors

This year has been an unprecedented year for relatives visiting Den Ham to learn more the role their families played in WW2 Hammer history.

There were four remarkable and unexpected visits to this area and each visit was one of great emotion, joy, sadness and a whole range of other feelings which added a new dimension to the family history of each visitor.

It began in May, when for the second consecutive year Europe’s only airworthy Lancaster bomber paid tribute to all the Fallen Allied airmen and Liberators of the village. A few days later the son of gunner Fred Sutherland, one of Les Knight’s crew members visited the historic brink-dorp on an anniversary tour of Europe.

In September Den Ham was front page news in the daily regional newspaper Tubantia, when for the very first time family made a poignant visit to the grave  of American hero Willis Sondag in Margraten. This was followed by an emotional visit to Den Ham.   

Two weeks later the granddaughter of Les Knight’s brother John spent a day in the village visiting historic sites linked to the world famous Australian Dambuster pilot.

Iconic Lancaster bomber returns to Den Ham with flypast over The Esch & Les Knight monument

It began with a surprise invitation being sent to the Hammer Stichting Remembering Dambuster Les Knight DSO to apply for a second flypast by the iconic Lancaster bomber. The invitation was accepted, approved by the British Royal Air Force Battle of Britain Memorial Flight and preparations made for another spectacular event in the airspace above Den Ham.

The event was looking to become a major regional event as every social media post by the Les Knight Stichting was being read by upwards of 40,000 people and being shared over 300 times. The interest was phenomenal and Les Knight Stichting secretary Melvin Chambers expected the number of those attending to exceed the 6,000 people who witnessed the event last year. Chambers was expecting upwards of 8,000 people to witness, yet again the magical sight of the flying monument at the viewing points on the Janmansweg, Leertendijk and the Esch. Then on the eve of Remembrance Day Chambers was told the flypast had been cancelled due to technical problems. He spent five hours cancelling all the extensive preparations.

Then late on the morning of 4 May an unexpected telephone call from the Lancaster pilot Neil Whitehead. 

“Engineers have worked through the night to repair the aircraft. We are coming to Den Ham, only we will be an hour later than planned, “he said.

With less than four hours warning Chambers had the enormous task to re-arrange the event. Thanks to RTVOost and social media the message went viral. Just before the Lancaster was due to arrive Chambers gave a short lecture to those gathered at the Les Knight monument on the Janmansweg. He said the flypast was dedicated to the 10 Allied Airmen and the two Canadian Liberators who died for our Freedom. All the names of the Fallen were read out aloud.

 An estimated 1,000 people went to the three viewing points and right on time the unmistakeable noise of the Lancaster was heard approaching. It was a fantastic sight to see the Lancaster fly above Den Ham again, and especially fly over the Esch, which didn’t happen last year due to technical reasons.

Dambuster’s son follows father’s footsteps during 80^th anniversary Operation Chastise tour

Another surprise was the visit of Tom Sutherland and his wife Cathy. Tom’s father was airgunner Sgt. Fred Sutherland who bailed out of Knight’s doomed aircraft on the night of 16 September 1943. Tom had flown to Europe from Canada to join the 80^th anniversary celebrations of Operation Chastise in England. The attack on the German Dams is better known as the Dambuster Raids. Tom retraced his father’s footsteps in England and Den Ham. It was with the help of local Resistance groups that Fred Sutherlands returned safely back to England.

Tom was in Den Ham on 16 May and visited Kasteel Eerde, the area where his father landed by parachute, the Knight monument before paying his respects to the man who saved his father’s life at the old cemetery on the Molenstraat. He was impressed with the remains of one of Knight’s aircraft engines, a Rolls Royce Merlin motor block.

Emotional first time visit of American hero’s nephew to Margraten and Den Ham

Local history society member Job Jansen and Melvin Chambers hired a nine-seat VW Transporter to meet the nephew of an American airman who died when a B24 Liberator bomber crashed at the Hammerflier on 22 December 1943.

They had arranged to meet Dan and Susie Sondag at the huge American Cemetery at Margraten, Limburg on 13 September. Dan and Susie were given a warm welcome at Margraten where they were guided to their uncle’s grave by an official. They spent some time alone at the grave of S/Sgt Willis Sondag who was initially buried in Den Ham, before inviting Chamber and Jansen to join them and lay flowers together. It was the first time a family member had visited S/Sgt. Sondag in 80 years. After two hours it was time to go to Den Ham, where a Hammer family made the Sondag family welcome with a tasty Chinese meal and wine. Later that evening, Dan was taken to the shed on the Esweg to meet the Remmink family. The grandparents of Henk Remmink played an important role picking up the dead crew members by horse and cart. The crew were kept in the shed until their burial which was delayed due to the Christmas festive period.

The next day, Dan and Susie were interviewed by Tubantia at the Middendorpshuis and the crash site on the Hammerflier.  Their visit was front page news and their story filled two whole pages.

Les Knight’s great niece Charlotte gets unforgettable family history lesson

Picture 4. Charlotte.

On 26 September the granddaughter of Les Knight’s brother John visited Den Ham with her husband Andrew. They were met at Ommen Station by Job Jansen and Melvin Chambers. A whole day was spent in the area visiting important sites which relate to Les Knight. Besides the monument and Knight’s grave, the couple were guided to the zone where the crews landed by parachute, Noord Deuningen where it is thought Les Knight’s 6,000 kg bomb is thought to have been jettisoned following damage to his Lancaster after hitting tree tops at Ladbergen, Germany.

They visited a newly unveiled monument at Nordhorn which is dedicated to pilot Holden, his crew and a civilian casualty, farmer’s wife Mrs. T. Hood. When Holden’s aircraft was shot down, Knight flew through the resulting explosion which affected Knight’s aircraft by becoming sluggish.The body content of your post goes here. To edit this text, click on it and delete this default text and start typing your own or paste your own from a different source.