Rest in Peace Boys

Bacause that's what they were, in their twenties, the eldest and commanding officer only 26 years old. Twice as young as I am now which makes me very sad. I came across this lonely church tower in the middle of nowhere. It is the tower of the church of Skillaerd which was built in 1567. It is the oldest renaissance building in Friesland. The tower is all what is left after the church was demolished in 1884. My attention was drawn by an airplane propeller at the entrance of the graveyard situated around the church tower. It appeared to be a wargrave cemetry. Eight airmen were buried here after their Short Stirling bomber (EF-347) was shot down by Luftwaffe Oberleutnant Wolfgang Kuthe in the night of 1-2 march 1943 after a bombing raid on the city of Berlin. Although the crew of the EF-347 LS-T consisted of seven crewmembers, there are eight tombstones. One of them bears the inscription of an unknown airman. Since decades I am very much interested in WW-II history and soon found out that USAAF airman Martin Patrick Bulger jr. was also buried here after his Liberator "Snowgoose" was shot down on december 22nd 1943. But on November 5th 1945, his remains were brought to the biggest war cemetry in the Netherlands, Margraten. If you're interested in the complete story of Martin Patrick Bulger (in Dutch), click here
Maybe the misunderstanding has something to do with this, I don't know.

Oblt. Wolfgang Kuthe was killed on the 14th April 1944 during an air test. He is thought to have blacked out during a 45 degree dive. His aircraft hit a concrete base of a fuel pump and the aircraft exploded and disintegrated.

Two more website tell the story of Skillaerd church and cemetry, click on this and this