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WW2 navigator's son marks plane crash 80th anniversary

BBC Stuart Green and Louis Wester and his daughter Maria WesterBBC
Stuart Green (left) met Louis Wester (centre) and his daughter Maria (right), descendants of Marijte Wester Van Schagen, on the 80th anniversary the crash

A man whose father was shot down during World War Two said "it was a privilege" to meet descendants of the Dutch woman believed to have hidden him.

Alan Green's Stirling bomber was hit over the Netherlands on 21 June 1942, killing three of the eight crew.

Locals hid the flight navigator, before he was captured by the Germans.

Stuart Green, from Little Gaddesden, Hertfordshire, met Marijte Wester Van Schagen's family on 21 June, on the 80th anniversary of the crash.

Stuart Green Alan GreenStuart Green
Alan Green was 22 when he was shot down over the Netherlands in 1942 - it was the second time he survived being shot down

Flt Lt Alan Green, who was from Coventry, joined the RAF in 1940 and was based at RAF Marham near King's Lynn.

Aviation lecturer Stuart Green said the plane was downed at Wadway, near Spierdijk, close to where Marijte, 60, lived.

She ran a safe house for people hiding from the Germans, according to her grandson Louis Wester.

Mr Green said: "A few months ago, I received an email out of the blue from Louis suggesting the airman she sheltered on 22 June was either my father or one of the other survivors from the crash."

Stuart Green Stuart Green at Wadway memorialStuart Green
Mr Green laid flowers at a memorial at the crash site, which remembers the three men who died
Roslyn Bryant Crew of Alan Green's Stirling, 1942Roslyn Bryant
Alan Green (far left) and the crew shortly before their plane was shot down

His father - who died when Mr Green was 12 - described how he was sheltered by a number of Dutch farmers before he was captured, spending the rest of the war a prisoner.

After the liberation of the Netherlands, Marijte received letters from US Gen Dwight Eisenhower and RAF Air Marshal Arthur Tedder thanking her for assisting Allied soldiers.

Mr Green said it was "a privilege for me" to meet Mr Wester and his daughter Maria - "descendants of the woman who put her life on line to save downed airmen" - at the crash site memorial.

Stuart Green Wadway memorialStuart Green
The memorial was erected in 2010 by Tiny de Boer, who witnessed the crash as a 15-year-old and "made a commitment to honour the memory of the men who died"
Cor Koomen Stirling bomber crash scene with Germans, June 1942Cor Koomen
The Stirling was a four-engine bomber manufactured in the UK by Short Brothers

The event was hosted by the local branch of the National 4 and 5 May Committee, which remembers the liberation of the Netherlands.

Mr Green said: "I feel a real affinity with that small community, it's amazing how these experiences can be shared across borders and generations."

He also paid his respects to the Stirling's pilot Harold Ashworth, 40, gunner William Watt, 19, and gunner and radio operator Billy Whitehead, 22, at the Commonwealth War Graves section of Bergen Cemetery where they are buried.

"I felt I should go really - especially for Ashworth, who kept the plane flying long enough for the men to bail out," he said.

Stuart Green Bergen cemeteryStuart Green
Mr Green also spent time at the graves of the three men who died in the crash
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