Nazi pilot’s family make pilgrimage to crash site on Scots hillside

● Four-man-crew of bomber died in failed attack on Leith Docks

three crew were killed and the wreckage was scattered over a half-mile radius.

After the airmen were laid to rest in 1964, the location of the crash site faded from public knowledge. But in the late 1990s aircraft enthusiast Kenny Walker became fascinated by the story and set about trying to find the crash site.

Mr Walker said: “I’d read about the crash and knew a small fragment had been found on the hill. I’d searched one side of the hill, but grew fed up of not finding anything.

“I noticed that the whole hill was covered in heather except for one area of grass. I went back with the metal detector and ‘bingo’.”

Having discovered the crash site, Mr Walker felt the crew deserved to be suitably remembered and worked towards funding a memorial.

“The memorial was erected in the latter half of 1999,” he said. “It’s just a wooden post

0 Members of the Förster family pay respects at the sight of the crash where pilot Fritz Förster died with a small plaque, so it was very easy to erect.”

He said people questioned whether there should be a memorial to Nazi airmen.

However, he said: “I felt they should be remembered as human beings.”

News of the memorial made its way to the Försters in Germany and the airman’s granddaughter Birgit announced that members of the family would like to attend the memorial’s unveiling.

Mr Walker said: “Ten of them made it, including Fritz’s son Klaus with his wife and their two daughters.”

He added: “There was a real feeling of reflection and remembrance. Klaus genuinely appreciates what has been done.”