Never again

Germans and Scots stood side by side near the village of Nägelstedt, equally moved by the ceremony being held to remember seven men aged between 19 and 22 who were killed 75 years ago.

The dead were the crew of a British Lancaster bomber who died when their plane was shot down as it headed towards Berlin during a storm known in Germany as “the night of the strong winds” because so many Allied aircraft were blown off course.

A group of young men from the village decided to raise money for

a cairn with a plaque containing the names of the dead and invited relatives to attend the ceremony.

Elizabeth Baillie, the second cousin of Flight Sergeant Ronald Jamieson from Kirriemuir, who was 20, said it felt “just overwhelming... a life-changing event”.

“We are all determined to make sure such a thing doesn’t happen again,” she added.

There are some who say events like Remembrance Day and other such memorials are used to glorify war. But that was never the intention. Quite the opposite. And we should always remember them.