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Post by Chips on Jul 13, 2004 7:35:10 GMT 9.5
Former German pilot apologises for bombing village church July 13, 2004 - 12:17AM The last time Willie Schludecker saw north-eastern England was from the cockpit of a German bomber during World War II.
On May 1, 1942, his plane damaged by British fighters during a mission over Sunderland, he jettisoned his bombs and fled for home.
One bomb slammed through a wall of 1000-year-old St Andrew's Church in the village of Bolam. It came to rest inside without exploding, but three other bombs detonated nearby.
Yesterday, Mr Schludecker, 82, returned to Bolam to say sorry.
"I want to see some of the people in Bolam from that time and explain what I was doing and say sorry for the damage that was caused," he told BBC radio. "I am very happy that no one was hurt."
Mr Schludecker said he put his Dornier 217 into a steep dive after being attacked by two British fighters.
"I wanted to jettison the bombs on the railway line, because the plane was damaged and I wanted to get rid of the bombs so it could fly back home," he said through an interpreter.
He did not know where his bombs had landed until he was tracked down last year by local historian Bill Norman.
The hole left in the church by the unexploded bomb was turned into a memorial stained-glass window. A bomb crater nearby is now a duck pond. A letter from the vicar's wife to her son in the air force, describing her lucky escape, is posted in the church.
"Providence watched over us that morning, for our house still stands," it says. "Windows and lots of frames gone. Roof badly damaged, doors broken or damaged, glass everywhere, we were smothered with it in bed, and have not even a scratch."
AP
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Post by zonked on Jul 15, 2004 9:49:53 GMT 9.5
Well that is nice of him.
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Post by sterling on Jul 15, 2004 11:15:34 GMT 9.5
Yes it was and not necessary, he did what anyone would do.
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