19 and 20 November 1983
The reunion
Forty years after the crash, navigator Philip Pepper came back to Voort. He was not looking for the wreck, but for the people who had hidden him.
A reunion at a gate
At the invitation of the local heritage society Hendrycken-Voerda, Pepper visited the area on Saturday 19 and Sunday 20 November 1983 — exactly forty years after the night of the crash. The most emotional moment was his reunion with Michel Paulissen, the farmer who had found him in shock at his gate and pulled him inside.
He also visited the Molenberg at Broekom, where his pilot Johnson died, and was received officially at Loon town hall by mayor Clément Wijnants. Flowers were laid at the monument to Antoine Benats.
The evening at the Valgaard hall
That evening the “Valgaard” hall was full. The Bloesemklank choir sang under E.Z. Mateo, Albert Pirard gave the welcome and Louis Thijs was speaker of the evening. Eliza Ryckmans and Simone Marguillier told how they had been rescued from the burning roof gutter forty years earlier. Eugène Timmermans and Albert Buttiens handed Pepper parts of his own Lancaster.
“After forty years they faced each other again: the navigator and the farmer who had taken him in.”
November 1983
Do you have photographs, press clippings or memories of the November 1983 reunion? They are welcome via the contact page — this page will keep growing.