Last summer, when lockdown was in progress in many parts of Europe, Dr Olav Heinemann of the University of Duisburg-Essen came across a stone commemorating an RAF crew in his local churchyard at Gelsenkirchen. His curiosity thoroughly aroused, he researched the story behind the stone and his article “A Chance Encounter” is printed in full here.

There is a second feature associated with the story, which concerns his grandfather Kurt Heinemann, a member of a German bomber crew. There is a link contained within the article “A Chance Encounter” but we are also providing a link on a separate post.