KEY POINTS:
A New Zealand Lancaster pilot and his crew killed 63 years ago on a bombing operation will be honoured today by the citizens of the small Dutch town of Kolhorn in a ceremony near the spot where their aircraft crashed.
Wing Commander Nelson Mansfield, 31, died with the six other airmen, Britons and a Canadian, when their aircraft was shot down by a German night fighter after bombing Brunswick on the night of January 14, 1944.
A memorial, featuring a battered Lancaster propeller found at another crash site, will be unveiled by two nephews of Flight Sergeant Vic Cawdery, Mansfield's mid-upper gunner.
The men are the only relations of the crew that Dutch researchers have been able to locate.
Mansfield, born in Christchurch in October 1912, was the son of Horace and Ellen Mansfield, and a member of a family that had operated a business as monumental masons in the city since 1863.
Attempts to find relations in New Zealand have been unsuccessful.
Mansfield learned to fly in New Zealand, sailed for England in April 1940 and transferred to the Royal Air Force on arrival.
He flew a tour on Blenheims with 218 Squadron before joining 156 Squadron, one of the original pathfinder squadrons, in June 1943. He was awarded a Distinguished Flying Cross after his first tour.
- NZPA
