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Proposed KOSB memorial in Sweden.

 
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Kenneth Morrison



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 7749
Location: Rockcliffe Dalbeattie

PostPosted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 2:33 pm    Post subject: Proposed KOSB memorial in Sweden. Reply with quote

From http://vimeo.com/68083218

30 and 31 May 2013 Captain Edward Swales and Captain Andrew Herberts from the King`s Own Scottish Borderers (KOSB) and Lieutenant Colonel Bengt Fransson from Sweden, came to Gardermoen Airfield, Norway. They came to visit the Airforce Museum and the LK147 crash site at Gardermoen Airfield. They also made a visit at the town of Årnes about 20 km east of Gardermoen airfield, a town where KOSB soldiers were stationed in May and June 1945 as part of Operation Doomsday, the Liberation of Norway............

The mens goal is to arrange a Memorial in Sweden May 2014, to Commemorate the KOSB men who perished during the forced landing of LJ899 at Lake Rojden on 10 May 1945.

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Kenneth Morrison



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 7749
Location: Rockcliffe Dalbeattie

PostPosted: Sat Nov 09, 2013 2:45 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

The four men of the 7th (Airborne) KOSB are buried in Kviberg Cemetery in Sweden.

CONNOLLY, DUNCAN ANTHONY.
Rank:Private
Service No:14806308
Date of Death:10/05/1945
Age:19
Additional Information:
Son of Thomas and Annie Connolly, of Broxburn, West Lothian.

DAVIDSON, JAMES McARA.
Rank:Corporal
Service No:2751055
Date of Death:10/05/1945
Age:35
Additional Information:
Son of Euphemia Davidson; husband of Lilian Kenworthy Davidson, of Rochdale, Lancashire.
Born in Kirkcaldy.

MULHOLLAND, JOHN.
Rank:Lance Serjeant
Service No:3185837
Date of Death:10/05/1945
Age:32
Additional Information:
Son of John and Margaret Mulholland; husband of Dorothy Elsie Mulholland, of Birmingham.
Born in Glasgow.

PEARL, JOHN.
Rank:Corporal
Service No:3326512
Date of Death:10/05/1945
Age:31
Additional Information:
Son of James and Mar, v Pearl, of East Ham, Essex; husband of Phyllis Pearl, of East Ham.
Born in Edinburgh - SNWM Born London Army ROH.
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Kenneth Morrison



Joined: 29 Sep 2008
Posts: 7749
Location: Rockcliffe Dalbeattie

PostPosted: Wed Jun 04, 2014 6:41 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

http://www.thesouthernreporter.co.uk/news/local-headlines/kosb-tribute-to-dead-in-sweden-1-3419223

Borders veterans travelled to the Swedish-Norwegian border earlier this month to pay tribute to soldiers killed the day after war ended.


One of the last operations of the Second World War involving troops from the King’s Own Scottish Borderers was the liberation of Norway after Victory in Europe Day.

On May 10, 1945, Operation Doomsday saw men from the British 1st Airborne Division – including soldiers from 7th Battalion, KOSB – set off to ensure the surrender of German forces in Norway was successful.

More than 100 troop transport planes in the shape of Short Stirling bombers, each carrying 20 troops and five aircrew, took off for Gardermoen airport near Oslo.

However, due to low cloud and bad weather, the mission was aborted. Most aircraft returned safely home, while several continued and landed at Gardermoen.

But, tragically, three Stirlings crashed. The pilot of one, which suffered engine failure, had skilfully put his stricken four-engined aircraft down on Lake Rojden, on the Swedish border.

But a wingtip caught a pine tree, causing the aircraft to spin and the fuselage broke apart. Most of the occupants survived, but four KOSB soldiers drowned.

The four bodies were taken to nearby Torsby in Sweden and buried with full military honours, in a service attended by half the local population.

In 1961, the bodies were reinterred in the Commonwealth War Graves cemetery in Gothenburg.

Earlier this month on the 69th anniversary of Operation Doomsday, 20 relatives of the dead men were at the crash site, where a new memorial has been erected, for a special service.

Joining them were former Borderers – Ed Swales, Berwick; Alistair Busby, Rutherford, near Kelso; Andrew Herberts, St Boswells, and Andrew Raiment, Sanquhar, currently serving as a piper with 1 SCOTS, Royal Regiment of Scotland.

The service was led by the Vicar of Torsby, Johan Bonander, and attended by the Canadian ambassador (many 7th KOSB officers were Canadian), the British defence attache and an honour guard from the Swedish Army’s Varmlands and Swedish Hussar (Airborne) Regiments.

Officials from the Torsby community, senior Swedish army officers, as well as around 300 local residents, were also present.

The final event was a visit to Gothenburg where relatives laid regimental poppy wreaths on the graves of their forebears.

The four Borderers killed at Lake Rojden were L/Sgt John Mulholland, 32; Cpl James McAra Davidson, 32; Cpl John Pearl, 31, and Pte Duncan Anthony Connolly, 19.

Capt (ret’d) Swales, KOSB regimental association secretary, told The Southern: “Sixty-nine years to the day, these men were honoured once again by their relatives alongside the residents of the local Torsby community.”
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