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Villagers in the small Norwegian community of Sylling never forget the supreme sacrifice made by the crew of a Pembroke Dock based Sunderland flying boat shot down in 1940. 

Each National Day in May schoolchildren lay flowers on the airmen’s graves by the village church in a special ceremony witnessed by the villagers, many in national costume. 

Seventy years after the loss of Sunderland L2167 of 210 Squadron, the Pembroke Dock Sunderland Trust was represented at the commemoration by Trustee Martin Cavaney and Project Manager John Evans. 

They joined family members of four members of the crew including the daughter of wireless operator Ogwyn George who had a miraculous survival, falling 3,000 feet without a parachute into deep snow after the aeroplane exploded. 

Welshman Ogwyn, from Mountain Ash, was badly burned and became a prisoner of war for five years. 

Links between Sylling and Pembroke Dock were strengthened with the presentation of a special memento - a Sunderland paperweight - from Pembroke Dock’s Mayor, Maureen Colgan, to the Mayor of Lier, Ulla Naevestad. 

Joining the Mayor of Lier for the presentation was Gunnar Lindaas who as a nine-year-old schoolboy witnessed the shooting down of the Sunderland. Gunnar has worked tirelessly for decades to ensure that the Sunderland crew are remembered, and the story is taught to new generations at the local school. 

Sunderland L2167 was sent from Pembroke Dock in early April 1940 to Scotland and then on to the Oslo area to carry out a reconnaissance. The German invasion of Norway took place at that time and the nine crewmen killed were the first Allied personnel to die in the Norwegian campaign. The crew included an Australian, a Canadian and men from Northern Ireland, England and Wales. 

Decades on many parts of the aircraft remain in the forest and a memorial has been erected there.

 Captions:

1.The Mayor of the Norwegian community of Lier, Ulla Naevestad, is presented with the Sunderland paperweight from Pembroke Dock Town Council by John Evans, Project Manager of the Sunderland Trust. Also pictured are (left) historian Thorvald Leberg, one of the principal organisers, and Gunnar Lindaas who was an eyewitness to the tragic events 70 years ago. 

2.Schoolchildren in National Costume laid flowers on the war graves on Norway’s National Day.