First I will ask you to move a little bit closer.
Transcripts and photos from the event on the Danish island of Als
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Speech of the Mayor of the Municipality of Augustenborg, Aase Nygaard
"Welcome"
First I will ask you to move a little bit closer.
Dear all !
Welcome to this day – a special warm welcome to Tom Clay and his wife from USA – and to our British visitor. It’s nice to see that we can corporate between the countries.
Tom Clay is son of the pilot on the plane called Stormy Weather that crash-landed here in 1944 – precisely on this day sixty years ago. In spite that the plane was totally damaged, all of the crew survived the crash, and the important day that followed, also because of the local population. It’s the only place here on Als were all people from a plane crash survived.
The monument that now has
been made, and which we will unveil today, shall be a symbol not only to this
plane that landed here, but to all allied planes that came to help us and where
they put their lives at risk to do this.
And exactly in our time were there are so much war in the world I would like to that you think even more about the people with thanks that risked their live to help the Danes in the 2nd world war and at the same secured the freedom we have in Denmark – a free country.
Welcome to you from all of my heart.
Now I should give the words to Hanne Risgaard that also wrote the story of this event three years ago, but because of sickness in her family she is not able to participate today, instead I will give the words to Gunnar Hounsgaard that will tell you the story about Stormy Weather.
Speech of Gunnar Hounsgaard
"The Story"
Unfortunately Hanne Risgaard was not able to come, so this morning I was asked to substitute her to tell what happened this day- 60 years ago.
I started my education at Danfoss in May 1944. I remember clearly what happened the day of May 24th. There was an announced air raid alarm at Danfoss because allied planes were expected to fly over the island. It was actually Stormy Weather that came closer. I wasn’t here myself because I couldn’t leave work, but I have heard from many what happened here that day and how the Americans were taken away by the Germans to a prison camp .
In the year 1943 the English and the Americans came to help. The Americans were stationed in the east of England. The English bombed at night because of their brilliant navigation systems, but then again they were not so heavily armed. The Americans bombed during day time and they were visible from the ground. They flew high and you could see the many vapour trails. They were heavily armed with machine guns and that made them heavier and therefore the bomb load was limited. They could defend themselves against the German fighters. Because of this heavy armament, the plane - a B17 was also called a Flying Fortress. The planes flew tight in formations and covered each other with their guns. Stormy Weather had thirteen 50 caliber machine guns. The target was to destroy Germany´s infra structure. The 24th of May the target was Berlin. Stormy Weather was the lead plane of a bomb group that had the triangle J as the tail insignia. Captain Robert Clay was the pilot on this lead plane that had the name Stormy Weather. Due to engine trouble after bombing Berlin Captain Clay handed over the lead position to the second plane in command. They could not continue to lead the formation because they lost altitude and the formation was expected to follow the lead plane close. They tried to return to England. On the way back the plane reached the island Helgoland with 2 engines not working. Over Helgoland a third engine was hit by flak and Captain Clay did not want to cross the North Sea with only one engine left, because it was very dangerous to land on water so they decided to turn and get to Sweden on one engine. When you draw a line from Helgoland to Sweden you will get over Als. In Sweden there was an airfield were many allied planes landed. Over Als the altitude was so low that an emergency landing was inevitable. The plane came over the sea and turned around in over the northern part of Als. Captain Clay gave the order to the crew to bail out and all of them bailed out and landed on a line from the villages Svenstrup in the north, to Guderup 3 miles south. The first crew member landed were the car dealership “Als Motor” is situated today, and he met Mogens Dyre. Mogens Dyre asked if he wanted help to get away, but he rejected this because orders were to keep together, and the crew were all captured by the Germans and taken to the wreck of Stormy Weather that had crash landed near Easterholm. It was so that Captain Clay had forgotten his parachute because when they were making ready for departure in their own plane “Clay Pigeon” the plane had engine problems. They changed to another plane and had to go fast because of the crucial timing of all the planes that were scheduled to take off for that mission. So they were quickly taken to a reserve plane called Stormy Weather and forgot one parachute in the hurry. It ended with the crash landing in the field behind us. The co pilot Frank Hatten received the order to bail out but he would not leave the plane to Captain Clay alone so he returned to his seat. And the two, who both were pilots, emergency landed the plane. They aimed for the field in the direction of the forest but because of the road that was built there at the time, the right wing tip hit the ground on the road and the plane turned around in the other direction. The plane hit the ground with such a tremendous impact that the tail and other pieces broke off. The tremendous noise of the crashed stopped immediately and Clay then heard only the sound of bird singing and he said “we are alive” The crew became POW’s at Stalag Luft III and IV. They all returned to the United States when the war ended. Four of the crew returned to this place 3 years ago for the reunion. Today we celebrate the 60 year anniversary with the unveiling of this monument that will remind us of the story from that time, and which is also to honour all those who risked their lives and made an effort for us during the war.
With this I will give the word to Director of the EUC school, Svend Aage Olsen.
Speech of Director of EUC, Svend Aage Olsen
"Construction of the monument"
Thank you !
It is now a little over a year since I
was phoned by Mogens Dyre saying he would like to ask me of some technical
issues. It did not surprise me because Mogens Dyre and I did earlier work
together on a technical display such as the Technorama, that are now realised
at Danfoss on North Als. I quickly found out that the reason he called me was
the realisation of why we are gathered today, the unveiling of the monument for
Stormy Weather which ended here on its 22nd mission.
I was soon very interested in the project and suggested that we had a meeting to discuss closer what we could do. First I thought that I had only to give good advice and so on, but on this first of more meetings were also Gunnar Hounsgaard and Leo Bram participated. It ended up with the school’s participation in cooperating with the design and construction of the monument, to place a permanent memorial of this event in a long and bloody war. Because it happened here in our part of the country, and as opposed to many other crash-landings, this one did not cost any life. After I was initiated in the living story from Gunnar Hounsgaard and Mogens Dyre, I decided that we wanted, as a school, to participate. Danish Industry is also about the education of young people. Besides the vocational training it is teaching them to be active and valuable citizens in the Danish and European society. Very often we hear that the young people are not concerned about history and overlook that knowing of the past is necessary to understand the times we live in today. I don’t think it is that bad as many say and here under the construction of this memorial I saw the possibility to realise the education of the young people in the society.
On the meetings we held, we worked close in determining how the memorial could look and with these thoughts made concrete; we went to the pupils from the technical design education under the supervision of subject teacher Niels Sorensen and made them interested in the project. It wasn’t difficult to get them into this as I will point out. They got into the task with great enthusiasm and worked out sketches and drawings and all else that was needed of technical examinations to make the construction from the computer to realization. Thereafter it was the practician´s turn under supervision of Jan Wilhelmsen from our Building and Plant department which were in close contact with Mogens Dyre and Leo Bram to carry out the monument and a time scale for it. A time scale that secured that the monument was finished here on the 60 year anniversary day for Stormy Weather’s crash landing.
During the project, the shape of the monument changed, paying attention to opinions and to the surroundings. I will also highlight that the workmanship needed gave us big challenges at least with the production of the mould and the actual moulding. I find they reached a very good result – we will see this in a moment. The corporation with the municipality of Augustenborg with planning and coordination of the work has been excellent and thereby made it easy for us to do the work. In conclusion I will say, and as we will get to see, it has been successful and I am also sure the pupils who participated will never forget. By this they will positively be able to disprove that the young people are not concerned about history and they will also in many years be able to tell the story and how they made the work. From the school EUC South we say thanks that we were allowed to participate and to give our contribution to the realization of the project. We hope that it will stand here for many years to tell about the event that happened in a cruel war, and for those that look upon the monument, give some thoughts about what every one of us can do to avoid that this could ever happen again.
With these words I will like to entrust the monument to the municipality of Augustenborg, specifically Mayor Aase Nygaard that will carry out the unveiling of the monument.
Mayor of the Municipality of Augustenborg, Aase Nygaard
"Unveiling of the monument"
Mayor Aase Nygaard cuts the ribbon around the monument and the tarpaulin was removed thereafter she said:
I am very happy to - on this day to be allowed to unveil this memorial - the memorial were we think back 60 years, but also where we think 3 years back when we had the great reunion here on this place together with some of the crew members and their family. Such a project is not possible if people can’t work together, so I will say a great thank you to EUC South Director Svend Aage Olsen, specifically his employees that were capable to make this project. Also thanks to Hanne Risgaard and Jorgen Bonde who unfortunately could not be here and who donated this area for the monument. Also thanks to the Army School of Sonderborg – all the people with the flags and especially to those who took the initiative with this project and came to us in the municipality and asked if we together can make a project so that we can unveil a monument next year on the 60th anniversary day. You have also been good at, as I can read about- to find sponsors for this project, and I will have the pleasure together with the citizens that here we can be united in this happy event, but I will also ask you to think about that some of the crew members and Captain Clay were only 26 years old when he flew over here. If you think 60 years back it was another knowledge they had of each other than we have today, and they surely did not know how they put their lives at risk to help us Danes – please think about this.
Thank you.
Speech of Tom Clay
Ladies and Gentlemen – My name is Tom Clay ! (said in Danish)
I am the son of Robert Clay. He sends his kind regards and love to the people of Als and Denmark. Unfortunately his health does not allow him to travel great distances but he wishes he were here. I speak for the family and crew members of Stormy Weather in thanking the committee, the local municipalities, and private organizations that have made this possible. We appreciate the effort that has gone into the monument. - It is a beautiful monument, thank you.
Around 130 people participated in the anniversary and unveiling of the memorial
Stormy Weather Committee Denmark
24th of May 2004
The Memorial