German Burials of Allied Dead.

At the end of the war the V1 and V2's were hidden in natural tunnels in Northern France which the locals had used for growing mushrooms because of the dampness. On the 8th July 1944, 200 Lancaster and Pathfinders flew to northern France to bomb them. Thirty-eight of our aircraft were lost, and, among the casualties was an Irish friend of my family called Brian McDonnagh. He was a tail gunner and he had previously won the George medal for rescuing some trapped men in a burning aircraft when he could easily have saved himself. I enquired as to what happened to his body and was told he was buried on the 9th which surprised me as he'd only been killed the day before. When I enquired further I was told that he had been buried by the Germans - a form of military respect and cameraderie by the German Wermacht. I'd never heard this mentioned about the Germans before."

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