George Wilkinson died in this aircraft crash

by Alan Watkins

A family has been on a helterskelter journey of discovery after a chance find on a website.

Christmas iPads have brought them a trip to Germany last weekend, the discovery of a Second World War hero in their family - and 10 cousins they never knew existed.

It all started with a casual Google search for George Wilkinson by his daughter Beryl, of Villa Road, Higham. She was 18 months old when he was lost in a Stirling bomber.

She and her family discovered the crew, led by a New Zealand pilot named Tom Wilkinson (no relation), managed to lift their dying plane over the village of Schwanheim – avoiding scores of homes – before crashing into a nearby wood and bursting into flames.

Tom and George were both killed, but they undoubtedly saved many lives in their brave actions.

They had been on Operation Hydra, the raid to destroy the Peenemunde rocket base.

Villagers and relatives of the Stirling crew at the dedication ceremony on the site of the plane crash

“They saved the village,” said Kate Howard, his granddaughter and Beryl’s daughter. “If the plane had hit it, it would have wiped out Schwanheim.”

Many villagers collected souvenirs at the time. After the war the crash site was forgotten - but never the crew’s bravery.

The village set about a worldwide appeal on the internet to find the families of George, who was 27 when he died, and his six crew mates when the plane was recently rediscovered. It was this plea that Beryl stumbled across on the web, and unearthed the incredible tale.

Kate Howard, who used to live in Gravesend but now runs the Nevill Bull pub and restaurant in Birling, and her mother Beryl, who used to run the Darnley Arms in Gravesend, started tracking down various links.

Kate said: “One of the three survivors went back to rescue a gunner. Possibly it was George, who was rear gunner, but we’ll never know,” she said.
“He was beaten back by the flames.”

Beryl, husband Trevor, previously of Darnley Road, Gravesend, who is a former Gravesend Rugby Club president, Kate, and her brother, Sam, were flown out to Germany at the weekend as guests of Schwanheim.

An emotional ceremony was held to establish a permanent memorial to the men who saved the village from destruction 70 years ago. It included pinning part of the plane wreckage to the memorial.

Now the villagers are planning a museum to honour the men.

They’ll have a lot to build it around: the villagers are handling over the remains liberated from the wreck more than half a century ago.

There was a further surprise for the family at the weekend when a phone call from Liverpool put them in touch with a branch of the family they never knew existed.

What’s more, Liverpool fan Kate has discovered that another of the family was William Cuff, founder member and longtime club chairman of Everton.