Bomber sends message home 61 years later

Ken Johnston
Editor

Quite by chance, Corrie and Janice Wiersema of Rainy River found a link to home half way around the world. But it was not just any link, it was a link to World War II.
While at a family reunion in Friesland, Holland this past spring, Corrie said they wanted to make a side trip to visit their son-in-law’s grandfather’s grave site at the Groesbeek WWII cemetery which is near Antwerp.
“They had books of all the guys buried there. If you know the name you can look up where they are buried,” explained Corrie. The Wiersemas ran into a tour bus group there, half of whom were from Canada. “We all felt a connection and ended up standing in a circle and sang O’ Canada.”
They then went and visited Pvt. F.W. Berry’s grave.
Later they went to Hoogkerk, Holland to visit another cemetery and by chance they came upon a special monument offering a tribute to the crew of NE127 DX-J of 571 squadron, 5 Grp. The crew was in a Lancaster bomber that was shot down near Dorkwerd, Holland and on the monument was the name of Paul Dalseg.
That spurred Corrie and Janice’s curiosity. Could this be a Dalseg from back home?
As it turned out, it was, and many of his relatives still reside in the area. Corrie spoke to Joe Kaliska, the local Legion historian who had some history on record from one of Paul’s relatives, Manny Nordin.
The history in the Legion albums was put together by Auke Noordhof of Dorkwerd who, as a 13 year old boy, witnessed the plane fall from the sky on the night of May 22/23, 1944. The bomber was manned by seven men and only Upper Gunner Dalseg was able to get off and parachute to safety. Another crew member, Upper Gunner Norman Wharf survived when his turret landed in a deep ditch with him still in it. The ditch saved his life. The other five crew members, W/Op John Manson, Nav. A.G. Lodge, B/A C.M. Morris, Flt./Eng. Arthur Armin and Pilot F. N. Henley all perished in the crash.
The two survivors were then captured by the Germans and spent a year in a Prisoner of War camp.
Noordhof felt an overwhelming need to pay tribute to them as soon as the war was over. He spent many hours of his time and money investigating the background of the crew and made contact with both Dalseg and Wharf. He also managed to contact relatives of the other crew members and extolled their valiant sacrifice made on that last flight.
Both Dalseg and Wharf became good friends with Noordhof and visited with him on at least two occasions when he made the trip to Canada to see them.

“I have a lot of respect for these young aircrew in those now far-off days. Nobody forced them to help us regain our freedom, but they did their highly dangerous duty as volunteers. And they paid the highest price,” said Noordhof.
His pledge to honour their supreme sacrifice was realized with the erection of the monument at Hoogkerk cemetery. The monument that the Wiersema’s stumbled upon and brought home photos of to share with us all so that “We will remember them.”