Bizodisha Bureau, Bhubaneswar, July 26, 2015 : Hundreds of people attended a memorial service held at the Rasgovindpur Airstrip on Sunday for the 14 airmen who had died in a crash here on 26 July 1945.

War historian Anil Dhir said, Aditya Patnaik of the Gandhi Eye Hospital and others including school children paid homage to the dead airmen. Wreaths were laid for each of the dead airmen.

On 26 July 1945 two Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator bombers, EW225 and EW247, collided at low altitude leading to the death of 14 airmen and the crews of the two aircrafts.

Dhir researched the crash and got the help from Matthew J. Poole from the United States who has done extensive research on the crash and had produced a comprehensive report.

Dhir also succeeded in locating nine relatives of the dead airmen in India and abroad. One is the 101-year-old brother of Flight Sergeant Cyril William Geeson, a flight engineer who died aged 23 and the other is the daughter of Flight Officer Peter Ettlinger who was also a flight engineer and died aged 30.

“My father was Flying Officer Peter Ettlinger. He was an engineer and worked on the maintenance of airplanes during the war. In April 1944 he joined up and was sent to Armada Rd. I was born in September 1944 and he never saw me as on July 1945 he died along with 13 other RAF personnel. The crash happened on his mother’s birthday what a tragedy! I would like to take this opportunity to thank all who have been so thoughtful in thinking about these men and remembering them on this day. My thoughts will be with all of you,” Yvonne Colebatch, daughter of Flying Officer Peter Ettlinger worte.
Yvonne is now 70 years old and has never seen her father, as he was killed in the crash when she was just ten months old.

Dhir has urged Odisha and West Bengal governments to erect small memorials for these airmen at Amarda Raod and the crash site.