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The Oakville Beaver, Wednesday November 26, 2003 - A3 Widow attends Dutch memorial for downed Oakville bomber pilot By Brian Dexter S P E C L \L T O T H E B E A V F .R The story of an RCAF bomber that was shot down over Holland 60 years ago last Sunday (Nov. 23) holds special memories for two Halton residents.. They are now on a week-long trip to Holland where they have been attending special Remembrance cere monies connected with this World War II event. Six crew members died when their bomber was shot down by an enemy plane en route to a bombing mission in Germany. The pilot of the plane. Flight Lieutenant Keith Lefiroy of Oakville, left behind a wartime bride, Pat Scott, who moved to Canada in 1946 and remarried three years later. Scott is now 84 years old and currently lives in Oakville. Jack Fokkens, 72, of Georgetown, was a boy of 12 when the four-engine Lancaster crashed in a field near his village. Ter Apel. northeast of Emmen. at 7:05 p.m. on Nov. 23,1943. He has made it a mission to research the story of the last flight of the Lancaster that was on its way from a base at Gransden Lodge, near Cambridge in England, to bomb targets in Berlin. Fokkens came to Canada with his family in 1952 and retired seven years ago after 38 years in various jobs with Brampton Brick. Relatives of all the crew and the sole survivor, RAF Right Lieutenant Peter Cole, have also been contacted by Fokkens and shown appreciation to him for filling in Brian Dexter · Special to the Oakville Beaver P at Scott holds a picture of h er first husband, Keith Lefroy, of Oakv ille, an d his w ar-tim e medal. missing links about the stricken aircraft and its crew. Tomorrow (Thursday, Nov. 27), Scott and Fokkens are scheduled to return from Holland where they attended special 60th. anniversary commemorative cer emonies at Ter Apel. Accompanying them was Charles Gardiner, 75, of Hanover, Ontario, brother of the bomber's wireless operator, Flight-Lieutenant Ray Gardiner, also of Hanover. Scott had been married to Lefroy for only six weeks when he was killed in action and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross (D.F.C.). In 1946 she came to Canada and in 1949 married Murray Scott, who was a wartime Lieutenant-Colonel in the Queen's Own Rifles of Canada and later operat ed a trucking company, Scott Transport. He died three years ago. Scott met Lefroy on a blind date in Inverness, Scotland where she was a professional dancer and member of the famed John Tiller Girls. She later served in WW II as a lance-corporal in Britain's Army Territorial Service (ATS). Even today in Oakville, she is active in aerobics and dance classes four times a week. She felt it was important to be at the 60th. anniver sary ceremonies in Holland, organized by a new branch of the Royal Canadian Legion at Appeldoom. "I owe it," she said before leaving for Holland. "Seeing Keith's grave and those of his crew is impor tant to me and over the years the villagers have been wonderful in caring for the graves." Fokkens first contacted Scott in 1991 and she remembers almost dropping the phone when he said he was originally from Ter Apel and had heard the plane crash. At the time Fokkens was alone with his 10-year-old brother. Bob. and remembers explosions rocking the countryside. "The whole sky lit up with an orange glow. We did n't know where to nin and could only blurt out `O Lord, help us'!" From official records Fokkens found that the Lancaster had been shot down by a twin-engine German fighter. piloted by Major Heinz Wolfgang Schnaufer, 22, who reputedly became the top nightfighter ace of World War II and claimed to have destroyed 121 Allied aircraft. In 1994 Fokkens visited the Lancaster navigator, Peter Cole, in England. He managed to parachute to safety, but spent the rest of the war as a prisoner in Holland and Germany. Cole died just before Christmas, 1994. While in England, Fokkens and his wife, Jane, took a trip to the former Gransden Lodge air base. Although the old control tower remained, they found the field being used for glider pilot training by students at Cambridge University. Five of the Lancaster crew who died were RCAF from Canada all from Ontario and Alberta. Last Christmas Scott received a surprise gift from Holland, a ring crafted out of aluminum from Lefroy's plane. It was made by the son of the farmer, who owned the land where the Lancaster came down and had been in his family for years. C-Coupe Kompressor C-Class Sedan CLK-Class Cabriolet E-Class M-Class S-Class T H E C O U L D E N D O F T H E O U R M O D E L Y E A R O F Y O U R S . 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