TWO DUTCH airmen who died when their plane crashed in north-east Fife during the second world war are at last to be commemorated.

The Mark I Lockheed Hudson bomber being flown by Anton Marie ten Herkel and Willem Hijkoop crashed into trees at Gilmerton House—the family home of MEP John Purvis—near Cameron, on August 10, 1941.

Mr Purvis, then three years old, was playing a short distance away when the aircraft came down during a training flight.

His brother and cousin, who were even closer, had to run for their lives as the plane struck trees beside them and exploded.

The incident was hushed up at the time, like many during the war, Mr Purvis only learned the identities of the men when a local resident began researching it recently.

This week he had a plaque installed at Gilmerton House commemorating the pilots, members of 320 Squadron based at RAF Leuchars.

On August 5, a service will be attended by the niece of one of the airmen.

Mr Purvis is delighted Mr Ten Herkel, who was 22, and Mr Hijkoop (30), who are buried in the graveyard at Leuchars, will finally be recognised.

He said, “It seems such a shame they haven’t been already.

“They were two young men who escaped from occupied Holland, came over here to defend us and liberate their own country.

“They gave up their lives to do that—we owe them.”

Mr Purvis vividly remembers the dramatic moment the aircraft crashed.

He said, “I was playing a few hundred yards away when it came down.

“My brother, who was only one-and-a-half at the time, was even closer.

“He was literally where the plane crashed, walking with a cousin down the farm road, and they had to run.

“It hit beech trees and came down on the lawn.

“It was amazing it didn’t smash into the house.

“The plane burst into flames and exploded.

“For many years later we would find bullets in the fence posts.”

Mr Purvis had been told the airmen were Belgian and tried to find out more about them in Belgium, but without success.

Gordon Ball, of Cameron, chairman of the community council, was researching his family history and heard of the story.

He spent 18 months investigating, with the result that Hijkoop’s niece, Marja van den Boogaard-Hijkoop, will attend the ceremony, which will be led by local minister the Rev Alan McDonald.

The elderly sister-in-law of Mr ten Herkel, his only surviving relative, was also traced but she is too frail to attend.

Mr Ball said his investigation had been fascinating, sad and emotional.

He discovered that Mr ten Herkel had been a pharmacist’s assistant and Mr Hijkoop a policeman in the Hague.

Mr Hijkoop paid for flying lessons in the 1930s with his policeman’s salary as he foresaw that someday the police would have a flying force.

When Holland was invaded he escaped to the UK and became part of the Dutch 320 Squadron formed at Leuchars.