The graves of the airmen

The Allied court of honor reminds the residents of Dalfsen of 22 British Commonwealth soldiers who died in the battle against the occupying forces in and around Dalfsen during the Second World War.

The court of honor is part of the cemetery in Dalfsen, where the war victims are commemorated every year on May 4. Flowers are laid at the graves of the 14 British, 5 Australian and 3 Canadian airmen during the commemoration.

The names and dates of death of the 22 war victims are:

Sergeant John Bonser Brown (1-5-1943), Flying Officer John Murray Dunsmuir (23-9-1944), Sergeant Herbert Charles Ellis (1-5-1943), Pilot Officer Leslie James Ellis (1-5-1943), Sergeant Joseph Hardy (20-10-1943), Flying Officer Angus Beverly Harvey (23-9-1944), Sergeant Warren Wallace Jarrett (27-8-1942), Flight Sergeant Charles Benjamin Jolliffe (20-10-1943), Flight Sergeant Raymond Larcome (23-9-1944), Sergeant Rex Lake Le Page (1-5-1943), Flying Officer James Westwood Leitch (20-10-1943), Filght Lieutenant Arthur George Macleod (20-10-1943), Sergeant Stanley Stuart McClellan (1-5-1943), Flight Sergeant Francis Edward Noble (20-10-1943), Flying Officer William Arnold Rollings (1-5-1943), Flight Sergeant Frederick Henry Pete Simmonds (20-10-1943), Sergeant Colin Hugh Mackenzie Smith (27-8-1942), Flight Sergeant Eric Henry Tunnell (23-9-1942), Sergeant Henry Thomas Augustus Turner (27-8-1942), Flight Sergeant Cyril Charles Viney (27-8-1942), Flying Officer Kenneth Derek Whisken (25-6-1942) en Sergeant Robert Williams (1-5-1943).

4 separate graves

On the right side of the row of headstones, four graves stand apart from the rest. Until the early 1950s, two American airmen were buried between these graves. These have been transferred to the American war cemetery at Margraten in Limburg. One of them was later returned to the US at the request of the family.