Brenda McMahon has submitted the following:-
Gordon Birlison was the son of William Norman and Sarah A. Birlison, of Kirk Merrington, Co. Durham who married in 1919. Gordon was born in 1920.
On 21 September 1944 he was the wireless operator of Dakota KG579. It left Down Ampey airfield on a resupply mission. The aircraft was shot down by German fighters and crashed on Volkel airfield at about 17.30 hrs. The pilot, David Arthur Webb, and co-pilot, Dennis Harry Ralph Plear, were recovered from the wreckage and buried in the Roman Catholic Cemetery at Zeeland. Birlison was probably killed in the air during his parachute descent. He was buried in a field grave opposite the General de Bons barracks at Grave. He was later reinterred in the Uden War Cemetery, together with air despatcher James Pilson. There were four survivors of which one was captured and the others made it back to the Allied lines.
The author of the book '"Green On!" (Arie-Jan van Hees) wrote about the crash of KG579 on pages 228 and 229. He wrote the aircraft was hit by cannon fire after the drop of the supplies. The crew at first thought they were hit by flak and evasive action was taken. Then they saw a Focke-Wulf 190 fly past and they realised they were being attacked by enemy aircraft. At least 15 FW190's were seen. The starboard engine caught fire and the aircraft went into a steep dive apparently out of control. The 4 air despatchers and the wireless operator bailed out. On the way down 6 of the FW190's strafed the parachutists. Arie-Jan van Hees quotes a witness, Mr. Piet Verstraten (then 11 years old), who saw Gordon Birlison. On page 229: "One of the other members who had bailed out of the aircraft had landed some 5-600 meters further on, near the hamlet of Graspeel just behind the farm of Hein Spierings on land owned by farmer Jacobs. He had also been shot at by the German aircraft while still descending under his parachute. When I arrived at the scene I knelt down beside him and remarkably, I could not see any blood, although he had been hit several times. He was lying on his back, wearing a blue-grey battle dress and little boots. He looked very peacefully, opened his eyes and whispered "My dear......old England" and died......At the time I didn't understand the meaning of these words as, being a child of 11 years old, I couldn't understand the language. However, these words were inscribed in my memory and only later learned their true meaning. Soon after the airman had died a few adults arrived and, being a boy, I was quickly sent away. All survivors and the two dead were taken by the Zeeland fire brigade to the local pub of Mr. Jo Bens in Langenboom".
In July 2002 Piet Verstraten succeeded in tracing a cousin of Gordon Birlison in Sunderland and thus Piet could finally share his memories with the relatives of Gordon Birlison, bringing peace to his own mind.
This information is taken from Warcemeteries.nl
Uden was occupied by the Germans until its liberation in September 1944. In the earlier years of the war Commonwealth and Allied servicemen were buried in the garden of the parish priest which adjoined the Roman Catholic Cemetery. Later it became necessary to provide another burial ground for them and in 1943 the municipality acquired the Roman Catholic Cemetery, unused since about 1918, for this purpose. After the war more than 100 graves from the garden of the parish priest, and also a number of isolated graves from various parts of the commune, were moved into this cemetery.
The inscription on his grave reads :- “Blessed are the pure in heart: For they shall see our God”
Gordon Birlison is remembered at Crook in C121.06, at Kirk Merrington on K26.01 and at Spennymoor on S131.02 and S131.04
