Returning from a raid over Germany’s Ruhr Valley on 4 November 1944, American pilot James M. Hansen’s P-47 Thunderbolt from the 411th Fighter Squadron ran into trouble and crashed. The 23-year-old from Spokane, Washington, was killed instantly. He left behind a wife and two small children. Allied forces buried the pilot in the temporary American military cemetery in the village of Molenhoek, near the Dutch city of Nijmegen. They placed this wooden cross on his grave. Today, James Hansen’s final resting place, marked by a headstone of gleaming white marble, can be visited at the Margraten American cemetery in The Netherlands. Some time ago, a major exhibition was held in Rotterdam that highlighted the history of World War II in one hundred objects. Pilot James Hansen’s wooden cross, carefully preserved since 1944, featured as one of the objects. The marker was on display entitled, ‘Original Burial Cross of an American Liberator.’ (Private collection of Herman Wijnhoven.)
