On 23/11/1943 around 10 p.m., a Lancaster bomber under the command of F/L George W. Tindle RNZAF was hit by FLAK. Its fuel tanks were holed, fuel drained away. The pilot set course to the nearby island of Texel. The glide-path reached the coast near the fishing village of Oudeschild. At the last moment, landing lights revealed that the bomber was heading straight for a row of blacked-out houses behind de high sea dyke. Tindle narrowly avoided the crash but this caused a stall. The bomber crashed into a marshy paddock. All seven crew died on impact. I was four, asleep in one of the houses under the glide path, with six of my relatives. 42 years later, in 1985 my family moved to New Plymouth, but it was only in 2013 that I discovered that 70 years earlier I had nearly met (fatally) a young man from Auroa, less than an hour’s drive from where I now live, thanks to his sacrifice.