Dutch writer searching for clues about missing WW II airman from P.E.I.
A Dutch author who has spent years researching Second World Struggle historical past is now turning his consideration to a soldier from Montague, P.E.I. whose physique has by no means been discovered.
John Heideman is in search of any data he can discover about Ronald Frederick Taylor, who served within the Royal Air Drive and was 24 years outdated when he died in 1943.
“I am very curious, you already know, who was he? What did he appear like?” stated Heideman.
Heideman is engaged on his third e-book about what the Second World Struggle was like within the area of Castricum within the Netherlands, the place he lives.
Taylor, the soldier born in Montague, died when the bomber airplane he and his crew have been flying was shot down by Germans over the North Sea on December 20, 1943.
Two of Taylor’s seven-member crew washed up on the shores of Castricum and one in every of them is buried within the cemetery there.
However Taylor was declared lacking in motion.
Heideman is telling the tales of a few of these troopers in his e-book, and he desires to say Taylor too. However thus far he has treasured little to go on.
“If you happen to look on the web, you’ll be able to’t discover a factor,” stated Heideman.
“Yeah, the overall issues … the place he lives, who his mother and pop have been. However not the place did he work? Did he have a brother and sister? Is there {a photograph} of him?”
Heideman was doing analysis on P.E.I. on-line and determined to message CBC P.E.I. to see if the station might get the phrase out about Taylor and see if anybody is aware of extra about him.
“He liberated our nation, he was a part of the liberation of Holland. So it is vital,” stated Heideman.
“Youthful era should not overlook what occurred in these days as a result of it is taking place another time. If you happen to watch the scenario in Ukraine, in every single place world wide.”
Sgt. Ronald Frederick Taylor was born in Montague round 1919. His mother and father have been Frederick John and Gertrude Maude Taylor.
Heideman thinks he was married to a lady named Vivien Hilda Taylor, and throughout the Second World Struggle he was a member of the air power’s 76 squadron.
Heideman teaches highschool biology and writes in his spare time. However battle analysis has all the time been a ardour, and he brings his college students to the gravesites of useless troopers to share their tales.
“And I wish to point out [Taylor]. I wish to present him to the youngsters, you already know? And so they mustn’t ever be forgotten. By no means,” stated Heideman.
“I all the time say if you already know your previous, you already know your future.”
‘Heard a whole lot of tales’
Heideman was born in 1965, twenty years after the Second World Struggle ended. However his grandmother was about 21 when the battle began and talked about it so much.
“I heard a whole lot of tales of my mother and pop who have been children throughout the wartime,” he stated.
Heideman now has a son who’s 26 and thinks about what it might be prefer to have him go off to battle.
“What about my son? What about someone’s different son? And why are we doing this?”
Hoping for a clue
He’s hopeful that his seek for the Montague soldier will flip up one thing.
“It was a really small group, so … there have to be some relations dwelling close by, an uncle or a nephew,” stated Heideman.
Heideman has come throughout somebody earlier than in his analysis who knew one of many troopers buried in his city.
“Two years in the past I met an outdated neighbour of one of many guys who was buried at Castricum. And I believed, ‘Properly, they’re nonetheless there.’ , it is nonetheless doable.”
