A COUPLE from Llanon have paid an emotional visit to Holland to attend the funeral of a relative killed when his Halifax bomber was shot down during the Second World War.

Sgt John (“Jac”) Ceredig Jones, of Nebo, was in a seven-man crew who were lost on the night of 3 April, 1943 whilst returning from a bombing raid over Germany.

Halifax DT795, of the RAF’s 158 Squadron, crashed in the Apeldoorn Canal after being attacked by a German nightfighter.

Over 70 years later, the airman’s nephew, Ceredig Hopkins, and his wife, Tegwen, of Ty-Gwyn Garage, Pennant, watched him buried with full military honours in the village of Wapenveld, near to where the plane came down.

The remains of the 31-year-old bomb aimer – along with those of three of his colleagues – were recently discovered in the waterway along with wreckage from the plane.

It was a particularly poignant occasion for Mr Hopkins, who was named after the uncle he never knew.

“I think of him often because I was named after him,” he told the Cambrian News.

“My mother spoke about him so much, but for so many years our family never knew exactly what happened."

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