Search for family of Napier airman

Miriam Sharland is trying to trace relatives of Napier man Kenneth Franklin who died while serving with the RAF in WW2.

A Palmerston North woman's quest to find out more about the life and service of her uncle who died in a bomber crash over Germany 73 years ago has led her to Napier - and a search for relatives of one of her uncle's crew-mates aboard the downed Lancaster.

Miriam Sharland said her uncle Flying Officer Robert Sharland had been serving with 156 Squadron RAF and had been married for only three weeks when he was killed on April 28, 1944.

"He was only 21," she said.

As was Flying Officer Kenneth Gordon Franklin DFC, whose brief military details do not have an accurate date of birth but have his closest relatives at the time of his death as his parents Alfred and Joan Franklin of Napier.

Ms Sharland said she had been in touch with some Franklins in Napier but had so far drawn a blank.

"I really want to find some family members to try and find out more about him," she said.

It is all part of her plans for a book she is putting together which she was started working on back in 2015.

It was sparked by wanting to know more about her uncle.

"I didn't no much about him so I started doing some research."

It turned out she was not alone in her pursuit of information about her uncle, along with Mr Franklin and the others aboard the Lancaster.

Remarkably, a German man keen on paying memorial tribute to the allied lives lost over his homeland, had gone on to a research site with what he had come across within just three days of Ms Sharland posting her interest, and pursuit of information.

She had since been in contact with Tom Schmidt who had made the discovery of the long-lost bomber using a metal detector and information from people who had seen it chased, and hit, by a German fighter.

It had been on a mission to bomb a former Zeppelin factory near Friedrichshausen which had been converted to a tank chassis production site, using slave labour brought in from the Dachau concentration camp.

All seven aboard the bomber were killed during the mission.

She said Mr Schmidt had worked to get a memorial, featuring the names of the crew who are all buried in the Durnbach Military Cemetery, built at Neuhausen Ob Eck.

It was formally unveiled in June last year.

Anyone knowing of a relative of Kenneth Gordon Franklin, or knows anything about him, can e-mail Ms Sharland - mimkat7@gmail.com