German pilot to get headstone after WW2 crash

The grave of a World War Two German pilot whose plane was shot down by a Spitfire will get a headstone 86 years after his death.

Wilhelm Reuhl was buried in Hawcombe Cemetery with full military honours soon after crashing into Porlock Bay off the coast of Somerset.

A cross marked his grave but a headstone is now being made in France after being commissioned by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission and the German War Graves Commission.

Porlock historian Jeff Cox said: "I'm sure it's a source of pride that the rector and the parish council treated a young 18-year-old serving his country with the respect we'd hope a British victim would receive in Germany."

He added he had "never heard a bad word" about Reuhl's grave being in Somerset.

Cox said there had been a dogfight over Porlock in 1940 after a German plane carrying four soldiers was intercepted near Bristol and later crashed into the sea.

"Three aircrew got off safely and were immediately arrested - the fourth, Wilhelm Reuhl, was not discovered until the following day," he said.

The pilot was buried in a "prime position" in the village's cemetery, Cox said, and the grave's cross has been replaced several times over the years.

It is thought more than 7,000 members of the German military were buried in the UK during World War One and World War Two - primarily at Cannock Chase in Staffordshire.

Professor Tim Grady from the University of Chester, who studies German war graves in the UK, said the graves were "about acknowledging the British-German relationship".

"People were acknowledging the horror of the Second World War and how much suffering had taken place and that kind of feeling that there's a lonely soldier here far from home.

"Somebody needs to embrace him and look after him," he said.

The Porlock grave was initially listed for exhumation in the 1960s so Reuhl's body could be moved to Cannock Chase War Cemetery, but this never happened.

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