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General => The Common Room => Topic started by: Robneve on Thursday 17 March 22 21:14 GMT (UK)
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I am looking for anyone who can translate a German newspaper page to English.
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What, the whole page?
I think the going rate is about 2 euros per line!
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Have you got a link.or Screenshot? Lets have a Look at.
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Good morning,
I would photograph or scan it in blocks. Then in pictures highlight the different sections, copy then paste to a google translater.
If you want to keep it then highlight the English version and save or print.
John915
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I'm not sure I would trust the googly translator to do a good job.
If you like to post the text here I'll take a look.
Dave and I could probably each do some of it, unless it seems very uninteresting.
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If you post it or parts of it up here several of us can probably help you with the translation.
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First an apology. I should have said that Google has already been tried. I got the gist of some of it that way, but much just does not make sense. I have attached the original article. This was a great revelation for me. My cousin G.W. MacKenzie was posted missing on Aug. 3 1943 on a lancaster bombing raid on Hamburg. Only in the last few weeks have I discovered what happened and where his remains lie. This newspaper page was sent to me as part of the info. that was available. Since I how live in Canada access is obviously more difficult. Thanks for all the help thus far.
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I´ll have a go. Won´t be done in 5 minutes, be patient
Dave
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I see what you mean, Dave, but it looks interesting, so I might try it too.
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Lets coordinate this
Makes No Sense when we all try and do the lot
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It's hidden behind a paywall, but a memorial stone has been erected to the 7 airmen.
https://www.tageblatt.de/lokales/lokalesalle_artikel,-bomber-absturz-bei-der-operation-gomorrha-in-buxtehude-_arid,1254109.html (https://www.tageblatt.de/lokales/lokalesalle_artikel,-bomber-absturz-bei-der-operation-gomorrha-in-buxtehude-_arid,1254109.html)
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Good evening,
Translation of artical about the memorial.
British bomber crew unveiled a memorial stone in Daensen near Buxtehude on Saturday. The stone commemorates the seven airmen who died on August 3, 1943 when their four-engine Lancasters crashed.
John915
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Assuming that the others will translate the main article, I've had a bash at the two extra paragraphs at the foot of the page. If anyone can improve on my version, go ahead ...
In Memoriam
Underneath the arms of the 61st squadron of the RAF, the memorial bears this inscription in golden letters: "The Lancaster II, no. 5000 QR-N, crashed near this spot. The bomber was shot down at 02:02 in the night of 3rd August 1943 during a raid on Hamburg. The entire crew lost their lives. We remember <names> and also the people who suffered so much in the dark days of the second world war."
Operation Gomorrha: that was the military code name for two daytime raids on the city of Hamburg by the Americans and five night raids by the British, from the 25th July to the 3rd August 1943. It was in reponse to the criminally aggressive warfare by the Third Reich. Some 34 thousand people died in the blanket bombing, and 125 thousand were injured. Conflagrations resulted from the explosive and incendiary bombs. The city was reduced to rubble and ashes; about 600 industrial plants and 280 thousand dwellings were destroyed. Air Marshal Arthur Harris wished to undermine the morale of the people, but it was not decisive for the outcome of the war.
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'Bomber' Harris should have been executed for his war crimes (the destruction of Dresden alone was worth several death penalties). And surely the German air raids on British cities had shown that attacking civilian targets does not destroy morale: if anything, it strengthens the resolve to win the fight. That's a lesson that Put!n has not learned, either.
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'Bomber' Harris should have been executed for his war crimes
With respect, I disagree.
Regards
Chas
(RAF 12 years - Northern Ireland and Falklands)
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Lets coordinate this
Makes No Sense when we all try and do the lot
Dave
Quite agree. How shall we do this? I don't know how many of us are willing to try, but I could offer the last column, beginning "Nach dem Krieg" or even the last paragraph "2013 fanden..." if that's workable. Not sure how many of us are joining in. Won't be able to do this till Monday, however, as the weekend is busy for us.
Gill
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Just a couple of things to round off John915´s translation
The family members of a British bomber crew unveiled a memorial stone and laid a bouquet of flowers in Daensen near Buxtehude on Saturday. The stone commemorates the seven airmen who died on August 3, 1943 when their four-engine Lancasters crashed.
Also in memory of the „dark times“ when so many people in Hamburg suffered during the bombing raids in the second world war.
Dave
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Left column starting with
"Holzkreuzen"
The family members commemorated the deaths of the crew members, who died on their third mission together, with wooden crosses. Therefore there is no photo of the crew.
For decades, their families did not know where they had died.
For a long time it was said that night fighters shot the bomber down, near Juist, over the North Sea. Lieutenant Hermann Leuber claimed the hit for himself. This does not correspond to the facts.
Thanks to the research and excavations by the former Eistorf deacon Dieter Pintatis, the relatives now have certainty.
This is the story of a long search:
Tony Clifford told the Tagesblatt that shortly before her death in 1989 his mother had asked him to find out what had happened to her brother, Benjamin Robinson, on the August 2/3 during Operation Gomorrah. He started searching in the archives and internet forums.
After interviewing Second World War eyewitnesses in 2005 and a conversation with the bombing expert Dietrich Alsdorf from the district archeology department, Pintatis set out to clarify the mystery of the Daensen bomber crash.
Certain is, that the crew of 7 took off on the August 2 shortly before midnight with their four-engined Lancaster bombers Mark III, W 5000 QR – N type. It was one of 340 bombers that took off to drop explosive and incendiary bombs over Hamburg. But the weather was too bad.
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Text under the first Photo
Due to dense clouds over Hamburg and heavy thunderstorms over the Elbe they decided to make their way back home to England. Several anti-aircraft guns (FLAK) bombarded them. The flak position in Neuland in Eißendorf and the Eisenbahnflak between Harburg and Stade claimed the hit for themselves.
Who´s turn ist now ;D ;D ;D ;D
Dave
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I guess it's me..... so continuing on from where Dave left off -
According to the German authorities of that time the Lancaster Bomber is said to have been brought down near Daensen at 2.02 a.m. on the 3rd of August 1945 . The crew still had explosives and incendiary bombs on board as well as canisters of phosphorus. This was shown by the weight of several fire bombs. “It exploded on crashing,” Pintatis and Alsdorf were convinced. According to eye-witnesses the plane was also being chased by night fighters; the explosion was heard in Daensen and Pippenhausen. The wreck, with the dead inside it, sank in a field at the edge of a wood in a crater of around 30 metres diameter. A rescue party from the air force in Stade, night fighters were stationed at the military airfield there, searched around the area on the same day. Body parts are said to have been visible. Parts of the wrecked plane had spread as far as 400 metres.
After the war scrap metal collectors attempted to salvage the rest of the wreck using pumps and pulleys. In the end the pumping out failed and they had to borrow a motor. Very soon the cockpit with the dead pilots became visible, as eye-witness Walter Johannsen from Pippensen reported a few years ago in the TAGEBLATT before the ordnance disposal team examined the site of the crash. Later the crater increased in size, and a part of the huge waterhole was filled with rubbish, reported Dietrich Alsdorf. Today the crash site is protected as a war cemetery and monument.
In 1976 Alsdorf found the tube from a pilot’s oxygen mask there. Around 100 Allied and German planes had crashed in the Stade district between 1939 and 1945. On their return flights home British bombers would drop their remaining bombs on villages such as Apensen, Hollenbeck and Ahlersted to gain height. Airmen who crashed but survived were sometimes badly treated and robbed.
In 2013 Pintatis and the relatives of the crew members held a discussion in an internet forum. The Aderstorfer (Pintatis?) was certain, following excavations approved by the town archaeologist Dr Bernd Habermann, that it must be connected with the downed bomber, even though the plate with the engine number was lacking. The proof: only one of the three Lancaster planes downed on that night had a Packard-Merlin engine, also Pintatis had dug up a flap from a machine gun (Browning 303 MG) with the legend W5000 and a bomb release mechanism.
Jan Stosiek, Peter Lyon, Roger Gibb and Tony Clifford laid a wreath for the dead at the memorial stone on Saturday. Clifford spoke movingly about how important it was for all of them to have certainty about the circumstances of their relatives’ deaths and Peter Lyon also stressed that there was a place of remembrance for them. Pintatis emphasized that the men had fought against Nazi dictatorship and for freedom. Both the Germans and the Britons emphasized how happy they were that peace had now ruled for over 70 years.
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The TAGEBLATT is a daily newspaper which serves the towns of Stade, Buxtehude and area. Stade is close to Hamburg, where the plane had been no doubt heading or turning back from.
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Spot on!!
Good Work
Dave
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... except that I would say an aircraft has an engine rather than a motor.
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Oops, sorry, not up on engineering terms. ;)
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Text above modified accordingly.
Robneve, do you need any further help with this?
Gillg
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Robneve doesn't seem to respond to posts
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That's a bit sad, when we have offered him so much.
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Sorry folks I do respond to posts, but I have been sick again with a recurring problem. I do deeply appreciate all you have done and, indeed, did not think I would ever obtain as much help as you all of you have given me. The one name not mentioned in that news item was my cousin as the people originally involved were not able to locate all the relatives of the crew of W5000. It is an immense relief to know such fine detail of the last day of Gordon MacKenzie and his friends. Words are not enough I know, but I do thank all very sincerely and this does close off my request. Regards, Robert Allan
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Robert
I'm so sorry to hear that you have been ill and do apologise for my rather hasty remark earlier. The article was most interesting and not too difficult to translate. I'm glad you found it helpful.
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No problem. Glad you enjoyed the story. I was very informative.
Thanks again,
Rob