Dirk Jacobus Klink

Beëdiging van bij de marine gedetacheerde ML-vliegers aan het begin van de Tweede Wereldoorlog, waarschijnlijk te Pembroke Dock of Bircham Newton. V.l.n.r. J. (Jan) Peetoom (geboren op 29 september 1916 te Hoorn); W. (Wilhelmus) de Wolff (geboren op 17 februari 1918 te Velsen); A. (Adrianus) Tigler Wijbrandi (geboren op 31 augustus 1914 te Den Haag); J.P.E. (Johan Peter Engel) van Riemsdijk (geboren op 31 augustus 1912 te Medan) en D.J. (Dirk Jacobus) Klink (geboren 13 juni 1912 te Den Haag). De eed wordt afgenomen door officier-vlieger Heye Schaper (rechts). Peetoom en Klink overleefden de oorlog niet. Peetoom sneuvelde op 18 augustus 1941 voor de Noorse kust als vlieger van het 320 (Dutch) Squadron. Klink verongelukte op 13 juni 1942 als Spitfire-vlieger van het 118 Squadron bij vliegveld Ibsley.

Dirk Klink's Spitfire flew out of RAF Ibsley on his 30th birthday, 13 June 1942. It crashed 3 miles east in ALDERHOLT Park (not Aldershot), Dorset, England.

The plane caught fire and burnt an oak tree down. Scarring can still be seen on a surviving oak tree at the site.

Various digs on the site have revealed scraps of fuselage. The owner of the land has a fuse in his possession from the Spitfire which still works. I myself found a uniform button on the site which we feel proves the pilot remained with the plane.

Dirk Klink's name can be found on the memorial stone at the former RAF Ibsley, near Ringwood, Hampshire, England.

Our annual Remembrance Day is 11th November. On that day, the Ringwood branch of the Royal British Legion read out the names from the memorial in a church service, Dirk Klink's is one of those read.

For many years, my husband, having researched this pilot, placed a red poppy cross on the oak tree on Remembrance Day. Now we take the cross to the Alderholt War Memorial so that Dirk can be part of the Remembrance service.

At the going down of the sun, we will remember him.