How it all began
The small community of Adnet in the Salzburg region of Austria have always spoken of the allied bomber which crashed in their town whenever they spoke of World War 2 , some of the older generations actually remember seeing one of the crew being marched off as a prisoner of war. As the 20th century turned into the 21st century, those who actually remember it first hand were becoming fewer and fewer.
The Mayor of this small community decided however, that the memory of this crew should not be forgotten and for many years Mayor Wolfgang Auer tried on several occasions to locate the family members of those who flew on the aircraft but was never actually successful in achieving his aim. Then in March 2013 a chance meeting with a British fire service officer called Watch Manager Kevin Ruane MBE, who happened to be working with the Fire Service Youth Training Association at an international event of the CTIF ( http://www.ctif.org/ ) in Adnet changed all of this. Kevin, a fluent German speaker, was able to have an in depth conversation with Wolfgang about the story of the Lancaster bomber and its crew and gleaned some useful information about the aircraft identification number, the squadron it belonged to and the names of those who were killed on board the aircraft. Kevin agreed to help Wolfgang and the search for the families of the aircraft was quickly re-established.
Upon returning back to the UK, Kevin started to use the internet to learn more about 619 Squadron RAF and learned that the were known as "The Forgotten Squadron" due to the fact that they were never officially issued with their squadron crest. He also discovered that there was a 619 Squadron Association group on the Facebook social media site, using this site, he explained the story of his trip to Austria and the intentions of Mayor Wolfgang Auer to create a fitting memorial to the crew who crashed in his small town.
Bürgermeister
Wolfgang Auer, Mayor of Adnet, Austria