Memorial stone at the place where Harry Nordlund's plane crashed after being shot in an air duel 4/3/1945. On the memorial stone you can read that Harry Nordlund was the first Swedish pilot to die in an air battle over Swedish territory.
Tekst på mindestenen:
VPL. Furir Harry Nordlund
vid Kungliga skånska Flygflottiljen F19
störtade invid denna plats
den 3. april 1945
Under ingribande för neutralitets-
skyddsköts hans flygplan ned
av utlansk flyg.
Furir Nordlund är den förste
svenske pilot som omkommet
i en luftstrid over
svenskt territorium.
(Translated) Text on the memorial stone:
VPL. Sergeant Harry Nordlund
at the Royal Scanian Air Fleet F19
crashed next to this place
on April 3, 1945
During intervention for neutrality
his aircraft was shot down
of foreign flights.
Sergeant Nordlund is the first
Swedish pilot who died
in an air battle over
Swedish territory.
He was shot down in his plane, a J 20, by a German plane, a three-engine Dornier Do 24 naval plane.
The Germans had entered Swedish airspace when they had pursued a bomber against the Swedish coast. However, the bomber had flown over the sea, but the German plane continued in over Sweden. Here their plane was shelled by the Swedish Air Force. The plane then continued north, where Nordlund tried to reject the plane, in full accordance with the then applicable rules in the event of a breach of neutrality.
When Nordlund's plane came in over Sölvesborg, it had been shelled and there was fire in it. Suddenly there was a bang and the plane crashed and exploded in the collision. The plane had spread over the area and burned up, and Nordlund had died.
Another plane took off a few minutes later and reached the German plane without knowledge of the shelling of Nordlund and followed the German plane away from Swedish airspace.
Reggiane Re.2000 was an Italian low-winged fighter aircraft which in the Swedish Air Force had the name J 20.
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