War hero Hank Ernst has saluted Express & Echo readers who helped him say a final goodbye to his comrades.

For more than half a century the Canadian flyer had been trying to trace the site in East Devon where his Wellington bomber crashed during the Second World War.

He was one of only two survivors when his Canadian Air Force plane came down in woodland in 1943. Four other crew members died.

Hank, from Calgary in Alberta, was dragged to safety from beneath a burning engine after being thrown from the aircraft.

He was unconscious for five days and when he came to he was told he was lucky to be alive. By the time he had fully recovered, clues to the whereabouts of the crash site were scarce.

The other survivor died last year and Hank, now 83, was determined to find the crash site while he was still fit enough to travel from Canada to visit it.

Official wartime records said only that the aircraft crashed on approach to RAF Station, Exeter, now Exeter Airport. No exact location was given. The plane was reported to be in difficulties and low on fuel, and had been given permission for an emergency landing on the airfield - but it never made it.

After an appeal in the Echo's Nostalgia section, readers provided vital information and last week in a woodland clearing near Aylesbeare he was finally able to honour the memory of his four comrades - planting a Canadian flag and placing flowers on the site.

He said: "For years all my efforts to find the site had failed. It seemed like a mission impossible. But now, thanks to the wonderful way in which readers responded to an appeal in the Echo, we have found the exact spot.

"It was a very emotional moment for me and I must confess that I shed a few tears, but it was good for me to be there at long last. Now I feel that closure has been achieved and that I can let it all lie in peace."

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