THROUGHOUT her life Jean Stevens was haunted by the memory of her cousin, Herbert Freeman Jowett, who was more like a brother, but had given up hope of discovering his fate as an RAF Sergeant in the Second World War.

Then, in 2008, she found out that, in fact, people were looking for her!

For the families of his fellow crewmen aboard a Lancaster bomber, were attending a 65th anniversary ceremony in a little village in Denmark, where their plane had been shot down in 1943 — and she was one of the last links.

Now Jean, who originates from Burnley, has written a book ‘Flying with the Moon’ about her quest to find Bert’s resting place and the journeys and friends she made along the way.

Bert, who came from Burnley, died aged 20, when Jean was just seven. A flight engineer, his plane was shot from the sky by a Luftwaffe night fighter as it made its way home from a bombing mission to Berlin.

The crew managed to steer the damaged place away from the village of Stadil, before it crashed in a wetland covered with reeds.

To this day, all but one of the men, remain with the fuselage of their plane, buried in the soft ground.

The air battle between the two planes that September night in 1943 was witnessed by villager Ingemann Hlakjaer, who saw the two craft firing at each other at great height: “The British plane was hit and caught fire, before it tipped over and went down vertically. It exploded in an enormous crash as it hit the ground.

“The plane had fallen among the reeds and there was a crater-like hole and thousands of pieces of wreckage had spread over several acres of land.”

Ingemann arranged for a local carpenter to build a wooden cross, which was, at first laid down on top of the burial site, to hide the Danish sympathy for the allies, from their Germans occupiers.

Jean writes that a month before his fatal flight, Bert had been walking over nearby moorland with her and her father Clifford Meadows, when he quietly said goodbye and that ‘Next time it’s curtains for me’.

After Bert was reported missing his mother, Evelyn Lee, worked tirelessly to uncover the truth and finally visited his resting place in 1949.

Her grief inspired villagers to raise a more permanent memorial stone, bearing the crew’s names and Ingemann’s family today still maintain the designated war grave site.

During her research Jean also received a letter from George Parker, a friend of Bert’s from both Rosegrove School and as teenagers, who recalled the pair had bought second hand motor bikes and used to spend many hours racing and tinkering with them.

“Herb had bought himself a set of spanners from Woolworth’s for the princely sum of 6d and said he was going to make his way in the world as a mechanic.

“He took some ribbing, but eventually joined the RAF at 17, telling a fib about his age.

“One weekend he came home he was talking about going on a mission, but it wasn’t long before his mother received a telegram, saying ‘missing in action’.”

l Flying with the Moon’ costs £5 and you can contact Jean on 01729 823918 for a copy.