Sir – My name is Mike Kleinlugtebeld, 39, and I live in a town named Zwolle in the county of Overrijssel in the east of the Netherlands. I am researching the air war in and around my home town during the Second World War.

My main goal is to tell the story of the men who served and died for our freedom. I want to make sure their sacrifice will not be forgotten. One day I hope to write a book about all those brave men. I think it is important that my generation and future generations will be able to read about these men. One of those airmen was Sgt Ben Michael Pick. He came from Benson and was 21 years old. His parents were Ben and Lizzie Robinson Pick. Sgt Pick was killed when his plane was shot down on December 23, 1942, near my hometown. Together with five crewmates, who were also killed, Sgt Pick is buried in a Dutch cemetery in Ijhorst, not far from my hometown.

I hope to find out more about Sgt Pick and to find a photograph of him. I read on the Internet about a book called Benson War Memorial and Graves Book of Remembrance so I contacted the Benson library. They checked the remembrance book for me and told me that Sgt Pick appears in the book, with some information about his missions, but unfortunately there is no photograph or biographical infromation about him.

Any help readers can give would be very much appreciated and would help me in my goal to keep the memory alive of a brave young man from Benson who give his life in my country for our freedom.

Mike Kleinlugtebeld, Mepperlerdiep 3, 8032 TB Zwolle, Netherlands

mike.jc@home.nl