A MEDAL belonging to a World War II Luftwaffe pilot has been returned to his relatives in Germany by the family on whose Powys farm he was shot down and killed.

Güenter Brixius’ death presented a significant moment in Radnorshire history, with the night the German bomber crashed in Hundred House on the night of April 25, 1942, entering local folklore.

Gareth Bufton’s parents, Jack and Muriel, only realised there had been an incident at Llanhailo farm when hoards of people were seen passing the kitchen window the following morning, on their way to investigate the wreckage.

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Brixius died on impact, along with air gunner Adolf Liebig, and while two others survived, they soon turned themselves in – one surrendered himself to a startled couple out walking.

The bodies of Brixius and Liebig, both 25, were retrieved the following day by a local policeman and Gareth’s father, and kept in the granary at the farm until they were given a military funeral and buried a few days later at Glascwm Church. They have since been transferred to a German war cemetery at Cannock Chase.

But the Iron Cross bearing the swastika, remained at the farm until last month, when Gareth returned it to Brixius’ nephew Ulrich in Münster, near Dortmund.

“Since mum died we all agreed it didn’t belong with us, it belonged with the family of the pilot,” said Gareth. “All of us decided to give it back.”

Gareth traced Ulrich via a lot of Google searches and the help of Powys historians Malcolm Morrison, who has written about the crash, and Phillip Jones.

County Times: Güenter Brixius was a German Luftwaffe pilot who died after his plane crashed into a hill in Hundred House in April 1942. He was given a military funeral and buried a few days later at Glascwm Church Güenter Brixius was a German Luftwaffe pilot who died after his plane crashed into a hill in Hundred House in April 1942. He was given a military funeral and buried a few days later at Glascwm Church (Image: Gareth Bufton)

A 1993 letter, believed to be from Brixius’ mother, provided an address and Gareth was eventually able to piece the jigsaw together.

“We have a friend who lives not too far from the address, so she found the family,” said Gareth, who admitted the friend was sceptical when he first told her of his plan to return the Nazi medal.

“She asked us if we were sure we were doing the right thing, as the medal has the swastika in the middle, with all the stigma attached to that," he said.

“But when we went over and met her mother, she said ‘you’ve got to do it’, and the man I went with said the same.

“There was some doubt but the newphew was very grateful. He is 76 now. The pilot was his uncle and one of four boys, three of whom were killed in the war. The only one who survived was this guy’s father.

“I spent about 45 minutes with him. We had a coffee and some apple strudel and when I left he gave me a great big bear hug and said how grateful it was.

“He said how unusual it was to do something like this. The medal had nothing to do with any monetary value, but the story that went with it. And for us, as a family, it was just the right thing to do.

“These boys didn’t want to fight any more than the British soldiers did, but if you were told to go by Hitler, you probably had to.”

County Times: Gareth said he returned the medal as he and his family felt it was the right thing to do Gareth said he returned the medal as he and his family felt it was the right thing to do (Image: Gareth Bufton)

Gareth, 64, was born 16 years after the crash, in 1958. The second youngest of eight, his sister Connie, Jack and Muriel’s oldest child, born in 1939, was a toddler at the time.

“My parents didn’t really talk about the night of the crash or the medal,” said Gareth.

In fact, they slept through it, despite the plane crashing into Gwaunceste Hill, with claims the impact was heard 20 miles away in Brecon.

A 2022 Aviation Safety Network website article said local police constable, PC Creed, witnessed the plane coming down. 

Local Home Guard members also saw the downed plane and accompanied him to the site, describing a “scene from hell, with exploding ammunition and the cracking and fizzing of burning aluminium”.

There was no way of putting out the intense fire so all they could do was watch the Junkers Ju-88A-6 Luftwaffe bomber burn.

Flight sergeant Fritz Kreienbrock and radio operator Paul Kochon parachuted out. Kreienbrock, who scared the walking couple, gave himself up, while Kochon survived his injuries.

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When PC Creed returned home he found Kreienbrock huddling by the fire while Kochon was being treated by his wife and Ms Owens, and was transferred to hospital in Builth. Both were captured as Prisoners of War and survived.

Gareth said: “When PC Creed went back to the police station there was a lady there called Zoe Owens. She was there with his wife taking care of one of the crew who’d been captured.

“Next morning, when mum and dad got up, all these people were walking past the farmhouse on the way up there, and they didn’t know what the hell had happened.”

The mission that been targeting Bath, with Hitler seeking “vengeance and terror raids” for British bombing in Germany.

Brixius’ plane was said to have been sent as a diversion but the pilot apparently lost his bearings in fog, after taking off from Brussels, and diverted further off course when he came under attack from anti-aircraft guns.