by Kasper Fischer
I photographed this beautiful Hurricane diorama last year at a local IPMS show. The aircraft, the settings and the back-story really stuck with me and I have been reading a bit up on the Danish WWII pilot.
Escape to England
On 21 July 1941 Kjeld C.J. Pedersen and Thomas Sneum escape Denmark in a D.H. Hornet Moth. From Funen they reach Coquet Island, Northumberland, in six hours. They are met by a section of Spitfires and later Hurricanes and lands in a field outside Alnwick.
Kjeld C.J. Pedersen volunteers for the Royal Air Force and is in service from 27 June 1941 until the end of the war. On 6 December 1942 Kjeld Pedersen joins No. 33 Squadron at Benina, North Africa. He is tranferred to No. 94 Squadron at Savoia on July 28, 1943. He advances to Flight Lieutenant and 'A' Flight Commander during his time at this squadron. Following a period in hospital with infective hepatitis he is posted away from No. 94 Squadron on 28 January 1944.
On 9 March 1944 he is posted to No. 234 (Madras Presidency) Squadron then at RAF Station Cottishall, Norfolk, but is posted to No. 1 Squadron on 7 April 1944. This squadron is converting from Typhoon Ibs to Spitfire IXs in April 1944 and moving from North Weald to Ayr on 22 April 1944. He follows No. 1 Squadron as it advances over the continent in the last year of the war.
After VE-day
Following the German surrender Kjeld C.J. Pedersen continues in RAF service for about a year ending his service in No. 26 Squadron on Spitfire XIV’s and based in Lübeck, Germany, from 10 October 1945 to 4 April 1946.
On 12 July 1946 he is re-engaged by the Danish Naval Air Service and he is promoted to Flyverløjtnant af 1ste Grad (Flying Officer) on 1 August 1946. He is flying instructor at the Air Marine Station Avnø in 1947-1948.
Kjeld C.J. Pedersen continues in the then newly established Danish Air Force and retires following a long career in 1977 as Oberstløjtnant (Lieutenant Colonel).
