THE remarkable story of a German soldier who threatened to shoot his own countrymen to save the life of a British pilot has been remembered in a village near York.

In 1944, a Lancaster bomber crashed in a forest near Katzenelnbogen, in Germany, with the loss of all the crew apart from the navigator, Arthur Lee.

An angry mob of local townsfolk rushed to the scene, threatening to lynch the young British airman.

But a German soldier pulled his pistol on the crowd, demanding that the airman be released and given medical treatment.

The soldier, Rudi Balzer, was court-martialled, but Mr Lee's life was saved.

Nearly 45 years after the end of the war the two men met again at the site of the Lancaster crash, where Herr Balzer had erected a 10ft high mahogany cross as a memorial.

During this meeting, at which other veterans were present, it was decided a similar memorial should be put up in Britain at the site of where the last German plane was brought down.

This was a Ju88 bomber which crashed at Dunnington Lodge Farm, Dunnington, in March 1945, killing the pilot and the Moll family who lived there.

In 1989 a memorial was erected, and in alternate years British and German veterans visit the Katzenelnbogen and Dunnington sites.

This year it was the turn of Dunnington, where people gathered to lay wreaths yesterday.

But given the ages of the veterans - both Mr Lee and Herr Balzer have since died - there are fears this could have been the last time the event is held in Britain.

Jacqui Whitehead, who helps organise the event, said that the veterans gathered at the memorial as usual, and then went on to the Yorkshire Air Museum, at Elvington, which had opened specially for the visit.

The museum allowed all the veterans to climb into a restored Halifax bomber. The East Riding branch of the Royal Air Force Amateur Radio Society also set up a radio station at the museum, so the veterans could use an original Lancaster receiver and transmitter.