THE
LOSS OF
In the early hours of 18 June 1944, ten Mk I and four
Mk III Avro Lancaster bombers of 115 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command, based at Witchford in Cambridgeshire,
undertook an operation to attack railway installations at Montdidier
in northern
Bomber Command suffered huge casualties in World War
II, with over 8000 aircraft destroyed and more than 55,000
aircrew killed, but HK559 was its only operational loss on that date.
The remains of the crew were buried in a collective
grave in the village cemetery. There are now individual Commonwealth War Graves
Commission headstones on the grave, and there were official commemoration
ceremonies in 1994 and 2004. The wireless operator, Peter Duff, was my uncle.
-----ooo-----
The account which follows has been developed from
information supplied by, among others, relatives of all seven crewmen and by
French people in Gannes and nearby. It is based on
material first assembled by Dominique Lecomte of Erquery,
In addition to the formal 50th and 60th
anniversary ceremonies, there have been numerous visits to Gannes
by family members. Apart from some photographs in the cemetery, one letter
about the crash and an extract from another, nothing about the visits will be
found here - they were primarily to remember individuals, while this account
considers the crew’s collective history. But it would be remiss of me not to
say that, on each of the three occasions on which I have visited Gannes, I have been shown great hospitality by all those
whom I have met.
My thanks go to everyone who has contributed and so helped
to perpetuate the memory of the crew of HK559. As well as individual people in
Odd Bods
Ossett
Historical Society
RAF Halton Aircraft Apprentices Association
Tottenham, Wood
Green and
-----ooo-----
Ian Duff
14 October 2008
The Aircraft
HK559 was built by
Vickers-Armstrong at Castle Bromwich, near
The photograph
alongside is of a
What follows is an edited version of the Wikipedia entry on the crew
accommodation, with photographs of the Battle of Britain Memorial Flight’s
airworthy Lancaster PA474 and of the rear turret of another one in the
Starting at the nose, the bomb aimer
had two positions to man. His primary location was lying prone on the floor of
the nose of the aircraft, where he had access to the controls for the bombsight
on his left and bomb release selectors on the right. He would also use his view
out of the large transparent perspex nose cupola to
assist the navigator with map reading. To man the nose turret, he simply had to
rise and sit in position behind the triggers of his guns. The bomb aimer's
position contained the nose parachute exit in the floor.
Moving backwards, on the roof of the
bomb bay the pilot and flight engineer sat side-by-side under the expansive
canopy, with the pilot sitting on the left on a raised portion of the floor.
The flight engineer sat on a collapsible seat to the pilot's right, with the
fuel selectors and gauges on a panel behind him and to his right.
Behind these crew members,
and behind a curtain fitted to allow him to use light to work, sat the
navigator. His position had him facing to port with a large chart table in
front of him. An instrument panel showing the airspeed, altitude and other
details required for navigation was mounted on the side of the fuselage above the
chart table.
The radios for the wireless operator
were mounted on the left-hand end of the chart table, facing towards the rear
of the aircraft. Behind these radios, facing forwards, on a seat at the front
of the main spar sat the wireless operator. To his left was a window, and above
him was the astrodome, used for visual signalling and also by the navigator for
celestial navigation
Behind the wireless
operator were the two spars for the wing, which created a major obstacle for
crew members moving down the fuselage, even on the ground. On reaching the end
of the bomb bay the floor dropped down to the bottom of the fuselage, and the
mid upper gunner's turret was reached. His position allowed a 360° view over
the top of the aircraft, with two guns to protect the aircraft from above and
to the side. To the rear of the turret was the side crew door, on the starboard
side of the fuselage. This was the main entrance to the aircraft, and also
could be used as a parachute exit.
At the extreme rear of the aircraft,
over the spars for the tailplane, the rear gunner sat
in his exposed position in the turret. Neither the mid upper nor rear gunner's
positions were heated.
The Crew
The crew of HK559 were:
Sergeant Douglas Albert
Dawson, 574270 RAF, Flight Engineer, aged 22
Warrant Officer Peter Duff,
1059197 RAFVR, Wireless Operator, aged 34
Sergeant Kenneth Edgar Laxton, 1816757 RAFVR, Rear Gunner, aged 20
Flight Sergeant Ian Harrison
Smith, 423913 RAAF, Navigator, aged 21
Sergeant Ernest Edwin Stapley, 1896471 RAFVR, Mid Upper Gunner, aged 35
Pilot Officer John Alan Traill, 423186 RAAF, Pilot, aged 21
Flight Sergeant John William
Van Cooten, 426716 RAAF, Bomb Aimer, aged 22
At an Operational Training
Unit, all but the flight engineer came together. The process is sometimes
described as all the trainees being put in a hangar, and by drifting around for
part of a day, self-selecting into congenial teams of six specialists. In
reality, it could take longer and some direction from above could be given. For
example, Bruce Johnston, another pilot on the Montdidier
operation, described in his diary of the time how he acquired his navigator,
wireless operator, bomb aimer and mid-upper gunner over several days, and was
allocated his rear gunner nearly a month later.
At the subsequent Heavy
Conversion Unit, a flight engineer, who had taken a separate course of
training, was attached to the established crew. In the case of the seven who
died at Gannes there was a further distinction
between the flight engineer and the others – while the rest were wartime enlistees
in the RAF or RAAF, Douglas Dawson had chosen the RAF as a career in 1938 when
he enrolled as an airframe apprentice, aged 16. His ambition to fly was
realized only in the later stages of the war when four-engined
bombers required a flight engineer in the crew.
However they came together, the crew who died at Gannes
were posted in late May 1944 to 115 Squadron at Witchford,
by this time equipped only with
It sometimes happened that new pilots flew a mission as Second Pilot,
displacing the flight engineer from his collapsible seat, to see how
experienced crews worked together. This happened to Bruce Johnston, for
example, but there is no record that John Traill did
so. What is shown in 115 Squadron’s Operations Record Book (ORB) of the time,
now in the UK National Archives, is that for him and his crew the Montdidier raid was their fifth operation:
Date
Target
(night of) Serial Code
returning safely
30/31 May
2/3 June Wissant ND760 A4-K 15 from 15
14/15 June
15/16 June
17/18 June Montdidier HK559 A4-H 13 from 14
This detailed official record disagrees with a statement in the brief
account of Douglas Dawson’s life which appeared in a local (Ossett)
newspaper when he was reported missing, and again when he was presumed killed
in action. According to the statement, he flew to
Individual photographs
Douglas Dawson from Ossett, Yorkshire Peter Duff from
Kenneth Laxton from
No individual
photograph of Kenneth has been
found. The one shown here has been extracted
from a group at his eldest brother’s wedding,
and will not stand further magnification
Ernest Stapley from
John Van Cooten from
Group photographs
The following
groups are believed to have been photographed at 1657 Heavy Conversion Unit, RAF
Stradishall, between March and May 1944.
Kenneth Laxton, Ian Smith, Peter Duff
Ernest Stapley, Ian Smith, Peter Duff
John Van Cooten, Ian Smith, John Traill (rear)
Peter Duff,
Kenneth Laxton (front)
The Crash
The following photograph, looking west, was taken on
19 June 1944. The aircraft crashed into the house, just east of the station,
and tore off the roof. Refugees from
The next photograph was taken in 2007, looking north. The railway can be
seen to the left, with the now unstaffed and hardly used station just off the
edge of the picture. The house which was damaged is the one with a red roof
just left of centre, the others nearby are postwar. The crash was in the field
across the lane, a bit to the east, though now there is no sign of this, from
the air or on the ground. More than 60 years later, small fragments of the
With part of the
aircraft buried and the rest unidentifiable fragments, and the remains of the
crew having no means of identification, it took a long time for the non-return
of HK559 to Witchford and the funeral at Gannes to be associated. Thus, first the crew’s families
were told that they were missing, then after some months without news that they
were presumed killed in action, then eventually that they had died and been
buried at Gannes.
Many letters were
written by and to the families. Two, involving Alan and Katharine Traill, the pilot’s parents, are shown below, one partly
and one in full.
On 25 January
1946, Alan Traill wrote to the Casualty Section of
the Department of Air in
In reply to your request for full details concerning
the circumstances of your son’s death, it is advised that the casualty was
investigated by two organisations and their reports have been received in this
Department.
The report received through the Directorate of Graves
Registration and Enquiry states that:-
“On the 18 June 1944 a four-engined
British plane crashed at GANNES (
The report received from the Missing Research and
Enquiry Service, Paris, states that the officer investigating the tragedy proceeded to Gannes and the
Station Master took him to the scene of the crash. The officer states:-
“This aircraft appears to have gone in almost
vertically and at a great speed as all four engines are deeply buried in the
ground. The Station Master states the engines made a terrific noise as the
machine was diving, followed by a loud explosion. The larger part of the
wreckage was cleared by the Germans, the remaining pieces are scattered over a
wide area.”
It seems that John
Traill’s mother formed the idea that he had been
burned to death, and eventually she wrote to M. Feuilloy,
the Gannes stationmaster, with her concern. This is
the text of his reply:
Hattencourt
20th October 1948
Madame K.M. Traill
Burwood
Dear Madame Traill,
Received your letter of the 28th
September, translated in French by Mr. Brial.
Your friend, Mrs. Estell,
will be welcomed by my daughter, as you yourself were at Gannes.
By corresponding with my daughter [… illegible …] visit.
In case of need , I am again
giving you hereunder my daughter’s address:-
Mr. & Mme. Houdant
S.N.C.F. Gannes (
With reference to the question you have asked me,
there has been obviously some wrong interpretation of the account given to you
by my daughter. An explosion took place, in effect six hours after your son’s
plane crashed but it was the explosion of a bomb which did not occur immediately
after the fall of the plane. The explosion took place afterwards, the bomb
having ignited by the heat of the burning plane. You may relieve your mind
about the fear of your son having been trapped alive in the plane. As I could
not give you many details of the occurrence during the brief time I saw you at Gannes, I will now give you the exact description as I saw
it.
On the 18th June, 1944, at about two
o’clock in the morning bombers were continually passing over the station (at Gannes). The weather was bleak and a strong wind was
blowing. Feeling anxious about the fate of the aviators in such bad weather or
upset by some presentiment, I got out of bed and looked in the dark through the
window of my bedroom. I was at the window for a little while when fearing some
catastrophe I was appalled by the deafening noise of the engines of a plane
gradually getting nearer. During these few seconds I could not see anything in
the sky until the plane exploded as it crashed at a distance of about one
hundred yards in front of me. I can therefore testify as the only eyewitness of
this unfortunate disaster that the plane was not in flames before it crashed on
the ground as stated by the Aviation report, but that the plane exploded as it
hit the ground, throwing out all its occupants off the burning plane. I
immediately went to the site of the catastrophe where I was alone and to my
dismay I could only ascertain that all the occupants of the plane were dead.
There, Madame, is a brief but
sincere account of that drama which was all over in a few seconds but which has
so cruelly struck you. As for myself I will always see this horrible vision
with all the sorrow that I then shared.
May these few lines, as cruel as they are yet for you,
appease somehow your immense grief and that the fear that you entertained about
your son being burned alive in the plane will be dispelled off your mind for
ever. I pray you to believe, Madame, to the assurance of my devoted sentiments.
Signed G. FEUILLOY
It is apparent that M. Feuilloy
was at pains to allay Mrs Traill’s
concern about the nature of her son’s death. At this stage it is not possible
to be certain whether or not the aircraft was in flames during its descent, but
nor is it clear why he claimed so confidently to be the only eyewitness if what
he said was not true. Certainly, four years after the crash, he would have known long since if there
had been any other witnesses with a different opinion, who could therefore
contradict him in statements to further family representatives, like Katharine Traill's friend Mrs Estell
referred to in the letter, whose visit presumably was expected soon. And given
that she would certainly be seeing him, he would have to be prepared to
maintain the fiction face to face, if that is what it was.
There are further points of interest in the two
letters. In the one to Alan Traill, the statement “This
aircraft appears to have gone in almost vertically” can be queried – a glance
at the 2007 aerial photograph shows that a fairly shallow dive would have been
required for HK559 to take the roof off the house and then to crash where it
did to the east. In M.Feuilloy’s letter, his estimate
of the distance from the station to the crash site is considerable below the
true figure of about 250 yards, and his explanation of the explosion several
hours after the crash having been due to the heat of the fire may have been mistaken,
as it was common to use delayed-action bombs.
Returning to the doubt about whether or not HK559 was
in flames before crashing, this is an extract of a letter of 1952 to his family
from Bill Smith, Ian’s brother, about his recent visit to Gannes:
He [the
stationmaster – it was not said if this was still M. Feuilloy]
took me to a pub where a girl could speak a little English so after a while I
had quite a crowd telling me the whole story of the crash, two of them had
actually seen it. The story I got was that the plane was on fire when it passed
over Gannes, it made a circle and came in fairly
flatly narrowly missing the station and a shed and burst into flames when it
hit the ground from the petrol and burnt out the fields all around … six or
seven hours later there was a great explosion from the bomb load. From the
description it appears that they were trying to make a crash landing.
Does the reference to the flatness of the dive,
matching what can be deduced from the 2007 photograph, give credence to the
statement about the aircraft being on fire before crashing? Did M. Feuilloy’s wish to give comfort cause him to say that which
he knew to be untrue? Certainly, no definitive answers to these questions can
be got now.
The Funeral
The next series of photographs are of the airmen’s
funeral on 21 June 1944 at Gannes, the procession
leaving the church in the centre of the village for the cemetery just outside
to the north.
The funeral
service was held at the war memorial:
After the service:
Finally, the two
coffins were buried in a grave close to the western wall of the cemetery.
The Grave
What follows is a
selection of photographs taken in the cemetery, showing how the grave has
changed over the years.
In 1948 there was
a single cross carrying two commemorative boards. The upper, official, one gave
the crew’s service numbers, names and ranks, the lower one, older and created
locally, showed only the names (with three errors of initial and one of
surname) and informal ranks (“CAPT.” for the pilot and “SERG.” for the rest of
the crew). Both were in the same sequence as in the squadron’s operations record
book, this being pilot, navigator, bomb aimer. wireless
operator, mid-upper gunner, rear gunner and flight engineer.
Also in 1948 there
were eight identical smaller crosses to the left of the crew’s one, four with
helmets resting on top. It seems likely that these were the graves of French
soldiers killed in 1940 when fighting the German invasion forces. They would
have reached the area of Gannes in late May or early
June 1940, as they reached
In 1952 the newer board had gone but the
older one remained, for reasons unknown. The single cross was different from
four years before and had nine lines of text, not possible to make out on the
original photograph taken by Bill Smith, even with a magnifying glass. His
letter gave some information on this:
… at present the
names are not to [sic] clear as apart from the war grave cross which has the
names in tiny print the other plaque which the mayor put on himself being of
wood is not very clear.
From the length of each line it can be deduced that
the names on the cross were in the same order as on the board, topped and
tailed with something like “IN MEMORY OF” and “REST IN PEACE”. It seems likely
that this formed the official marking of the grave until individual headstones
were installed some time later.
It can be seen
that by this time, at least the rightmost of the other crosses had gone, and
presumably all of them. As will be read in the next section, nobody from Gannes in the armed forces had been killed even as late as
May 1944, so it can be presumed that the dead soldiers were from other areas
and their remains had been taken back there by 1952.
This photograph of 1964 shows the row of seven
Commonwealth War Graves Commission stones in surname order from left to right.
There was yet another temporary marker board lying in front; this one too
listing the pilot first but this time with the others in alphabetical order. Where
this came from, and when, is unknown.
The next photograph, taken
in 2008, shows the commemorative plaque from the 50th anniversary
ceremony, and the glazed panel containing photographs of the crew which was
installed in 2007. Some time after 1964, the grave has been kerbed and the
original brick wall has been replaced by one of concrete panels.
For some unknown reason, the
four Britons in the crew have their onboard role (flight engineer, etc) shown
on their headstones but the three Australians do not.
The final photograph shows
the plaque at the cemetery entrance which makes clear that some of those buried
within came from far afield.
The
50th Anniversary Commemoration Ceremony
This took place on 18 June 1994. Following is a translation of a speech made at the time. The reference to “an aeroplane in flames circles around above” again conflicts with the stationmaster’s unequivocal statement that no such thing occurred, and the one to “the seven Australian occupants”, possibly influenced by the RAAF presence at the ceremony, is an unfortunate misrepresentation of the actual nationalities of the crew members.
Mr George Lefevre, Commander of the Australian Air Force,
Mr Sub Prefect,Members of Parliament,President of the District of Plateau Picard,Lady and Gentlemen Mayors,Dear Friends, April 1944. The last World War has gone on for four and a half years .Thousands are dead. In Italy , terrible battles are taking place around Cassino Sebastopol is on the point of being retaken by the Soviets. In the Far East , MacArthur has conquered the Admiralty Isles. The BBC, which we listen to despite the interference, is sending us reassuring messages during these spring days. We continue to hope. The long-awaited landings approach. The Allied airplanes are relentlessly bombing the railway junctions while the members of the Resistance increase their sabotage attacks.
In Gannes, as throughout France All is calm. We are resigned. But everything is about to change. On May 10th dreadful news comes to us. Fernande Rodier, our beloved hairdresser and her daughter Marcelle, who is only 15 years old, are killed in the bombing of the station at Creil, a bombing which does not spare the passenger train of travellers stuck on the railway and leaves many dead and many injured. In this general mourning, surrounded by flowers and a large crowd we hold their funerals even though Mr Rodier is not here - he is in prison near Potsdam in the Brandenburg In the days that follow, sadness then resignation gives way to a new hope - a hope which is strengthened by the June 6th Normandy Landings. While large numbers of Allied aeroplanes streak the sky more and more often, and the Resistance are active despite the German repression and the increased deportations, we come to June 18th - the fourth anniversary of the call to arms made in London This same June 18th, very early, an aeroplane in flames circles around above us, grazes the station master’s house, takes the roof off a workman’s house and crashes a few dozen metres further on in a great explosion in the area called L'Epinnette. The population gathers in this sad place. Probably hit by fire from the anti-aircraft guns at Montdidier, a four-engined RAF Lancaster has crashed resulting in the terrible deaths of the seven Australian occupants. Their bodies are placed in coffins in the main hall of the Town Hall, which is transformed into a funeral home filled with flowers. Their funerals take place in our Church on the following Wednesday and they are buried in our village cemetery. Thus, for the second time in a little more than one month, the population of Gannes and the neighbouring villages and numerous others gather round the victims of terrible death. Fifty years have passed. We have not forgotten. Certainly, since that time our relations with Germany The European Union has been born, a Europe which is still looking for itself but which at least has brought us peace. Last Sunday we reopened Parliament. Should we thus forget for a few hours the aeroplanes, the peoples killing each other in the former Yugoslavia and genocide in Rwanda Let us not be pessimists. Let us dream of the other encouraging signs which are appearing. Israel and Palestine have signed a peace treaty and in South Africa I will end by speaking to our youngest citizens, to those who do not remember the last war, to our children, to our little children who are still at school - and I say to them simply: No, no, never again! Understand that there are others who are not of the same race as you, accept that they do not speak the same language, that they do not practice the same religion. Learn that their customs, their beliefs are different from yours. Respect them. Practice solidarity. Force does not solve problems. Remain faithful to the memory of these young airmen, 20 to 35 years old, who died so that we may live in freedom and peace. I hope that in a half century, in 2044, others will still remember their sacrifice and will celebrate the centenary. Finally, I would like to thank the War Veterans, the flag bearers of all the Associations, the firemen, the school children and their teachers, and all the people who have taken part in the organisation of this commemoration. To all of you who have come here in such numbers: Thank you and long live peace. Photographs The following photographs were taken at the ceremony in 1994.
The 60th
Anniversary Commemoration Ceremony
This took place in
June 2004, again at the graveside. Following is a translation of a
contemporary newspaper report.
GANNES
June
18th 1940 - June 18th 1944
TWO
DATES WE MUST NOT FORGET
Last
June 6th, 142 veterans accompanied the 147 heads of state for the celebration
of the 60th Liberation Anniversary.
"We
must pay much homage to these 142 heroes, but not forget the ones who gave
their lives for our liberty" said the mayor of Gannes,
Georges Vanvynckt, “to restore the local history in
the national history”.
June
18th, the occasion of Charles De Gaulle's call from
FOUR
YEARS APART
But
at Gannes, June 18th has a particular interest. This
year, like 10 years ago, the municipality would celebrate the anniversary of a
tragic event which occurred in the village. On June 18th 1944, 12 days after
the Normandy Landing, while the Battle of Normandy continued to rage and while
the British, American, Canadian and Australian bombers pounded the rear of the
enemy to disorganize them, seven airmen, Australian and British, met their
deaths near the Gannes station. Their
"Their
remains were reassembled in a room in the town hall turned into a temporary
morgue and festooned with flowers" remembered the mayor.
Almost
all of the village inhabitants attended the funeral which occurred on the
following Wednesday.
"60
years have passed since this day which is marked in our local history, 60 years
which have seen the French-German reconciliation...Today, among those who have
come with us, many have not known those dark years and June 18th 1944 seems to
be far for them. But it's to them that I speak in order that they don't forget
these heroes who came from all the continents to sacrifice themselves for our
liberty" said Georges Vanvynckt.
The
procession which was gathered in the cemetery stopped a long time in front of
the graves of the 7 Commonwealth airmen, on which flew the flags of their
countries. The mayor and the General Council laid a wreath just in front of the
commemorative plaque given by the municipality 10 years ago to mark the 50th
anniversary of this event, well fixed in the memory. June 18th in 1940 and in
1944 combine in the plural at Gannes. Yesterday, like
today, these two dates are an integral part of the history of the village.
Maps
Showing The Locations Of Witchford
And Gannes
A:Witchford B:Gannes
Locality of Witchford
Site plan of
RAF Witchford
Satellite photograph of
airfield site in 2007
The airfield closed in 1946,
with the site now largely returned to farming. One of the buildings in the nearby
Locality of Gannes
Satellite photograph of Gannes showing features referred to above
