Loss of Lancaster ME757 WS-O - 9 Sqn - 13 Aug 44

Yep!

 

Loss record now at: http://www.lostaircraft.com/database.php?mode=viewentry&e=3044

 

Hi Kevin,
Just would like to add that according to an account, there would have been one bomb found near the crash site. As some remains, including engine parts, were found both on the hill (that burnt for a long time) and in the sea, at least a part of the plane hit this hill. The recovered body of Andrew was found at the nearest south west point, and first buried in a bomb hole near the Kerdrein shore.
The Americans always use to gather the bodies together in cemeteries, and the Comonwealth people where the unfortunate lost his life. I do have two men buried in my village's cemetery (Lanildut), both found on the shore. Only one of the two had been identified.

Yes this meeting with Walrus L2312 was very moving last month, and the opportunity to talk for the first time with men who were "Internet Contacts".is always something great.

Best
Gildas

 

Further to previous posts on raids by ME757, Charles Edwards says in a letter to his mother dated 18 July that they were on a raid 'last night'. Looking at Bomber command raid list for July indicates this was probably the raid on "Wizernes and 2 other flying bomb sites". Wizernes, according to Google search, looks like a pretty impressive structure, which ended up abandoned before it was finished. The Operation list for August 13th shows only 1 lancaster lost in the Brest raid (presumably ME757) This Brest raid was apparently in conjunction with lancasters from 617 squadron according to the account in "Australias Dambusters". The raid on 13 August failed to sink the disused french battleship Gueydon, so both squadrons went back on 14 August and were successful in disabling the battleship. This reference also quotes a raid on Rilly La Montagne railway tunnel on 31 July by 9 squadron and 617 squadron. (this operation was not on 31 June - june has 30 days only - as mentioned earlier in this thread.
Charles also mentions anther raid 'a few nights ago' but that could be any of the operations listed in the July operations list. Seems flying bomb sites were high on the list of priorities around that time!

 

Thanks for this information John. Next mid-September, we’ll have another meeting with relatives of a 452nd BS of the 322nd BG B-26 who had on the 9th of August the same type of mission, to sink a boat to prevent its using if sunk at Brest harbor entrance. But I ignore the name of the ship. There are french existing pictures at
http://archives.mairie-brest.fr/4DCGI/Web_thesIcono_297/ILUMP29838, like 2Fi02494 showing the Spichern tanker being bombed, but the author said he took the pictures two days before, on the 7th.

John, may you please share with me by e-mail or private message a little more information about your trip, as we can try to organize things, but need to know more. I already started to contact Plougastel town hall, but need to know if you wish to attend a ceremony or not, when and where you’ll be staying, … Sorry, but this needs time and answers.

Looking forward this meeting.

Gildas

 

Gildas. I sent an email to you 13 July. Did you get it? If not I shall try again. I will be at the hotel in Brest late on Saturday 2 August, and am due to leave early on Monday 4th August. Before I spent time on this group, I did allow the entire day Sunday 3 August free to be in and around Plougastel. A ceremony in the town hall would be fine with me (as long as I don't have to make a long speech - my french I last used in 1962 at school!)
My email jkedwATbigpondDOTcom should work while I am in UK hopefully. At the present time I don't know what mobile phone number I will be using there.
John Edwards

 

John,
No I didn't, but just sent to you an e-mail, so it should be ok.
Gildas

 

Hello to all,
Just to share a few pictures of our meeting at Plougastel, south of Brest.
At the ceremony
John is offered a paint showing the crash site area.


John is offered a paint showing the crash site area.



At the top of the hill, after having found four new small remains, probably small part of engine.


Back to the cemetery



As those pictures are mine, I’m of course not on them…
Thanks to all who help
With kind regards
Gildas

 

Thanks for posting, looks like a beautiful day and I am sure the efforts of you and all the townsfolk and Mayor deserve our Thanks for looking after those boys
RIP

 

I am Robert Scott. I am the only child of Flight Sergeant Cyril Thomas Scott RAAF. I was 3 years and 5 months old when his aircraft was lost on 13 August 1944. I still have the original telegram received by my mother Caroline on 18 August 1944 advising her that her husband was missing as a result of air operations on 13 August. I also have letters from the Casualty Section of the Australian Department of Air. One letter dated 17 July 1947 stated:
“A report has been received from the Missing, Research and Enquiry service operating in France. The report which is based on investigations and interrogation of residents of the village of Moulin-de-Kerdrein, France, states that your husband’s aircraft crashed into the sea near that village at 11.15 a.m. on 13th August, 1944. Moulin-de-Kerdrein is situated near Plougastel in the Commune of Finsterre, France.
The bodies of six members of your husband’s crew were later washed ashore and were buried in the Communal cemetery of Plougastel. I deeply regret to inform you that the body of your husband was not recovered.
It is now proposed to commemorate your husband in a memorial to be erected to the missing and to those who have no known grave.”

Then to my mother’s relief, she received a letter dated 27th May 1949 from the Australian Department of Air that told her:
“The wreckage of your husband’s aircraft was in the sea near the beach at Plougastel and the body was not previously recovered. However, a recent violent storm moved the wreckage and it has been possible to recover your husband’s body for burial.
He has been laid to rest beside his comrades in grave 1A in the Plougastel Daoulas Cemetery.”
My wife and I visited my father’s grave in November 1994. It was a moving time for us and it was wonderful for to see how extremely well his and his comrades’ graves had been cared for. I took photos and showed them to my mother on my return to Australia. For her, seeing her husband’s resting place, fostered some closure after 50 years of grief.

I only read the postings on this website for the first time on Wednesday the 13th August 2104 - the 70th anniversary of the loss of Lancaster ME757. I truly wish that I had read it before because I would have made every effort to attend the recent ceremony at Plougastel.

You may or may not be aware that a U-boat captain, Herbert A Werner was in Brest on 13th August 1944 and he wrote about an air raid on the submarine pens in his book, “Iron Coffins”. This is an extract from his book.
“On August 13, at 1045, the air-raid sirens howled through our compound in Brest. I took cover in the tunnels carved into the hill. Fierce shooting erupted almost at once. From the entrance of the tunnel, I stared out at a swarm of about 20 four-engined Liberators. They were flying at medium altitude into the concentrated gun fire of our heavy flak. They drew closer, disregarding the black mushrooms bursting around them, stubbornly holding course and altitude. Suddenly, a wing sheared off a plane and glided through the air. The aircraft followed it, spinning and tumbling toward the Bay. The white dots of four parachutes unfurled in the sky just before the crippled plane crashed into the water. The British kept flying straight toward our U-boat bunker, aiming carefully. A second Liberator caught fire, swerved out of formation. A third plane exploded in midair. At that moment each of the remaining aircraft released a single huge bomb; the bombs, clearly visible to me as I edged back further into the tunnel, angled toward the bunker below. Then the world was lifted off its hinges. Volcanic explosions rocked the hill and made the air tremble. The hard pressure waves hit us with staggering force and took our breath away. Tall fountains of dust and debris rose toward our anti­aircraft blimps, blotting out the entire panorama. A few more blasts from our A-A guns, a low roar in the sky in the north-then silence.”
The time of the attack referred to by Captain Werner approximates the attack by 9 Squadron. I have assumed that he mistook the attacking Lancasters for Liberators. Werner does refer to the aircraft as British. His description “a wing sheared off a plane and glided through the air. The aircraft followed it, spinning and tumbling toward the Bay” is consistent with the information provided by spidge on 9 May 2012. However, the number of aircraft (3) Werner stated as having been shot down does not seem supported by official reports.

I have letters from my father, from Wing Commander James Bazlin (14 August 1944) to my mother, a poignant letter from my father’s best friend and official correspondence that I am willing to share.

Attached are two photos of my father including the only one I have of my father, mother and me taken in 1943 before he sailed to England.
Robert Scott
15 August 2014

 

Hi Robert,

How very sad for you to not have known about this previously. I did look up Scott in Matraville at the time however there were only two and none with the initial "C" and Scott is a fairly common name to track.

I am sure Gildas and the others would like to make contact and possibly share further photos. He would certainly love to have the photo of your father and the group family photo as he does quite a lot of work for family members of those lost aircraft.

Hopefully Gildas will see my post and make contact with you or you could leave a message for him with your email address.

Cheers


Spidge (Geoff)

 

Welcome to the Forum and thank you for posting the information about your Father

 

Thank you for posting your information, Robert, and I hope you realise that this crew has been remembered with honour, not just here on the forum, but in the most practical way by the community near which they crashed and who still ensure the graves are tended.
I trust there was useful information in the posts on here, and thanks again for adding to them.

 

Robert, Most impressive to read this. I probably stirred up this thread and caused many new posts, all with useful information. I agree the captains description seems a bit over the top, but who knows. Last night I looked at 9 Squadron records, and it seems this crew flew in ME757 on only 5 operations before it crashed The other 7 operations I found after 13/7/44 were all on other lancasters from the squadron.

My listing for ME757 is:
28/4/44 ST MEDARD EN JALLES
29/4/44 ST MEDARD EN JALLES recalled
1/5/44 TOULOUSE
3/5/44 MALLY-LE-CAMP
6/5/44 SABLE SUR SARTHE
8/5/44 BREST/LAVEOC
11/5/44 BOURG LEOPOLD
19/5/44 TOURS
21/5/44 DUISBURG
22/5/44 BRUNSWICK
27/5/44 NANTES aborted
31/5/44 SAUMER aborted
3/6/44 CHERBOURG Ferme D'Urville
5/6/44 St PIERRE DU MONT aborted
6/6/44 ARGENTAN
8/6/44 RENNES
10/6/44 ORLEANS railway
12/6/44 POITIERS communications
14/6/44 AUNAY SUN ODON tropp positions
15/6/44 CHATELLERAULT fuel & ammunitions
23/6/44 LIMOGES railyards
25/7/44 ST CYR
26/7/44 GIVORS rail yards
28/7/44 STUTTGART
30/7/44 CAMAGNES
31/7/44 JOIGNY LA ROCHE rail yards
1/8/44 MONT CANDON recalled
2/8/44 BOIS DE CASSON
3/8/44 TROSSY flying bomb stores
7/8/44 LORIENT u-boat pens recalled
9/8/44 LA PALLICE
10/8/44 BORDEAUX oil depots
11/8/44 GIVORS
13/8/44 BREST ship in harbour missing/crashed

johnedw

 

The Mailly Le Camp raid was not an entirely successful operation..some were lucky, others not......cost the RAF over 10% losses.It was a raid intended to destroy the large Wehrmacht depot/tank units based there and was part of the Overloard plan to deprive the Germans of support in the forthcoming Normandy invasion.Some measure of success was achieved in destroying barracks,tanks and killing German personnel.

Apparently there was some delay in getting the main force over the target due to communication difficulties between the Master Bomber and Main Force Leader.The delay became advantageous to the Luftwaffe night fighter units who were vectored to the target,

No 460 Squadron lost 5 Lancasters out of 17 put up for the raid...part of No I Group who were the second wave to enter the target area with the Luftwaffe already in force over the target...led to the Group taking the brunt of the losses.

Mailly le Camp remains a major French Army depot.There is a fine RAF memorial commemorating this raid within the camp with public access...at least I was not challenged when I drove into the main entrance to view the memorial some years ago.Just outside the camp is the village of Poivres where a large number of RAF aircrew lie in line.

 

Thanks Harry,

24 RAAF lads died that night with 5 of them from 3 aircraft buried at Poivres Churchyard.

All 37 burials were from that night. 30RAF, 5 RAAF, 2 RCAF.

 

Robert, have you tried to contact Gildas?
You can use the Personal Message system if you prefer, but even 70 years on, it may be that you would like to contact relatives of Cyrils crew mates.

Obviously you have missed the 70th anniversary, but Gildas is now in contact with them and it may be of some use if you were all in contact to share and exchange memories.

 

A bit of information on the previous life of Charles Herbert Edwards, navigator.

Charles Herbert Edwards. Born 22 June 1921 in Gympie, Qld. Schooled in Gympie, and in 1939 joined the Federal Taxation Department as a clerk. (His elder brother Jim - my father - also worked at the Tax Dept.)
Enlisted in 5th Light Horse Regiment 1937 to 1942, and joined RAAF reserve in Sept 1941.
He joined the regular RAAF in 1942, training as pilot at Narrandera, Cootamundra and Evans Head but failed the tests, and trained as navigator at Parkes before embarking for UK in May 1943.
After further training at Silverstone, posted to 9 Squadron on 13 July 1944.
Numerous operations with final operation on 13 August 1944 at Brest. Posted missing.
His Mother was notified of his decease on 11 July 1945.

 

I tried to attach a photo of Charles, but failed. Try again.

 

Dear Robert,
I only find your post today, as I’m much involved into a book I’m ending, but also two exhibitions of two days, and this kept me very busy. The first was last weekend, and the other is tomorrow and Sunday. This time I met with several American relatives.
The meeting in August with John Edward was very pleasant. One of his cousins had to come this month, but he didn’t get in touch with me.
Since then, I was contacted by Helen Jackson whose family had been friends to the second Scott on board, John Keith Scott.
I’ll be able to share with you some information, as pictures of crash site, of remains found. Sorry, but this will take a little time, as I’m much behind lot of things with all this.
I come back to you as soon as I can. Keep in touch.
Best regards
Gildas