While checking the local newspaper archives out in Durham, I found this story about a local lad and his mate, I thought members may be interested in reading. On looking at it the story very much sounds to me as if the two lads had been murdered. John.
While checking the local newspaper archives out in Durham, I found this story about a local lad and his mate, I thought members may be interested in reading. On looking at it the story very much sounds to me as if the two lads had been murdered. John. Can't read it
Can't read it Reads ok at my end, just click on the thumbnails, once they load you can expand them to regular size, if it is still unreadable for you let me know I will scan them larger, however I don't know what the size limit is for the site. All the best John.
We'll perhaps never know but I can see why you raised an eyebrow John. The vaguaries of what people see in combat and contemporary propaganda would all help to cloud the issue by the looks of it. Cheers, Adam.
Interesting John, you are probably right, but I think this happened more than we know, or would care to know.
I past on the newspaper report onto the nephew of Water Tonge, who I contacted on Genes Reunited, he has just sent me a link to his web site which is dedicated to Walter and Flight Sergeant R Rigby. Makes very interesting reading. John, Walter Tonge
This Mosquito XV111 aircrew were murdered.Rigby was shot in cold blood and Tonge was drowned when he was held under the water after jumping back into the sea from a French boat that had picked them up from their dingies.This act was carried out by Germans from a boat when they were being taken into custody. The truth was found out by Tonge's father who travelled to Brittany after the war, being said to be the first British civilian to travel to France post war.Despite frequent letters to the RAF,he was not satisfied with the answers having being aware that others of the squadron had seen the aircraft with two crew leaving safey by parachute.Others speak of the aircraft landing under control on the sea. The war was over in this part of Brittany by September 1944, the FFI groups having playing their part in ridding the area of Germans as the Americans swept towards Brest Google Search for "Tonge War dead" for full story and the graves of the two crew.
I do not have access to No 248 Squadron's ORB but presumabily it would not reveal any more information in addition to that Tonge's father was told of from his communication with the RAF.The squadron at the time was based at Portreath,Cornwall and was part of Coastal Command whose remit was to seek out the enemy from the Arctic Circle down to the North Spanish coast.The information given indicates the squadron was on a raid to Brest while another report mentions St Nazaire but I feel that the sweep would have been an anti shipping patrol in the Bay of Biscay,namely coastal shipping targets of opportunity. While the squadron had been equipped since January 1944 with the Mosquito XV111,a ship buster with a 6 lb gun, it retained the earlier version.,the Mosquito V1 which it had converted to, from the Beaufighter X in the previous December.The aircraft involved could have been either one of the two Mosquito versions. I am sure that somewhere there will be fuller account of this patrol. Walter Tonge was a former flying pupil at RAF Cranage where he receives a mention "believed to to killed in action on 30 June 1944".His father eventually knew different.
Looking again at the newspater report, French officials higher than the local Gendarmerie must have looked deeper into this incident as Lieut Rossignol belonged to the Deuxieme Bureux, which prior to Vichy was a branch of French Military Intelligence involved with intellegence relating to enemy troops.Vichy disbanded the system, no doubt to suit the German invader but De Gaulle reinstated the structure.There was a lot of work for the D.B to follow up in the aftermath of the occupation.These officials would not normally be based in a small fishing port such as Concarneau and would have been directed to the case by the French intelligence authorities. I would think that somewhere in the D.B archives will lie an official report.Whether the perpretators would be identified is a different matter but I think that the German unit involved could be easily included.
