Hello, I am looking for the name of an English paratrooper. Three German officers were tried in 1946 by a court of war for the murder of this paratrooper. Killed on August 4, 1944 in Brittany. Probably declared dead on 4 or 5 August.
A possibility: Shooting of allied prisoners of war and others, Josselin, Brittany, France, July to... | The National Archives Reference: WO 311/902 Description: Shooting of allied prisoners of war and others, Josselin, Brittany, France, July to August 1944 Date: 1946 Oct 01 - 1947 Jun 30 Held by: The National Archives, Kew Former reference in its original department: MD/JAG/FS/2/23
possible PrivateBATES, FRANCIS JAMES Service Number 14408893 Died 05/08/1944 Aged 20 8th Bn. The Parachute Regiment, A.A.C. Son of James Harold and Florence Lilian Bates, of Stirchley, Birmingham. Commemorated at BAYEUX MEMORIAL Location: Calvados, France Number of casualties: 1803 Cemetery/memorial reference: Panel 18, Column 1.
PrivateWILKINSON, JAMES KENNETH Service Number 1442014 Died 05/08/1944 Aged 24 2nd Special Air Service Regiment, A.A.C. Son of Albert Leather Wilkinson and Elsie May Wilkinson, of Liverpool. INSCRIPTION DUTY NOBLY DONE Buried at BAYEUX WAR CEMETERY Location: Calvados, France Number of casualties: 4258 Cemetery/memorial reference: II. K. 23.
Around that time most of the Paratroopers in Brittany were French SAS - any English may have been SOE Looking at the timescale on the attached map shows that the US Armoured Division had pretty well liberated half of Brittany by 4th Aug 1944 - so I am trying to understand why there would be an English paratrooper in the area TD (Living in Morbihan not far from the St Marcel Museum)
The day may not match but what about the SAS murdered following Operation Loyton? New memorial stones to be placed at sites of murder of captured SAS troops Kyle Other victims List of Allied airmen and PoW’s murdered by the Nazis.
I agree there was the 6tH AD, who liberated the area. This soldier was captured before liberation in late July. He was well executed and his body was found charred, but his dog tags were found near his neck. His body was recovered by the US Quartermaster service as he was first considered to be an American para. I also searched for a track for an English airman for a long time because the German officer spoke of an English-speaking Canadian. But the record of the war crime judgment in 1946, gives it to an English paratrooper. I am looking for this track.
The French SAS 4th Battalion of Heaven were the parachutist element led by Marienne who landed in Brittany north east of Vannes in the Landes de Lanvaux on D Day as an advanced party of Dingson. Marienne was later murdered on capture by the French Milice in an engagement at St Marcel.The main group led by Pierre Bourgoin dropped on 11 June 1944 after Marienne's death. There were 6 teams of Jedburghs dropped in Brittany as three man teams,usually British, French and American to support the local resistance forces with arms drops and liaison.One Jedburgh leader Major Colin Ogden Smith was murdered while wounded and captured.However he has a known grave in the French Communal Cemetery at Guiscriff. I cannot think of another Jedburgh who was lost in the Brittany operations but these all were infiltrated into Brittany by parachute.
In the book " Operation Jedburgh: D-Day and America's First Shadow War" by Colin Beavan there is mention of the incident Harry has posted, I cannot remember the exact paragraph but it read something like ... In a farm near Finistere shortly before the Germans shot Ogden Smith an SAS soldier with him ran out of ammunition and according to the book called out to the Germans "You need not be afraid I have no more ammunition" the Germans then called upon him to surrender and to raise his hands,which he did. The Germans then cut him down with a burst of machine gun fire but did not kill him ,one of the Germans moved forward and shot the SAS man through the temple (a fate the Major would receive a short time later) The name of the SAS man is not mentioned in the book. Maquisards hiding in the woods saw the Germans loot the bodies before torching the farm leaving it ablaze... Although from the text it appeared the SAS man was English he may be French SAS Pte Maurice Miodon who is recorded to have died alongside Ogden Smith in other literature? Miodon was buried in Guiscriff Cemetery? Kyle
No idea if the men above were the ones dan35 is looking for? The date of death again doesnt match? For reference there`s another SAS man buried with the other two at Guiscriff Cemetery with a date of death of 6th August 1944 .Sorry no details on his demise.. Gerard Gaultier De Carville BIRTH 15 Jan 1924 France DEATH 6 Aug 1944 (aged 20) Bretagne, France BURIAL Guiscriff Communal Cemetery Guiscriff, Departement du Morbihan, Bretagne, France Photocredit kernowmaid Findagrave edit ;- He was seriously wounded August 1944 died at the Brizeux Complementary Hospital of Quimper (Finistère). Gérard Gaultier de Carville is buried in the Guiscriff Cemetery alongside Major Ogden-Smith and Maurice Miodon . Kyle
I visited this cemetery knowing that Colin Ogden Smith was buried there and the circumstances of his death.It was prior to All Saints Day and the village cemetery had a number of people working on graves ready for All Saints Day.I asked a lady where was Ogden Smith's grave was and she immediately pointed it out to me which was just inside the gate on the right hand side...I was expecting to find the normal CWGC tombstone. Sergeant Maurice Miodon,detached from his unit was with Ogden Smith at Querrien when both were killed. Kerbozec was the name of the farm at Querrien where the two lost their lives. Ogden Smith,along with civilians and resistants is remembered on a large walled white memorial in Guiscriff which is about 15 kms north west from where the action at Kerbozec took place.I first saw this memorial over 30 years ago and was intrigued that I could not associate the name with SOE activities in France.So began my interest in Colin Ogden Smith. From what has been said, Ogden Smith's presence at Kerbozec was given away to the Germans by a farmer (said to be a Belgian) there..In the aftermath of this,the resistants retaliated by shooting the farmer,his wife and son. Peter Jacobs throws further light on the case with his publication, Code Named Dorset.The wartime exploits of Major Colin Odgen Smith Commando and SOE..(Dorset being the Jedburgh code name of Ogden Smith).
I can not put documents online, but you can clarify. I read that there were arrests on 27/28 July and 31, Colonel Robo and Commander FFI Manseau who will be tortured on 2 August by the Pontivy SD in the prison. It is written in the report of the judgment that there were in the prison some paratroopers. On the night of August 3-4, the German commander ordered the release of 7 to 8 people. He says he ordered the release of the prisoner designated as a New Zealander or an English speaking Canadian a few days before with his Leutnant officer. During the interrogation for war crimes in January 1946, the three German officers are accused of killing an English paratrooper on 4 August. His body was found charred on the 5th in the basement of the prison in Pontivy. The Feldwebel confirms that he did indeed kill the English prisoner, but said that he did on the orders of his superior a Leutnant, who himself on the orders of his Oberleutnant who told him to "decend" the prisoner.
