Sg Joseph Marsh 35 sqdn, died July 1943 RAFVR

Kevin, I'm new here so I really didn't want to say what I was thinking for fear of upsetting people, I do get foot and mouth regularly... however..

If Ron Wisson's account is correct, and we have no reason to believe otherwise, then the Germans, and persumably the local people did find six bodies.. 'unidentifiable' or not... six bodies.. so what did they do with them??
Leave them in the remains of the plane to rot.. ??

I agree with all you have said, but then I am not a historian and I have no idea how many times this kind of thing happened.

I do believe that we may have left all this too late though. Those who would have been alive at the time will probably have all passed by now so we may never know...

I just still find it hard to believe that no one at the scene of the crash, which would have been seen for miles and miles around would not have buried those remains some where..

I'm also now on a quest to find out more about the other crew of HR819, so little seems to be known.

 

Kevin,

I agree with your comments, but it is not easy for the people, whichever country, who attended and recovered the remains.

Sometimes the flames were so intense that there was nothing left to identify, much the same as tank crews.

The bodies and remains were usually buried in close proximity to the crash site and later moved to CWGC after the war ended.

Regards
Tom

 

My point was that they were buried, but precisely where seems to have been lost.

Thousands of bombers crashed in flames and some crews have been unaccounted for, as no doubt is the same in tanks etc... but something must have survived for the aircraft to have been identified (not just as a Halifax, but as HR819) and right on the edge of an airfield, the home base of the pilot that shot it down.

The crew would not have been left, the wreck would have been examined for any new equipment or modifications, then salvaged.

They probably are somewhere in the locality, but as 6 "Known Unto God"s.

After the War, a lot of time and effort was put in to locating crash sites and what became of their crews (MREU's) so I'm sure there must be some dusty files about this somewhere.

It just seems an opportunity now that this forum has a wealth of expertise available, to try and locate and identify them. We have uncovered a lot so far, so it just seemed worth a little extra push to try and wrap up the loose ends (if you'll forgive the expression in the circumstances).

 

Hi,
I have just found this posting as I am doing the family tree for the Moore/Kilbourn family. Ernest Raymond Moore is my aunt's 1st cousin 1x removed. All this information will be most informative and thank everyone who posted the information on Ernie's death including the wonder photos.
Liz