Hello everybody, What I really need here is an expert on Air Force service numbers but I will post all the details I have. A Canadian airman, rear air gunner, shot down over Sicily on an unknown date, was imprisoned in PG 66 Capua, transferred further north at some stage to Florence (possibly to PG 82 ) and escaped at the Armistice on 8 September. On a date between 8 and 15 September he arrived at a farmhouse asking for food and was given hospitality until May 1944 when he was picked up and shot by a Fascist and a German officer. All this information comes from War Crimes file WO 311/343. In giving evidence to the enquiry several Italians gave his first name as Armando, which, if he were French Canadian would presumably have been Armand, and his surname as Gioni, the Italianised version of a French surname, perhaps Jonin. One witness gave his service number as 108909B. Here I am stuck. The airman's body was picked up and is now buried in Bolsena War Cemetery. The Canadian authorities believed him to be F/Sgt L.S. Barker, R 62010 but this was not accepted by JAG : The Canadian Veterans cannot find anyone with the service number quoted. The number looks like a RAF Officer's number to me. Does anyone have a list of missing Canadian Airmen or of planes shot down over Sicily up to September 1943? I know that many Canadians were flying with the RAF. Thanks, Vitellino
Vitellino There are more experienced Canadian searchers on here but looking at the national archives and searching for a forename Armand gives - Result: Service Files of the Second World War – War Dead, 1939-1947 - Library and Archives Canada Searching through all the results and looking at service numbers there are none with the letter at the end, the letter is always at the start - so 108909B, is probably incorrect. Tried searching the above site for a Jonin but no results TD
Thanks. I wish I knew why JAG had turned down the idea that he was F/Sgt. Barker. He doesn't give his reasons.
Trouble is that the Canadian Archives give a March 1944 date of death for Barker: Item - Library and Archives Canada Surname: BARKER Given Name(s): LAURENCE SIDNEY Age: 24 Date of Birth: 03 Jan 1920 Date of Death: 11 Mar 1944 Rank: Warrant Officer Class I Unit: Royal Canadian Air Force Force: Air Service Number: R62010 Reference: RG 24 Volume: 24801 Extra Information: Son of Sidney H. Barker, and of Amy Nora Barker (nee Dell), of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada. Item Number: 1601 This is obviously 2 months prior to the date described TD
I am putting this here so that others will see the information has already been searched UK, Royal Air Force Airmen Records, 1918-1940 Name: James Richard Booth Gender: Male Age: 41 Birth Date: 1875 Service Date: 16 Jul 1917 Service Number: 108909 Spouse: Ethel M Booth Next of Kin: Ethel M Booth Relation to Airman: Wife TD
I note that the memo of 23 March 1946 states that they had been provided with photograph, medical records and dental charts of Baker. I would imagine that this was the reason why Baker was so quickly dismissed as being the suspected victim. I am advised by a person currently actively involved in the recovery and identification of wartime casualties that comparison with the dental records is considered to be even more reliable than DNA for identification purposes. Bodies being recovered today after, 70+ years in the ground, can be positively identified within a matter of days if their wartime dental records can be located.
There are only two RCAF airmen buried at Bolsena War Cemetery. R62362 (posthumously commissioned P/O, new number J94345) WO1 DJE Schmitz, a No. 243 Sqn RAF fighter pilot who was killed when his Spitfire was shot down strafing German columns north of Rome on 5 June 1944. R124510 WOII PE Nichols was a navigator on a No. 40 Sqn Wellington lost on 17 September 1943. A search of the RCAF Casualty Lists for the war show no one named Armand or Armando as a POW in Italy. Several in Germany. Dave
Tricky Dicky, I hadn't seen the pieces on Barker- thanks. Alieneyes, unfortunately if the Canadian airman had been shot down after the middle of August 1943 he wouldn't have been on the POW lists for Italy. I know this from other research. However, the fact that he was in two camps, the first being Capua and the second one further north, suggests that he had been shot down much earlier than August. I think I am correct in saying that Capua was evacuated in May 1943. CWGC has sent me the following: Service Soldier Unit Unknown Canadian Regiment Date of death 28/05/1944 Grave (Section, Row and Number) IV, A, 10 concentrated from Map Ref. 917062 Poggio Mirteto I am not very hopeful in tracing him, though he must appear on a 'missing' list somewhere. Vitellino
Hi Vitellino, He would be on the list of "Missing after air operations". So far, I have found no one who fits. Dave
Hello Dave, Thanks for looking. I am begiinning to suspect that he gave a false name and identity to the Italian family who sheltered him. I don't intend to pursue this any further, Vitellino
However, here I am again, as there WAS and Armand Gionet ( thanks Tricky Dicky) who was killed in the spring of 1945 in the Netherlands. We might be talking of an assumed identity...