1st Allied Airplane Crashed in Haute-Marne, Bomber Halifax Mk II DT515

1st Allied Airplane Crashed in Haute-Marne, Bomber Halifax Mk II DT515

An account of the crash written by the pilot, George Thom. The report includes part of a police report.

Three printed sheets

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Transcription:

Text of the addenda to the CLUB MÉMOIRES 52 Letter no 30
(Kindly provided by Lionel FONTAINE):

1st allied airplane crashed in Haute-Marne, bomber Halifax Mk II DT 515

The 7th of November 1942, late in the afternoon, 175 RAF bombers leave England for a raid over Genoa (Italy).

The bomber Halifax Mk II DT 515 of the 76th Bomber Squadron Group 4 belongs to this air fleet.

The 7 men of the crew are:
- THOM George, Flying-Sergeant, RCAF,
- McBRIDE D.J., Sergeant, radio, RNZAF,
- GORFUNKLE Norman H., Sergeant, navigator, RAF,
- HORNE Larry W., Sergeant, mid-upper-gunner, RAF,
- OWEN Hugh W., Sergeant, engineer, RAF,
- REED Derek L., Sergeant, rear-gunner, RAF,
- WHITE J.R., Sergeant, bomb-aimer, RCAF.

Let the pilot tell about his last mission aboard his Halifax DT 515:-

"Our mission was to attack and flatten the harbor of Genoa's infrastructure. Our Squadron Leader, G.L. Cheshire, insists on the utmost importance of that mission to cut off Rommel from vital supplying for his campaign in North Africa.

We already paid a visit to Genoa a few nights before. We know we're going for another 2000 mile flight and 9h 30mn in very cold and noisy conditions.

We have an extra petrol tank in the bomb bay, which lowers the bomb loading.

At 7.02 pm, on a nice autumn evening, I take of [sic] in my overloaded plane from our airbase at Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire.

After a while, we catch up with the main force of bombers and cross the French coast between Dunkirk and Ostende, trying not to be caught by the searchlights. We manage to keep away from their beams but the following events will prove we've been seriously hit by the flak shrapnel . . .

Making our way towards the landmark where we have to change course, we are just passing Reims when the inside left engine tachometer goes crazy and struggles between 5000 and 400 RPM. We have to feather the propeller to avoid the engine catching fire.

It's [sic] seems impossible to cross the Alps on three engines with the full bomb loading.

I immediately order the bomb load to be dropped "safe" and decide to turn back for home when the outside left engine shows to be superheating. I ask the engineer to watch it carefully but he replies he's more worried about the inside right one and soon after flames start to come from it.

I order the crew to bale out.

Once my six men had left, it was my turn to leave. It was the only thing I could have done and I'm very sorry. While parachuting down I could see the burning DT 515 making a fatal spiral dive."

The Halifax DT 515 crashed and exploded around 9pm on the 7th of November 1942, in "Le bois Charrué" (Charrué Wood).

This wood is deep inside "La forêt de l'Étoile" (Étoile forest) and about 2.5 Miles and NW of Sextontaines in Juzennecourt district.

[page break]

Five of the seven crew members are found and captured. Among them, Sergeant Norman Gorfunkle, 22, and very seriously injured. He is taken to Chaumont hospital where he dies. He is buried in Saint-Aignan cemetery at Chaumont.

Part of Gendarmerie report written on November 9th after the fifth survivor's arrest:

CHAUMONT, 1942, November 9th
REPORT
Written by Capitaine BREDA (Georges), of Chaumont Gendarmerie Company
About: a British aircraft crash and the arrest of 5 airmen crew who landed by parachute.

Ref: part 53 of 1903, May 20th law
The 7th of November, around 9pm, a British aircraft crashed in flames in a wood (Bois Charrué), part of the village of Sexfontaines (Haute-Marne) at about 2.5 Miles NW from that place. This airplane was part of an air force flying in a raid in a NW-SE direction.

In order to find the airplane, some investigations were immediately made by the Gendarmerie men from VIGNORY, JUZENNECOURT, DOULEVANT-LE-CHÂTEAU, under the captain's authority.

The same day, round 10.30 pm, a British airman ( . . . )

By this report, we know that a first man was arrested in the wood, around 10.30 pm. The morning of the following day Gorfunkle and three others are under arrest. They found a place to hide in two foresters houses in "La Forêt de l'Etoile" (Étoile forest).

The 9th of November, at daybreak, a fifth badly shocked airman, Hugh Owen, was arrested. When arriving on the scene of the accident, the Chaumont Feldgendarmerie (German military police) pick up the prisoners and organize a guard around the wrecked aircraft.

We must say that during the same night another bomber aircraft is shot down by the Luftwaffe fighters, over Champignol, Aube. All 7 men of the crew die and are buried in Champignol-lez-Mondeville cemetery. This plane, a Lancaster L. 7546, was part of the same air force raid on Genoa and belonged to the RAF 207th Squadron.

But what about the two missing men not captured after the crash, mid-upper turret gunner Larry Horne and pilot George Thom?

George Thom tells us some details about his epic escape:
"After an awkward landing on a lane, in the middle of trees, I sprained an ankle which made walking very painful. After many days of walking and some slight setbacks, I reach Rolampont. By luck I meet Mme Brosser, a manufacturer's wife who takes me into their home for over a week, until she manages to organize a brick delivery at about 10 Miles from the Swiss border . . .

For that delivery, I'm supposed to be the driver's assistant. The journey lasts two days and we have to stop several times at German control barricades.

The 22nd of November, at sunset, the driver leaves me somewhere after giving some advice about the best way to reach Switzerland, and I carry on, alone.

I have to swim across a river and I enter Switzerland, fraudulently. The local police take me to a jail, but I am soon released after a British legation intercession.

Soon after, due to the very big lack of pilots, the British Air Ministry sent me the order to go back to England, through Spain . . . In Switzerland, I'm given some rock climbing lessons and

[page break]

in civilian cloths [sic], with the company of nice guides, I manage to get to the Pyrenees but that's where the chain brakes.

I'm in a train that takes me to Perpignan when the Gestapo captures me. Taken to Paris and put in jail for roughly a month, accused of sabotages. Finally the Germans send me to a prisoner of war camp in Germany.

George Thom is released in May 1945, as are Reed, Owen, White and McBride.

The only Halifax DT 515 crewmember that remained uncaptured is gunner Larry Horne. He is first taken in at La Chapelle-en-Blaisy presbytery by the priest Villain.

From there, Bernard Morée whose father is the mayor of a village called Curmont takes the allied air man to Lamarche, in the Vosges Mountains.
We know that L. Horne reaches Switzerland thanks to Addi Ba (*) and one of his men.

So, L. Horne is able to travel back to Britain, via Paris, at the beginning of September 44.

(*) Addi Bà (1923-1943). He is a very young Guinean from Conakry when he comes to France, at Langeais (Indre-et-Loire). At the beginning of WW2, in September 1939, he joins the 12e RTS (12th Senegalese Hunters Regiment, African troops) of the French army. In June 1940, he is taken as POW at the same time as most of his Company fellows.

It's from Neufchateau (Vosges) where he is taken by the Germans that he escapes with some other African soldiers. In the autumn of 1940 he manages to meet the Vosges first Resistance group. In March 1943, he is one of those that organize the "Deliverance camp" the first Vosges maquis with eighty French that refused to go and work in Germany, eighteen Russians and two German who deserted the Wehrmacht. In July 1943, the maquis is attacked and dismantled. Some partisans manage to escape. As he is black skinned, Addi Bà can be spotted very easily. He is a hunted man. Put under arrest the 15th of July, he is taken to Épinal where he is tortured but doesn't say a word about the numerous things he knows about the Vosgian Resistance group. Finally, he is shot by his torturers the following 18th of December at Épinal, at "Le Plateau de la Vierge".