大象传媒

This story was submitted to the People鈥檚 War site by Ian Ellis on behalf of Greg Drozdz, David Guyett, Remco Immerzeel, Albert Nuttall and Andrew White. The stories and pictures have been added to the site with their permission. The authors fully understand the site's terms and conditions.

This is Chapter 5 of 6 chapters telling the story of The Lancaster Crash at Rebr茅chien. This is the continuation of Chapter 4 with further stories about the crew themselves.

Sergeant Thomas Crane "Smiler": The Bomb Aimer and Front Gunner
A Tribute to our brother. Thomas was the second child of our parents Thomas and Maud Crane. He was born on 8th July 1922 in Cookstown, County Tyrone, Northern Ireland. Thomas and Maud had thirteen children of whom John was the eldest and although unable to visit on this occasion he visited the grave some years ago and spoke to a local farmer who kindly gave John some small pieces of the aircraft that he had stored in his barn. The other children born after Tom were James (deceased), Richard 鈥淒ickie鈥� (deceased), Madge, Ethel, Violet, Marina, Elizabeth, George, Maureen, Doreen Patricia (Deceased aged three months) and Noel. Today Ethel, Marina and Noel are visiting the grave for the first time.

Thomas was educated at the local school, regularly coming first in class. His sister Marina has his prizes of books and other awards. When Thomas was fourteen the whole family moved to Belfast and along with our father he joined the Harland and Wolf shipyard as an apprentice plater.
At nineteen Thomas became the youngest foreman plater ever known at the ship yard. Our father was very proud of Thomas for achieving this at such a young age but it was probably more to do with the fact that so many men had volunteered for the armed services.

Thomas was always very interested in flying and aircraft. We remember that he made a wooden model aircraft and decorated it with the RAF roundel and pinned it to the shed at the bottom of the garden. Shortly after his promotion, and unknown to our parents, Thomas volunteered for the Royal Air Force and was accepted. Not being twenty one, he forged his fathers鈥� signature on the papers. When our parents found out they were horrified as they had hoped to keep Thomas out of the forces. Being a shipyard plater was a reserved occupation (exempt from the armed forces due to its importance to the war effort). After a lot of argument our father relented and let Thomas join the RAF. He eventually passed out as a spitfire pilot but at this time the need was for bomber crew and soon he went to Canada to train as a Navigator and bombardier coming home to resume his service at Ludford Magna. The family memory of this time is hazy but we do know that the intensity of training and sorties increased through 1943 and 1944 and Thomas鈥� home leave became more infrequent.

We remember the dreaded day our parents received the telegram to say Thomas was missing. We prayed and prayed for his safe return. But it was not to be. Almost one year later news came to our mother that the Red Cross had found his grave in the Loiret, France. Our parents who had never given up hope were devastated. Our mother instilled in us younger ones never to forget our brother. We would hold a two minutes silence in his memory each anniversary of his death on 28th July for many years afterwards.

Our father died on the twentieth anniversary of Thomas鈥� death in 1964 and our mother grieved for Thomas until she died one year later in 1965. Was the sacrifice that Thomas, the rest of the crew of LM-462 and many thousands of other young men worth it? Only they can answer that. We, those who have lived full lives in freedom can only give thanks for their sacrifice and treasure their memory.
Our family would like to send our sincere thanks and heartfelt gratitude to the people of Rebr茅chien who buried our brother and the crew who will now be together forever. We would also like to thank those who have tended the grave and kept the memory alive for so long. We must ensure our children and our children鈥檚 children never forget, for if someone remembers you, you will never die. Thomas has not grown old like we have. We often wonder what might have become of him had he not been killed that night sixty years ago today.
Thomas will never be forgotten in our family as five children have been named Thomas in his memory. We who knew him remember our brother being six feet two inches tall and very handsome with a wonderful smile, known to all who knew him as 鈥榮miler鈥�.

Sergeant John Thomas Victor Moore: The Radio Operator
John Moore originated from Hinckley, Leicestershire. He was the Radio Operator on the LM-462. Two articles dating from 1945 and 1946 will describe this man:
Sergeant John Thomas Victor Moore, RAF, son of MR P.W. Moore and the late Mrs Moore, of the Lawns*, Hinckley, who was reported missing from operations over Stuttgart last July, is now presumed killed. The official news was received by his father last week.
Sergeant Moore, who was 21 was an old boy of Hinckley Grammar School and before joining the RAF was employed by Messrs F.W. Woolworth and Co Ltd. He was a member of the Air Training Corps and also of the local Home Guard. Before he was reported missing, he had a very considerable number of operations to his credit.

His commanding officer wrote of him: "He will be greatly missed in the squadron for not only has he become popular but also carried out his duties with a splendid courage and efficiency", from the Hinckley Times, July 27TH 1945.

*The Lawns were demolished at the end of the 1960s.

He attended the Grammar School from 1935 to 1939. We greatly regret the death of Sergeant Thomas Moore, who was missing over operations on Stuttgart on July 28th 1944 and who must now be presumed killed. Sergeant Moore was one of the first members of the Air Training Corps and was also a member of the Home Guard. He had a quiet, retiring disposition and was well liked by his colleagues. He got on well with everyone. At school he played for the rugby teams and attended the school camps. On leaving school Sergeant Moore was employed by Messrs Woolworth and Co. until he joined the forces. Our sympathy is extended to his parents, from the Hinckley Grammar School Magazine, Spring Term 1946.

Flight Sergeant Clifford Ernest Smith: The Navigator
We know very little about Clifford Smith. Not even the RAF seems to know how old he was. As a matter of fact he is the only airman out of eight not to have his age mentioned on his grave. His name, moreover, is the most common one in the United Kingdom and this will make his identification all the more difficult. Eric Brown was Clifford鈥檚 friend and Eric鈥檚 mother mentions that the navigator came and visited them when on his leave. Valerie White, Eric鈥檚 sister, remembers that Clifford was from Devon and that they went to visit Mrs Smith when they went on holiday after the plane had gone missing. She recalls being in a room of the house with a beautiful view of the sea. When she commented about it, Mrs Smith said that when the boys returned, she must come back to stay with them. She would sleep in that room. Mrs Smith may have been a widow and Clifford an only child.

Sergeant Wolf Herman Engelhardt: The Special (ABC) Radio Operator
Our uncle Wolf was born on the 9th November 1920 in Leipzig in Germany and was two years older than our father. They were forced to leave school because of the Nazi persecution of Jewish people in the mid-1930s. The family wanted to make a new life in Palestine, but the numbers of immigration visas were severely limited. They were made homeless and stateless. Eventually the two brothers obtained the necessary papers and permits and were able to flee to England in 1939 travelling on Polish passports, their father鈥檚 nationality. They left behind their parents, Leo and Sophie Engelhardt who had a clothing shop in Erfurt in eastern Germany and their younger brother Issy who was then 12 years old. As the situation worsened in Germany, many Jewish families were deported to Poland. The family was sent to Nowy Sacz in Poland in 1938 where they managed to send some letters to England telling their sons about the terrible conditions in the ghetto there. The letters stopped in 1941 when the Jews in the area including many members of our family were killed in the Holocaust. We have no information about what actually happened or where they met their deaths.

In England, our father Siegfried Engelhardt (he later changed his name to Stephen Ellis) and Wolf found jobs as farm workers. They were regarded as friendly aliens because of their birth in Germany and their father鈥檚 Polish nationality. Eventually Wolf was able to start a course in gardening and cultivation at the Royal Horticultural School at Wisley in Surrey where his name is recorded in their Roll of Honour. Wolf wanted to emigrate to Israel after the war and grow flowers. In the meantime our father was able to begin working as an engineering apprentice making aircraft parts.

In June 1943 they volunteered for the RAF at Lords cricket ground in London. Wolf was accepted and initially directed toward training as a radio operator / air gunner at a radio training school. Our father was already involved in essential aircraft production and was asked to continue this as a reserved essential occupation. He went onto develop aircraft parts for Barnes Wallis, the famous aircraft designer.
Our father knew nothing of his brother鈥檚 training, only that Wolf would ask him for help with his technical problems as he moved between training schools. With bomber losses increasing and the development of Airborne Cigar (ABC) as an airborne form of electronic countermeasures, there was a need to recruit German speaking radio operators for 鈥榮pecial duties鈥�. Personnel records held by the RAF indicate that Wolf was made a Sergeant in April 1944; he moved to 11 Base in May and was assigned to 101 Squadron on the 13th June 1944. Interestingly his records contain a note that he was fined 12/6d (several days pay) on the 19th November 1943. We have no idea why, but we hope that he and his friends enjoyed themselves!

When LM-462 failed to return on the 29th July 1944 from their raid on Stuttgart, the dreaded telegram 鈥渨e regret to inform you that your brother has failed to return . . . . . . . . .鈥� was received. A year after the plane went missing came confirmation that all the crew had been killed. From research undertaken recently on RAF papers kept secret for 50 years, the story has now begun to emerge. Our father spoke very little about the family he lost. As a family growing up in England without aunts or uncles or grandparents, we just knew that our parents had been forced to leave their homes and family. It was difficult for both our parents to describe their life in Germany and all that they had lost. We knew very little about our uncle as we grew up, it was just so hard to bring the subject up and perhaps even as children we also knew not to ask.

It was only when we began to have family of our own that questions were asked and more details began to come. Some information about Wolf needing to be able to speak German in his role as a radio operator was known by our father after the war, but he cannot remember how he had come to know this. He visited Rebr茅chien after the war in 1948, in 1954 and again in 1977, but did not make contact with people in the village. He has one early photograph of the grave with members of the Allard family. Otherwise all that had happened and Rebr茅chien seemed a very long way away from our family until the 1990s. It seemed so unfair that someone who had escaped the Holocaust had not then survived the war. The grave in France became so much more important and the more we could find out, came to mean so much to our family who had lost so many relatives.

In 1999, Stephen鈥檚 son David visited Rebr茅chien during a family holiday to Disneyland Paris. They made contact with the Townhall and met Madame Hubler who conveyed the deep respect and continuing interest of the village in the 8 crewmen. An article about the Lancaster had appeared in the Rebr茅chien yearbook the previous year and David responded with an account about our uncle. One thing led to another, particularly the release of information about 101 Squadron and their role in jamming enemy night fighter radio transmissions. The ease of access to this material on the internet and the use of E mail allowed the build up of very detailed information amongst the family and researchers who were interested in related topics. In 2000, our father was contacted by Martin Sugarman Archivist for the British Association of Jewish Ex-Servicemen and Women 鈥� AJEX - Jewish Military Museum, London who was researching the role of many Jewish Special Radio (ABC) Operators who flew with 101 Squadron in this role during the war. Wolf featured in this work that was delivered as a lecture to the Jewish Historical Society in London in 2001 and subsequently published by the Jewish Historical Society of England as a paper in their Studies, Volume 37, p189-224. The text (Confounding the enemy: Jewish RAF Special Operators in radio counter measures with 101 Squadron, (September 1943鈥擬ay 1945) is available at: ^{About links}

David鈥檚 brother Ian, the younger son of Stephen Ellis and nephew of Wolf continued this research on behalf of the family making contact with Remco Immerzeel. Ian found Remco鈥檚 webpage looking for people to swap stamps and noted his address in Rebr茅chien. The E mail conversation developed into a regular correspondence about the village and the events of July 1944. In July 2003, Ian visited Rebr茅chien whilst on a business trip to Paris meeting Christian Prudhomme, Mme Hubler and several of the eye witnesses to the tragic events of 60 years before. Much information was exchanged including small pieces of wreckage from the Lancaster and fragments of the old concrete runway that Ian had brought from Ludford Magna where the bomber had taken off from.

Stephen Ellis, (brother), married to Rose Ellis, London, Retired engineer.
David Ellis, (nephew) London
Lawyer and sons Jonathan, Daniel and Adam.

Ian Ellis, (nephew), Manchester, Doctor (genetics), married to Amanda Lurie and children Sophia and Joshua. E mail: ianellis@onetel.com

Chapter 6 continues the story of the Lancaster Crash at Rebr茅chien with further stories about the crew themselves.

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