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 2 of 6 chapters telling the story of The Lancaster Crash at Rebr茅chien. This is the continuation of Chapter 1 with further testimonies of eye-witnesses to the crash at Rebr茅chien.

Marie-Th茅r猫se Gauthier from Trainou, 16 and living in Rebr茅chien in 1944
"On July 28th 1944, I lived on the central square near the Ripouteau farm. I was awakened by a tremendous blast around 11.30 pm. We went to see what happened and came across someone screaming: it fell on la Cour! We immediately went to see the Menard family who lived there but they were unharmed. Even after the explosion we couldn鈥檛 get too close as there was a big fire and there were still bullets going off. We also saw the Gr茅goire鈥檚 house on fire. We did not see the family right away but we were amazed to hear that Mr Gr茅goire was able to save both his sister and his father by carrying the old man on his back.
The next day we walked back and noticed a parachute in fairly good condition right in the crater. It hadn鈥檛 burnt despite the huge explosion and I could still see the ropes on it. I did not dare to get closer to check what was under it."

Jocelyne David, nee Bichard, from Loury, 13 and living in Rebr茅chien in 1944
"My parents lived at La Prunelli猫re. My father was a P.O.W. so I lived alone with my mother. Around 11.30 we heard a big explosion. When we realised that our house was not too damaged we decided to go and have a look outside. While walking to the crash site, we met people from La Cour who had already seen the site and were on their way back home. Everybody was talking about the accident. Then we saw flames and noticed that the Gr茅goire house was on fire. We came back the next morning and the ruins were still smoking."

R茅gine Melon, 22 and living in her parents鈥� farmhouse at la Cour just across the road from the crash in 1944
"That night, around 11.30pm, we heard the roar of aircraft flying over and shooting. We all went outside except Guy, my little brother, who was sleeping like a log! We saw an aircraft on fire go east, turn around, come back towards Rebr茅chien and dive. We all rushed back to the kitchen. An enormous explosion broke the windows and the whole family was injured by flying glass. The electricity had gone out and the fields were on fire. All the roofs at la Cour were blown off and many walls were cracked. The ground was white because of the clay that had been projected and our feet were sticky. No one went to bed that night, we were all so shocked. It wasn鈥檛 until the next morning that we learnt the full extent of the disaster. Our father was looking at the house and was crying. People were coming from all around us to see what had happened. Gr茅goire, our neighbour, and his family came out of their house. The house was in ruins, but they were practically unscathed."

Georges and Germaine M茅nard, 27 and 28 and living at la Cour in 1944
"We were sleeping in our room. G茅rard, our son, who was 5 was in his bed next to ours. I got up because of the noise and I thought it was Les Aubrais (near Orleans) being bombed again. I had just gone back to bed when an enormous explosion broke the window. The glass was projected across the room and broke the mirror on the wardrobe! An indoor wall even fell onto the bed. The next day, no fruit was left in the trees. The plane had crashed in a potato field, and people were picking up the potatoes that had been uprooted. Our house was so badly damaged we were given accommodation in the Rebr茅chien presbytery鈥�. Emile Allard, the forest keeper and I, volunteered to take the corpses. We gave the crew its first burial. We planted two propeller blades near the grave and placed small stones representing the Union Jack on the tombstone."

Raymond Camus, 17 in 1944
"I was living at my uncle鈥檚 in Rebr茅chien after the bombing of Beaugency. I still remember the smell of burning petrol and oil. Large clumps of earth had been thrown all around the crater. It was too awful for words! My uncle found a piece of blue RAF uniform with a small pocket that had miraculously remained intact. He recovered some pictures, a small amount of French and Belgian money, probably in case they had been forced to land. Each year, I put flowers on the grave for the airmen who fell in Rebr茅chien."

Robert Baratin, 21 in 1944 and living at la Po毛lerie in Rebr茅chien at the time
"The next day, I went to see the crater. Mr. Danloup, the Cartwright of Rebr茅chien, had made a single small coffin for the airmen鈥檚 remains. It was the mayor Sadi Gent茅, who organised the funeral with the priest, Paul Perdereau. It was a worthy solemn ceremony."

The burial ceremony in the cemetery at Rebr茅chien was short because of the presence of the Germans. It is not clear whether the people in the village of Rebr茅chien knew there were 8 men in the crew at the time of the crash, such was the destruction. Later on with the liberation of Orleans by the army of the American General George Patton, information about the crash and the crew on board was exchanged with the RAF. It emerged that the bomber was an RAF Lancaster bomber with a crew of 8 on board, not the usual 7 men. Why this plane carried an extra man, became something of a mystery that was referred to in an article in the Rebr茅chien newsletter in later years. Information that did reach Rebr茅chien said that this was a Lancaster mark III known as LM-462. Its call sign was SR-V2 from the RAF 101 Squadron based at Ludford Magna in Lincolnshire.

The Grave of the "Liberators of France"
Since the war, the village has maintained the grave as an act of solidarity with the 8 men and their families. A memorial stone was placed in the church. These young men, the youngest was 21, the oldest was 30 are regarded as 鈥楲iberators of France鈥�. The Commonwealth War Graves Commission in England (^{About links}) working with the Town Hall in Rebr茅chien arranges essential maintenance work when necessary, but people in the village undertake much of the general care. Madame Eliane Hubler, now 93 years old, has regularly placed flowers on the grave for many, many years. She has adopted the airmen鈥檚 grave as if it was her own family. Flowers left by other visitors and well wishers appeared at the grave from time to time, but it seemed that no other close family member was able to make the journey to visit. Some relatives came (we learned in 2004 that the Hylands came to Rebr茅chien in 1985), but they never made their presence known and left without leaving specific messages or contact details.

This was to change in August 1999 when David Ellis the nephew of Sergeant W. H. Engelhardt brought his young family to visit the grave. Whilst on a trip to Paris, he detoured to Rebr茅chien and called into the town hall. This was apparently the first relative to make direct contact in 50 years! It was then that the modern story begins. He was able to explain that his uncle was selected as a Special Radio Operator as he spoke German and this was the 8th man on the crew. Sergeant Engelhardt鈥檚 role was to listen into enemy radio broadcasts and to jam the radio messages flowing between the German night fighters and their ground controllers. By interfering with their messages the Special Radio Operator could protect the streams of British bombers from German night-fighters that would otherwise be directed against them.

Arthur Harris and Bomber Command
The successful defence of the English south coast by RAF Hurricanes and Spitfires in the summer of 1940 showed the combined strength of an integrated radar detection and aircraft command and control system. The price of this success became the bombing of cities as the Blitz targeted London and other major civilian areas. This was the Luftwaffe鈥檚 attempt to destroy Britain鈥檚 war effort by attacking manufacturing industry and to break civilian morale. With the bombing of British cities and their civilian population came the opportunity for the RAF to both retaliate and to attempt the progressive destruction of the other鈥檚 will to fight. The Commander-in-Chief, Bomber leader of the RAF Bomber Command, Sir Arthur Harris said that if Germany 鈥渉ave sown the wind, and so they shall reap the whirlwind鈥�. With few opportunities elsewhere to attack Hitler鈥檚 Europe in 1941-42, Harris鈥檚 plan to develop the capacity of Bomber Command gained the support of Winston Churchill. They believed that the systematic bombing of German industries and cities would reduce the Nazis physical ability to fight and demoralize the civilian population to the point where this would make the eventual invasion of Europe easier. Thus the plans were laid for an RAF bomber of fearsome capacity, the formidable Lancaster and for what became the awesome destructive power of the 1,000 plane raids against the industrial cities of Germany.

鈥淭here are no words with which I can do justice to the air-crew who fought under my command. There is no parallel in warfare to such courage and determination in the face of danger over so prolonged a period, of danger that at times was so great that scarcely one man in three could expect to survive his tour of thirty operations鈥� It was furthermore, the courage of the small hours, of man virtually alone, for at his battle station the airman is virtually alone. It was the courage of men with long-drawn apprehensions of daily 鈥済oing over the top.鈥� Arthur Harris from Bomber Offensive

It became apparent early in the war that Bomber Command could not sustain daylight bombing raids against targets in Germany. The losses to German fighters intercepting the much slower and under armed bombers were both unsustainable in both men and materials and unsupportable in terms of aircrew losses. Instead the RAF switched to night time bombing choosing the relative safety of concealment at night, but also finding it much more difficult to hit their targets accurately. In fact, the majority of bombs were landing up to 15 kilometres from the intended target. The concept of area bombing evolved to obliterate whole areas as allied air forces committed themselves to their targets and aims. The RAF convinced that night time bombing of German cities could destroy the German war machine and the Nazis will to fight began to build a formidable bombing capability. What was once intended to be a precision tool of tactical bombing became a most awesome weapon of strategic area bombing. The RAF found that bombers in small groups were unlikely to find their targets and so assembled larger bombing groups of 50, 100+ and even up to 1000 plane raids. Even if they encountered night fighters or screens of anti-aircraft fire, some would get through to the target and bombing together would increase their destructive power.

THE SR-V2 LM462 Lancaster
The SR-V2 was built by Sir W.G. Armstrong Whithworth Aircraft in Whithworth, Coventry and issued to 101 Squadron. The bombers were progressively dispatched to several squadrons depending on their needs and losses. The MK III was a standard aircraft fitted with four Packard built Merlin 12 cylinder liquid cooled engines with two stage superchargers. It was fitted with front, mid upper and rear hydraulically operated gun turrets. The cost of a Lancaster was 拢4,000 pounds (as a comparison the cost of a lunch was 5 pence).
On June 15th 1943 bomber command opened the brand new Ludford Magna base. It had 3 concrete runways and 7 hangars.

Lancaster LM-462 (a MK III Lancaster) was sent to Ludford Magna with the code SR-V2 and fitted with an additional Airborne jamming radar. It would also carry an additional crew member. As a result its bomb load was slightly altered in order to adapt the total weight of the plane to other aircrafts. This was essential because a heavy aircraft would be slower and would be isolated from other bombers and therefore an easy prey for night fighters. A typical Lancaster III would often carry up to 15 bombs, a 4,000 pound bomb called 鈥渃ookie鈥� and fourteen 500 lb bombs. Lancasters from 101 squadron often carried 10 bombs (one cookie and nine 500 bombs.) 1,000 pounds were thus taken off and allowed three large antennas, the ABC equipment and an additional crew member. This also took into account the loss of aero dynamism. The Cookie was a 4,000 lb explosive bomb filled with amatol and TNT. It was meant to explode as soon as it hit the ground. The nine 500 lb bombs however were incendiary bombs and were the smallest bombs available on Lancasters. The 500 lb bombs were meant to explode slightly after hitting the ground but could also explode upon touching the target.

The English county of Lincolnshire became so heavily populated by RAF bomber stations during the war that it became known as 鈥楤omber County鈥�. It provided large areas of flat open land that could be easily converted into airfields with their concrete runways and hard standings to park the dispersed aircraft between operations. Its location on the east coast of central England was out of enemy fighter range and facing occupied Europe, allowing returning aircraft a straight-in approach. Ludford Magna was one such airfield built in 1942-43 outside the village that very much resembles Rebrechien in size and agriculture.

There were three concrete runways between 1,400 and 2,000 metres long with 36 aircraft parking areas adjoining the perimeter track. Several hangers for technical work, living accommodation, eating, briefing and dispersal areas, fuel and bomb storage as well as sick quarters were distributed around the airfield. In total the airfield accommodated over 2000 men and women. During the winters the rain and difficult conditions led to it being known as 鈥楳udford Magna鈥�. After the war Ludford Magna gradually returned to agricultural use. However, in 1958 it was selected as one of the sites for Thor missiles with three separate launch pads constructed in the centre of the airfield. Eventually the runways were broken up for road and bridge foundations in the 1960s. The hangars were sold and dismantled, although many buildings survive for small business use
The Squadron's contribution to the war effort flying 6,766 sorties in 512 bombing raids was both impressive and terrible. Its work in disrupting the Luftwaffe night fighter control system set it apart for special praise. The cost for 101 Squadron was 171 aircraft lost in operations (including 113 Lancasters, of which one was the crash at Rebrechien). Out of the 55,000 men of RAF Bomber Command that were killed, the squadron lost a staggering 1,109 men killed or missing, probably the highest of any RAF squadron during the Second World War. Around 10,000 airmen were made prisoners of war. They were relatively lucky, for the chances of getting out of a crashing bomber were slim. The g-forces caused by aircraft spinning earthwards out of control trapped many airmen inside.
Although the bomber airfield at Ludford has gone now, the courage and sacrifice of so many from the squadron is remembered by a stone memorial to the Squadron's dead on the village green unveiled in July 1978. A book of remembrance in St Mary鈥檚 church at Ludford records the names of all the squadron鈥檚 aircrew who gave their lives. Once a year the very active Squadron Association and the relatives of former members meet at Ludford for a service of remembrance, tea given by the villagers and weather permitting, a fly-past by the RAF鈥檚 Battle of Britain Memorial Flight including a wartime Lancaster.

Chapter 3 continues the story of the Lancaster Crash at Rebr茅chien with information about German Night Fighters and their defence against RAF Bombers.

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