Operation: Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, France

Date: 4th/5th July 1944 (Tuesday/Wednesday)

Unit No: 433 (Porcupine) Squadron, RCAF, 6 Group, Bomber Command

Type: Halifax III

Serial: LW123

Code: BM:W

Base: RAF Skipton-on-Swale, Yorkshire

Location: 5 km (3 mls) south of Laone, France

Pilot: Fg Off. William Gordon Baird J25900 RCAF Age 20. KiA

Flt Eng: Sgt. James Henry Marler 2220018 RAFVR Age 32. KiA

Nav: Fg Off. John Dalton Harvie J27573 RCAF Age 20. ID No. 78412 *, PoW No. 8094 ** (1)

Bomb Aimer: Plt Off. Donald Frederick Wilson J86626 RCAF Age 23. KiA

WOp/Air Gnr: WO1. Robert Thomas William Longley R59381 RCAF Age 22. KiA

Air Gnr (Mid Upp): Sgt. Thomas Corson Jenkins R197728 RCAF Age 21. KiA

Air Gnr (Rear): Sgt. William Henry Winder R204675 RCAF Age 21. KiA

* Buchenwald concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimar, Germany in July 1937.

** Stalag Luft 3 Sagan-Silesia, Germany, now Żagań in Poland. (Moved to Nuremberg-Langwasser, Bavaria).

Above: Photograph of crew from the service record of WO1. Longley

Standing left to right: Sgt. Winder, Sgt. Marler, Sgt. Jenkins, WO1. Longley; Front left to right: Sgt. Harvie, Fg Off. Baird, Plt Off. Wilson.

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the 4th July 1944 16 aircraft from the squadron were tasked on a mission to bomb the railway yards at Villeneuve-Saint-Georges in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. There were no reports of any fighter activity over the target which was bombed accurately.

LW123 was one of 3 aircraft from the squadron that failed to return.

LW123 or 433 (Porcupine) Sqn LW120 was claimed by Lt. Lothar Jarsch, his 4th Abschuss, from 6./NJG6 in the area of Dreaux-Évreux-Chartres at 1500 m. at 01:48 hrs. (Nachtjagd Combat Archive (12 May 1944 - 23 July 1944) Part 3 - Theo Boiten).

Oblt. Jarsch survived the war and was credited with 6 Abschüsse.

Note: There are no other records listed by the OKL that claim LW123 and/or LW120 so Lt. Jarsch can only have claimed one of the two bombers with the other lost in unknown circumstances. However, there are two claims for a 4-Mot probably from the Villeneuve raid that were never confirmed or were rejected by the OKL.

The aircraft crashed on fire in a cornfield about 5 km (3 mls) south of Laone (Eure-et-Loir), 15 km (9¼ mls) WSW of Dreux, to the left of the road to Blevy.

The other two aircraft that failed to return were:

Halifax III LW120 BM:E (2 KiA, 4 PoW, 1 Evd);

Halifax III HX353 BM:X (1 KiA, 3 PoW, 3 Evd).

(1) Fg Off. Harvie was the first member of the crew to bale out of the aircraft. Farmers that aided him told him that six bodies had been recovered and that two others had baled out but too low for their parachutes to open.

The details of his evasion are not known, however, what is know is that he was betrayed and captured in Paris on the 14th July 1944.

He was taken to the Fresnes prison located to the south of Paris. This was where French political prisoners were held and ordinarily Allied airmen, after questioning, were moved to a PoW Camp. In the summer of 1944, with the Allies having liberated Paris and closing in, the Gestapo guards started reducing the prison population by execution, and then relocating surviving prisoners to various concentration camps east of France. On the 15th August 1944 they was amongst 169 Allied PoWs and hundreds of French men and women who were packed into a freight train and transported to Buchenwald concentration camp on a journey lasting five days. Buchenwald was located 8 km (5 mls) north of Weimar, in the German province of Thüringen. It was established and administered by the Schutzstaffel (SS).

Fg Off. Joel Mathews ‘Tex’ Stevenson C27788 RCAF, the pilot of 419 (Moose) Squadron, RCAF Lancaster X KB727 VR:H escaped from the train and successfully evaded.

Sqn Ldr. Lamason and Fg Off. Chapman succeeded in getting all but two of the Allied PoWs transferred to Stalag Luft 3. Two airmen, 1st Lt. Levitt Clinton Beck Jr. O-736945, US AAF and Fg Off. Philip Derek Hemmens, 152583, RAFVR died in the sick barrack

Recognition:

For decades the International Red Cross (IRC) had stated that there were no military personnel in Buchenwald despite the overwhelming documentary and anecdotal evidence. It was not until 1988 that the IRC eventually confirmed the airmen were illegally held at Buchenwald.

The Australian, New Zealand and Canadian governments also consistently denied that any of their service personnel were ever held in concentration camps and refused to investigate the claims made by a 'mere’ handful of men.

Reparations were made to the British airmen who had been illegally held at Buchenwald in 1965. Eventually in 1988 the Australian, New Zealand and it is believed the Canadian governments acknowledged that their airmen had been illegally held in concentration camps.

American airmen were among those receiving compensation and the US Air force have acknowledged the Buchenwald airmen with an exhibit at the Air Force Museum, albeit the airmen are shown in uniform rather than in civilian attire. Furthermore, there is no mention of decades-long denial of their experiences by other branches of the government.

Fg Off. Harvie was transferred to Stalag Luft 3 over the period 15th to 20th August 1944.

Just before midnight on the 27th January 1945, because of advancing Soviet forces, the PoW’s were marched out of the camp to Spremberg. Here PoWs were divided up according to Compounds, and they were led to railway sidings and loaded into tightly packed carriages. The train journeys took about 2-3 days with trains the stopping every 12 hours beyond railway stations. PoWs could leave carriages for physical needs and were provided with fresh water.

Fg Off. Harvie was part of the column of men that were force-marched to the Marlag-Milag Nord PoW camp arriving there on the 4th/5th February 1945.

Marlag = Marinelager (naval prisoner of war camp) and Milag = Marine-Internierten-Lager (naval internment camp), Nord (North). Located at a former Luftwaffe (German Air Force) barracks near Westertimke NE of Bremen in Germany.

On the 2nd April 1945 the camp commandant ordered that the PoWs were to leave the camp with most of the guards. However, that afternoon a detachment of more than 100 SS-Feldgendarmerie entered the camp and gathered some 3000 of the PoWs and marched them out heading east.

The column was attacked RAF aircraft resulting in the deaths of two PoWs and injuries to several others. The Senior British Naval Officer (SBNO), Capt. J. Thornton was one of the two who were killed.

It is believed that Fg Off. Harvie was part of this column but is not on the list of PoWs. However, the list is not comprehensive as only has around 200 names. The column finally arrived at Lübeck, on the Baltic coast, on the 28th April 1945. They where they were liberated by a Spearhead of the 11th Armoured Division around noon of the 1st May 1945.

At the Marlag-Milag Nord camp the guards fled on 9th April 1945 and were replaced by elderly civilian guards. Those remaining at the camp were liberated by the British Guards Armoured Division on the 27th April 1945. He was interviewed on the 3rd May 1945.

Above: Fg Off. Harvie reported safe in England (Courtesy of The Gazette, dated 12th May 1945)

John Dalton Harvie was born on the 3rd September 1923. He was a Junior Draughtsman by profession in Quebec profession prior to enlisting in the RCAF on the 1st Jun 1942. John Dalton Harvie passed away on the 5th January 2011.

Burial details:

Five of the crew were found in the aircraft wreckage and buried in a common grave in sperate coffins in the Laons Communal Cemetery. A sixth member of the crew was found some distance from the aircraft in the Commune of Blevy and was initially buried in the Blevy Cemetery.

Above: Fg Off. Baird and initial grave marker from his service file

Fg Off. William Gordon Baird. Laons Communal Cemetery Grave 6. Grave inscription: "THY WILL BE DONE". Born on the 14th December 1924 in Calgary, Alberta. Son of Andrew Britton and Isabel (née Gordon) Baird of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Sgt. James Henry Marler. Laons Communal Cemetery Grave 3. Grave inscription: 'A BELOVED SON AND BROTHER'. Born in the 4th Qtr 1911 in Aston, Warwickshire. Son of William Thomas and Lilian Ethel (née Woodward) Marler of Northfield, Birmingham, England.

Plt Off. Donald Frederick Wilson. Laons Communal Cemetery Grave 5. Grave inscription: 'FAITHFUL UNTO DEATH'. Born on the 31st March 1921 in Ontario, Province of Quebec. Son of Frederick James and Edna May (née McWaters) Wilson of Dorval, Province of Quebec, Canada.

Plt Off. Robert Thomas William Longley. Laons Communal Cemetery Grave 1. Born on the 8th June 1922 in Winnipeg, Manitoba. Son of Robert Edward and Dorothy (née Palmer) Longley of Winnipeg, Manitoba, Canada.

WO1 Longley was posthumously appointed to a commission and promoted to J92038 Plt Off on the 3rd July 1944.

Plt Off. Thomas Corson Jenkins. Laons Communal Cemetery Grave 4. Grave inscription: 'ASLEEP IN JESUS UNTIL THE DAWN BREAKS AND THE SHADOWS FLEE AWAY'. Born on the 24th July 1922 in Victoria, British Columbia. Son of Francis William and Ruth Elizabeth (née Macdonald) Jenkins of Esquimalt, British Columbia, Canada.

Sgt. Jenkins was posthumously appointed to a commission and promoted to J90217 Plt Off on the 3rd July 1944.

Plt Off. William Henry Winder. Laons Communal Cemetery Grave 2. Born on the 18th June 1923 in Tacoma, Washington, USA. Son of Edward Attree and Laura Jane (née Winning) Winder of Quesnel, British Columbia, Canada.

Sgt. Winder was posthumously appointed to a commission and promoted to J90300 Plt Off on the 3rd July 1944.

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this crew.

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