Operation: Vernon-Poix France

Date: 13th June 1940 (Thursday)

Unit No: 150 Squadron, Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF), Bomber Command

Type: Fairey Battle I

Serial: L5524

Code: JN:?

Base: RAF Houssay

Location: Aigleville, south of Evreux, Department of Eure, Normandy

Pilot: Plt Off. Alfred Richard Gulley 33385 RAF Age 21. KiA

Obs: Sgt. Harold Berry 514724 RAF Age? Evader (1)

Air Gnr: LAC. Donald Leslie Phillips 545177 RAF Age 20. Evader (2)

Above: Plt Off. Alfred Richard Gulley (Courtesy of Tom Bowen)

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the morning of the 13th June 1940 between 09:45 and 10:05 hrs 6 aircraft from 150 Sqn were detailed on operations to attack German columns in the Vernon-Poix-Vereax area. L5524 was attacked by Me109s. LAC. Phillips shot down one of the attackers but not before the Battle’s fuel tanks were punctured and set ablaze. Plt Off. Gulley attempted to crash-land the burning aircraft but he was killed when the aircraft bounced heavily into the next field, near St Valery.

It is believed that L5524 was claimed by Uffz. Heinrich Vollmer, his 3rd Abschuss, of 3./JG3. The aircraft crash-landed and burned out near Aigleville.

LAC. Phillips and Sgt. Berry were knocked out and in consequence they both suffered burns to the face and hands.

The squadron also lost Battle I, L5437 JN:? on this mission. Plt Off. Roy Cuthbert Beale 44679 RAF and his two members were KiA.

After coming round they managed to stagger to a nearby Château for help. There was a dressing station there where they received some treatment but were captured by a German patrol shortly thereafter. They were taken to another dressing station located at another Château in Vernon. They spent the next seven days there but were not treated.

(1) Sgt. Berry was taken to the Hospital Rouen from where he escaped on the 13th September 1940.

Passed unfit by a medical board and was repatriated from France on the 19th May 1941 arrived at RAF Mountbatten on the 2nd June 1941.

He was Mentioned in Despatches (MiD) on the 11th June 1942.

On the 14th February 1943 Flt Sgt. Harold Berry was transferred to the Technical Branch and was granted a temporary commission and promoted to 57750 Plt Off. (London Gazette 15th March 1946). He was promoted to Fg Off. with effect 18th April 1947 (London Gazette 27th July 1947).

On the 9th March 1948 he was transferred to the Physical Fitness Branch retaining his rank and seniority (London Gazette 21st May 1948). He was promoted to Flt Lt. with effect 14th August 1950 (London Gazette 29th August 1950). He was awarded the MBE(M) which was promulgated in the London Gazette on the 7th June 1951.

He retired from the Royal Air Force with effect 14th January 1961 (London Gazette 27th March 1961).

On the 14th January 1961 he was appointed to commission as a Flt Lt. in the Royal Air Force Reserve of Officers (London Gazette 24th March 1961). He relinquished his commission, on cessation of duties, on the 1st September 1964 (London Gazette 30th October 1964).

(2) LAC. Phillips taken to the hospital at Amiens where he remained for about three weeks. He was interrogated and asked about the strength of units, aerodromes, etc., but told his interrogators that he could give no information and the questioning was abandoned. Whilst there the RAF bombed the aerodrome and blew up an ammunition dump which went on exploding all night and there were many casualties.

In the company of three Army officers he was transported by lorry to a prison camp at Doullens where he remained for about a month. He had to work and spent most of the time transporting sacks of flour from goods trains to storage houses and on occasion had to transport heavy bombs. Also at this prison camp were the whole of the Hospital staff from Roen including the Commanding Officer.

He and a Private (Pte) Witton collected odd bits of rope and fashioned a length of rope. At 20:30 hrs on the 28th July, they tied one end to a tree and slide down a 60 ft wall. Which the German did not bother to guard because of the height.

Private Job Witton 3712731 King’s Own Royal Regiment (Lancaster). He was awarded the Military Medal (MM). London Gazette 7th March 1941.

Pte. Witton was already in civilian clothing, having escaped previously from Lille, LAC. Philips had a civilian jacket which he had obtained from a fellow prisoner along with a small no luminous compass and a small amount of French Francs. They hid their uniforms and walked passed the prison, watched through binoculars by a German guard who was standing on top of the wall.

Their intention was too make for Spain via the line of demarcation and headed off in south- easterly direction. On the advice of an inhabitant they obtained and carried pitch forks which they kept for the whole journey through France. On the journey through occupied France we slept in barns and the civilian population were very helpful and willing to supply them with food

On the first night they walked about 8 kms and continued during the day across country and avoiding large towns. Arriving at the River Somme they found that the bridged were well guarded so they swam across. The crossed the River Oise by ferry having been assisted by a Frenchman who paid their fares. They were rowed across the River Marne in a boat, inexplicably by German soldier. Then they made for Pouan-les-Vallées, following the River l’Aube. Here they contacted a women with whom LAC. Philips had been previously billeted and were given accommodation for two days. From there they made for Chalon-sur-Saône, passing to the west of Dijon. At the demarcation line they managed to evade one guard and then crossed the line in the middle of a herd of cows.

They continued along the main Chalon-sur-Saône/Mâcon road and, stopping a lorry, got a lift as far as Sennecey-lès-Dijon where they reported to the Military Bureau. They were given railway tickets to Lyon where the travelled to the following day. In Lyon they went to the American Consulate but there was no one there so they reported to the Military Authorities and were put in prison. After two days in the prison, having been refused permission to see the American Consul, they were sent by train to Valence, under escort. There they stayed for four days in French Military Barracks.

From there they were sent, under escort, to what appears to be a concentration camp, at Loriol-sur-Drôme. There were civil and military guards at this camp which held roughly about 30 civilians, 22 of whom were German. They were in this camp for three weeks during which time a German Mission arrived and took away the 22 German prisoners. They hid whilst the German Mission were at the camp.

They were then sent, escorted by French gendarmes, by train to Grenoble and held the barracks. They were there for about nine days and were made to work on a road and told that they were there for the duration. They were allowed out at 18:00 hrs escorted by a French soldier. They made contact with a Frenchman with whom they arranged a rendezvous and then met them in his car on the Grenoble/Lyon road. He had aboard a British Army Captain named Stuart-Menteth and drove the three to Lyon where they caught a train to Perpignan which is about 25 km (15½ mls) of the frontier with Spain.

Whilst in Grenoble LAC. Philips wrote to the American Consul in Lyon requesting some money and was sent the sum of 500 French Francs. When they left Perpignan it was at 01:00 hrs and walked across country to the frontier. Just before arriving there they stopped at a farm where they spent the day. They reached the frontier at about midnight the following day and encounter a guard who shot at them Capt Stuart-Menteth dashed into a vineyard and he was not seen again.

Captain Walter Granville Stuart-Menteth 90807, of the 2nd/6th Queens Regiment. He successfully evaded and arrived in the UK on the 29th October 1940. He was Mentioned in Despatches (MiD) promulgated in the London Gazette 31st January 1941.

LAC. Philips and Pte. Witton dashed into a wood on the opposite side of the road and made their way towards Spain over the mountains. They wandered for two days in the mountains without food and eventually arrived at a Spanish farm where, on request, we were given food and shelter for the night.

Soon after leaving the farm they were arrested by the Spanish authorities who took them to a small village where they stayed the night. The next day they were taken to Figueres and were imprisoned and held for three weeks before being moved to the Castillo prison in the same town where they were held for a further eight days.

Castillo prison was Sant Ferran Castle, a large military fortress situated on a hill.

Then they were moved to a prison at Cervera, where they remained for eight days before being moved again the Miranda De Ebro concentration camp (named Campo de concentración de Miranda de Ebro) where they were held for about three weeks. Then they were hand over by the Spanish authorities to the British Embassy in Madrid.

Miranda De Ebro was the location of a Franco Nationalist concentration camp that remained active until 1947 and was the last camp to close down.

They spent the day and a night in Madrid and were then sent by train to Algeciras with a party of about fifty, and from there by bus to Gibraltar. They left Gibraltar on 19th November 1940 aboard the SS Aquilla arriving at Liverpool on 4th December 1940.

Sgt. Donald Leslie Phillips was awarded the Military Medal (MM) in recognition of gallant conduct (London Gazette 7th March 1941).

Sgt. Phillips was transferred to the Technical Branch and was granted a temporary commission and promoted to 52730 Plt Off. with effect 19th August 1943 (London Gazette 8th October 1943). He was promoted to Fg Off. with effect 19th February 1944 (London Gazette 7th March 1944). He was promoted to Flt Lt. with effect 23rd July 1948 (London Gazette 13th August 1948).

Flt Lt. Donald Leslie Phillips retired from the Royal Air Force on the 22nd September 1954 (London Gazette 5th October 1954)

Donald Leslie Phillips was born on the 12th March 1920 in Birmingham, West Midlands. Donald passed away in December 2001 in Coventry, West Midlands.

David Phillips, the son of LAC Donald Leslie Phillips contacted us in April 2018:

"My father joined the RAF in 1937 aged sixteen. After being shot down in June 1940 he was sent to a military casualty station, then military hospital in Amiens. Transferred to a fortress prison in northern France he escaped two months later, got across France to the Pyrenees and was imprisoned again in Spain. On return to England he gained his commission and was attached to No.3 Group Bomber Command responsible for the radio installations of outgoing bomber sorties. He left the RAF in 1952 to pursue a career in the electronics industry.

It is ironic that he hoped to publish an account of his experiences but was prevented by 'authority'. By the time that virtually everyone was publishing, he was too busy in his job to follow this through although he left some personal memoirs. He passed away in 2001, having previously spent some time visiting the French cemeteries in which other 150 Sqn. members were interred to check on the upkeep of their memorials".

Burial details:

This is the only CWGC grave in the churchyard.

Plt Off. Alfred Richard Gulley. Aigleville Churchyard, Departement d'Eure-et-Loir Centre, France. Grave inscription: “THERE’S SOME CORNER OF A FOREIGN FIELD THAT IS FOR EVER ENGLAND”. Son of Alfred Clifford and Violet Katharine Langston Gulley, of Parkstone, Dorsetshire, England.

On Armistice Day 2023 a new road, Rue Alfred R Gulley, was named to honour Plt Off. Gulley.

Researched for Aircrew Remembered by Michel Beckers - June 2017. Grave photograph courtesy of John Hompens, some wreckage photographs from Loic Lemarchand who lived near the crash site, other photographs from the Michel Beckers collection. Also to David Phillips who contacted us in 2018. Thanks to Richard von Reibnitz, nephew of Alfred R Gulley, who was invited to the road naming in honour of Plt Off. Gulley. (May 2023). Thanks to Tom Bowen for the picture of Plt Off. Gulley and video (Sep 2024). Escape and evasion detail added by Aircrew Remembered (Sep 2024)

Other sources listed below:

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