Operation: Versailles, France

Date: 7th/8th June 1944 (Wednesday/Thursday)

Unit No: 640 Squadron, 4 Group, Bomber Command

Type: Halifax III

Serial: LK866

Code: C8:L

Base: RAF Leconfield, East Riding of Yorkshire

Location: 11 km (7 mls) NE of Chartres, France

Pilot: Plt Off. Ian MacKenzie Hamilton J19966 RCAF Age 23. KiA

Flt Eng: Sgt. Andrew Rowe 1673459 RAFVR Age 21. Id No: 78408 *, PoW No. 8155 ** (1)

Nav: Fg Off. Harold Denis Bastable J27478 RCAF Age 26. Id No: 78378 *, PoW No. 8927 ** (1)

Bomb Aimer: WO. Alexander Campbell Noble 1575696 RAFVR Age 25. PoW No. 5295 *** (2)

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. Ivan Leslie Horler 1316267 RAFVR Age 21. PoW *** (2)

Air Gnr (Mid Upp): Sgt. L.L. deVetter 1814893 RAFVR Age? Evader (3)

Air Gnr (Rear): Sgt. John William Lane 1609246 RAFVR Age 20. 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).

*** Stalag Luft 1, Barth-Vogelsang, today situated in the state of Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, Germany.

Above Plt Off. Ian M. Hamilton as an airman from his service file.

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the night of the 7th/8th June 1944 337 aircraft attacked railway targets in France at Achéres, Juvisy, Massey-Palaiseau and Versailles.

640 Sqn detailed 13 aircraft to bomb the railway facilities at Versailles and LK866 was the only aircraft from the squadron that failed to return. The force lost 17 Lancasters and 11 Halifaxes on these missions.

The following is an extract from the Escape & Evasion report from Sgt. deVetter which describes the circumstances leading to the loss of the aircraft.

"On our way back we were attacked by fighters. The fighters came from underneath us. All the bottom of the fuselage caught fire. The engines were still working. The intercom was u/s. The pilot gave orders to jump out. The navigator bomb aimer, wireless operator baled out by the first escape hatch. The rear gunner baled out by a hole in the fuselage as the main escape door could not be opened.

I was going to bale out by the same way as the rear gunner, but on turning round I saw that the fire was not so bad. I went back and with the help of the engineer we managed to put the fire out.

The fire was nearly out and we were hoping to get - if not back to base - into Allied occupied territory, when fighters suddenly attacked us from underneath. The fire developed. A petrol tank was on fire. Nothing could be done, so we baled out. I baled out first, the engineer second. As for the pilot, I do not know if he managed to escape".

LK866 was claimed by Lt. Heinz Reuter, his 5th Abschuss, from 7./NJG2, 70 km SW of Paris, at 1.500 m. at 02:40 hrs. (Nachtjagd Combat Archive (12 May 1944 - 23 July 1944) Part 3 - Theo Boiten).

Oblt. Reuter survived the war and was credited with 12 Abschüsse. He died on the 3rd October 1997. (Luftwaffe ACES - Biographies and Victory Claims (Mathews and Foreman) - Volume 3).

The aircraft crashed at Soulaires, Eure-et-Loir some 11 km (7 mls) NE of Chartres.

(1) The details of Sgt. Rowe’s evasion is not known, however, it is known that he was captured by the Germans on the 18th July 1994 and immediately taken to the Fresnes prison located to the south of Paris.

Fg Off. Bastable landed badly and broke an ankle near Emance and was forced to lay up with an unnamed gardener for two weeks, after which he made contact with the Picourt network. He stayed in several places until the 14th July when he was taken to Paris where he was betrayed and captured on the 19th July 1944 and then taken to the Fresnes prison.

This prison 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 were 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.

Sgt. Rowe was transferred to Stalag Luft 3 over the period 15th to 20th October 1944. Fg Off. Bastable developed pneumonia and pleurisy on top of other conditions, including an untreated broken ankle and was too sick to leave Buchenwald with the other airmen but followed them to Stalag Luft 3 on the 28th November 1944.

In early April 1945 the PoWs of Stalag Luft 3 were forced marched to Stalag 7A, Moosburg in Southern Bavaria.

Sgt Rowe was too weak to join the march and was left in the hospital. He was subsequently moved to Stalag 13D, Nuremberg and then to Stalag 7A, Moosburg which was liberated on the 29th April 1945 by units of the 14th Armoured Division from Patton’s 3rd Army.

Due to poor health Fg Off. Bastable struggled during the march and he was subsequently transferred to Stalag 3A, Luckenwalde which was liberated by units of the Soviet Army on the 22nd April 1945.

(2) WO. Noble and Sgt. Horler were eventually sent to Stalag Luft 1, Barth-Vogelsang.

On the 30th April 1945, the prisoners were ordered to evacuate the camp in the face of the advancing Soviet Red Army, but the Senior American Officer, Col. Hubert Zemke, refused to give the order. After negotiations between Zemke and Commandant Oberst (Col) Gustav Warnstedt, it was agreed that to avoid useless bloodshed the guards would go, leaving the PoWs behind. The next day, the first Soviet troops arrived.

The Western Allied prisoners took over the camp Stalag Luft 1 in self-administration on the 1st May 1945. After protracted negotiations between the Western Allies and the Soviet leadership, the evacuation of the 8,498 inmates of Stalag Luft 1 finally took place over the period 12th to 14th May 1945 from Barth Air Base using aircraft of the 8th US Army Air Force. Hundreds of PoWs had meanwhile made their own way west.

(3) The details of Sgt. deVetter’s escape and evasion are not known at this time. However, what is known is that he was a Belgian national and that he had been held in a prison in Thennes from where he escaped across the border to Brussels. It was reported that he eventually joined the large camp that had been established for evaders and escapers near to Châteaudun, albeit his name is not listed as being in that camp.

Note: This camp was part of ‘Operation Marathon’ which was a plan to hide evading Allied airmen in secret camps in France and Belgium. The Forêt Fréteval camp was code named ‘Operation Sherwood’ and eventually held more than 130 Allied airmen. The camp was liberated on the 11th August 1944.

It is believed that he left for the UK from the Advanced Landing Ground (ALG) B.14 at Amblie, Calvados. He was interviewed on the 16th August 1944.

Burial details:

Above the graves of on the left, Plt Off. Ian M. Hamilton and right, Sgt. John W. Lane (Courtesy of Bob Hamilton - FindAGrave)

Plt Off. Ian MacKenzie Hamilton. Soulaires Communal Cemetery. Grave inscription: ‘O FOR THE TOUCH OF A VANISHED HAND AND THE SOUND OF A VOICE THAT IS STILL!‘. Born on the 5th January 1921 in Orangeville, Ontario. Son of Sidney Walter and Emily (née Strathdie) Hamilton of Toronto, Ontario, Canada.

Sgt. John William Lane. Soulaires Communal Cemetery. Grave inscription: ‘AT THE GOING DOWN OF THE SUN AND IN THE MORNING WE WILL REMEMBER HIM’. Born on the 24th January 1924 in Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire. Son of Winfred and Ella Kate (née New) Lane of Stow-on-the-Wold, Gloucestershire, England.

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this crew (Feb 2024).

Other sources listed below:

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning we will remember them. - Laurence Binyon
All site material (except as noted elsewhere) is owned or managed by Aircrew Remembered and should not be used without prior permission.
© Aircrew Remembered 2012 - 2025 Last Modified: 11 June 2024, 06:42