Operation: Étampes, France

Date: 9th/10th June 1944 (Friday/Saturday)

Unit No: 630 Squadron, 5 Group, Bomber Command

Type: Lancaster III

Serial: PB121

Code: LE:F

Base: RAF East Kirby, Lincolnshire

Location: Omerville, about 7 km (4¼ mls) WSW of Magny-en-Vexin.

Pilot: Flt Sgt. Claud Morley Houghton AFM, 1165631 RAFVR Age 29. KiA (1)

Flt Eng: Sgt. Horace Ison 1667376 RAFVR Age 23. KiA

Nav: Sgt. John Charles Cameron 1323158 RAFVR Age 23. KiA

Bomb Aimer: Fg Off. Douglas Charles Percy 55075 RAF Age 24. Id No: 78411 *, PoW No: 8062 ** (2)

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. William James Bott 1580780 RAFVR Age 28. KiA

Air Gnr (Mid Upp): Sgt. Russel Edward Dennis R213930 RCAF Age 20. KiA

Air Gnr (Rear): Sgt. William John Barr R155303 RCAF Age 20. KiA

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

** Stalag Luft 3 Sagan-Silesia, Germany, now Żagań in Poland.

Above: Sgt. Russel E. Dennis and Sgt. William J. Barr from their Service Records

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the 9th/10th June 1944 630 Sqn joined a force of 117 bombers and Mosquitos detailed to bomb the railway junction at Étampes, south of Paris.

Of the six Lancasters that were lost one was from 630 Sqn.

PB121 was claimed by Oblt. Johannes ‘Hans’ Werth, his 6th Abschuss, from Stab./NJG2, NW of Paris at 2.700 m at 00:42 hrs. (Nachtjagd Combat Archive (12 May 1944 - 23 July 1944) Part 3 - Theo Boiten).

Oblt. Werth was wounded on the night of the 11th/12th September 1944 near Niederkrüchten when he was shot down by an intruder, probably a Mosquito from the Fighter Interception Unit (FIU). (Nachtjagd Combat Archive - Biographies - Theo Boiten).

The aircraft crashed near Omerville, about 7 km (4¼ mls) WSW of Magny-en-Vexin, France

(1) Flt Sgt. Houghton was awarded the Air Force Cross (AFC) which was promulgated in the London Gazette on the 8th June 1944.

He was a former flying instructor who had eventually been granted his wish to fly on operations. The AFM had been awarded in recognition of his courage and determination during a long tour of instructor duties at 10 Advanced Flying Unit (AFU) at RAF Dumfries.

Flt Sgt. Houghton was appointed to a commission and promoted to 176435 Plt Off with effect 2nd May 1944. Promulgated in the London Gazette on the 23rd June 1944.

(2) Fg Off. Percy reported that the second attack set the aircraft ablaze and the order to abandon was given. He went out of the front hatch and whilst descending he saw this aircraft go down in flames but saw no other parachutes. Later a Frenchman told him that six bodies had been discovered in the aircraft wreckage and they were buried in the French Cemetery at Omerville, near Mantes-la-Jolie.

Fg Off. Percy landed about a mile from Magnitot about 3¼ km (2 mls) north of the crash site. He walked round the area all night and the next morning he met a young Frenchman who took him to his house and fed him. A friend of the Frenchman brought him some clothes and he stayed the night.

The Frenchman arranged for him to catch a lorry into Mantes-la-Jolie about 19 ¾ km (12¼ mls) south of Magnitot. Arriving there they parked the lorry and the driver walked with him through Mantes-la-Jolie. They then crossed the River Seine in a boat after which he was directed to the main road for Rosny-sur-Seine, some 6 km (3¾ mls) to the west. He followed this road and mingled with refugees who were coming from Mantes-la-Jolie. He skirted the town of Rosny-sur-Seine and walked onto a farm at Saint-Illiers-la-Ville a further 7 km (4¼ mls) to the west.

He stayed with a farm labourer for 2 weeks who fed him and looked after him and got in touch with the Resistance Organisation. On the 25th June 1944, a member of the Organisation came to the house and provided him with a bicycle. They cycled to the next village where he stayed in the member’s house for a month. He tried to make arrangements to assist him in getting to Maquis outside Paris. He stayed in the house of the man who kept the local garage in village of La Villeneuve-en-Chevrie, about 4 km (2½ mls) to the north of Saint-Illiers-la-Ville, where he met three American airmen.

On about the 27th or 28th July 1944, their host handed them over to a guide who took them by car to Paris. This guide was Jean-Jacques :

Jean-Jacques was a Belgian traitor named Jaques Desoubrie (Jean-Jacques, Jean Masson, Jean Decan and Pierre Boulain were aliases) who had infiltrated the Réseau Comète (Comet Line) escape route in Brussels and Paris. He was responsible for the Nazis rounding up dozen of members of the Réseau Comète and Allied airmen. He was finally captured and stood accused at a French military trial in Lille. He was convicted and condemned to death for having participated in the capture and assassination of members of the resistance and for sending Allied military to their deaths in violation of the Geneva convention. He was executed by firing squad.

When they arrived in Paris and were taken to a house owned by a doctor. There they met Sqn Ldr. Lamason and his Navigator Fg Off. Chapman, (see below) who told them that he was leaving that day and everything seemed alright.

When they were leaving Paris they were stopped and asked for their identity papers and were subsequently arrested

They were then transferred to Fresnes prison which was located to the south of Paris and 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.

He was transferred to Stalag Luft 3 over the period 15th to 20th October 1944.

On the night of the 27th January 1945, with Soviet troops only 26 km (16 mls) away, orders were received to evacuate the PoWs to Spremberg which is to the West in Germany. The PoW’s were informed of the evacuation, which was on foot, at about 22:00 hrs the same night and were given 30 mins to pack and prepare everything for the March. The weather conditions were very difficult, with freezing temperatures, and it was snowing accompanied by strong winds. There was 15 cm (6 in) of snow and 2000 PoWs were assigned to clear the road ahead of the main groups.

After a 55 km (34 mls) march, the PoWs arrived in Bad Muskau where they rested for 30 hours. The PoWs were then marched the remaining 26 km (16 mls) to Spremberg where they were housed in empty garages, storerooms and in military barracks. There they were provided with warm soup and bread.

During next days, PoWs were divided up according to Compounds, and they were led to railway sidings and loaded into tightly packed carriages. He was amongst the North, East and remaining West compound PoWs that were sent on the 2nd February or Marlag und Milag Nord at Westertimke.

Marlag is an acronym for Marinelager (naval prisoner of war camp), Milag is short for Marine-Internierten-Lager(naval internment camp), and Nord is German for ‘north’.

On the 2nd April 1945 the Commandant announced that he had received orders to leave the camp with most of his guards, leaving only a small detachment behind to hand over the camp to Allied forces, who were already in Bremen.

However, that afternoon a detachment of over a hundred SS-Feldgendarmerie entered the camp, mustered over 3,000 men including Fg Off. Percy, and marched them out, heading east. The next day, at around at 10:00 hrs the column was strafed by RAF aircraft, and two PoWs were killed.

Over the next few days the column was attacked from the air several times. Finally the Senior British Naval Officer (SBNO), who was later killed in a strafing attack by RAF aircraft, offered the Germans the PoW’s parole, in return for being allowed to rest during the day and march at night. The Germans agreed.

On the 9th April 1945 the guards at Marlag-Milag moved out and were replaced by older men, presumably local Volkssturm. Meanwhile, the column slowly headed east, finally crossing the River Elbe, north of Hamburg, on the 18th April.

On the 27th April the camps were liberated by elements of the British Guards Armoured Division. The next day, the 28th April, the column finally arrived at Lübeck on the Baltic coast. They were liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division on the 1st May 1945.

Douglas Charles Percy was born on the 12th October 1919. He was a Scholar in Monmouthshire prior to enlisting in the RAF on the 16th January 1935. He passed away on the 29th December 1992 in South Glamorganshire, Wales.

Burial details:

Above: The Omerville Communal Cemetery (Courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission)

1st from the right is the collective grave marker for Sgt. Dennis, Plt Off. Houghton AFC and Sgt. Ison. 2nd from the right is the collective grave marker for St. Barr, Sgt. Bott and Sgt. Cameron.

Plt Off. Claud Morley Houghton AFM. Omerville Communal Cemetery Coll. Grave 3. Grave Inscription: ‘DEAR ARE THE MEMORIES SILENTLY KEPT OF ONE WE LOVED AND CAN NEVER FORGET’. Born on the 22nd April 1915 in Docking, Norfolk. Son of Morley Punshon Houghton and Louisa (née Coulton) Houghton of Bury St. Edmunds, Suffolk, England.

Sgt. Horace Ison. Omerville Communal Cemetery Coll. Grave 3. Grave Inscription: ‘INTO THE MOSAIC OF VICTORY WAS LAID THIS PRECIOUS PIECE’. Born on the 19th October 1920 in Foleshill, Warwickshire. Son of Arthur and Annie (née Buckler) Ison. Husband of Rosella May (née Harris) Ison of Hawkesbury, Warwickshire, England.

Sgt. John Charles Cameron. Omerville Communal Cemetery Coll. Grave 3. Born in 1921 in Kikintilloch, Dunbartonshire, Scotland. Son of John and Janet Aiton (née Brown deceased) Cameron of Kikintilloch, Dunbartonshire, Scotland.

Sgt. William James Bott. Omerville Communal Cemetery Coll. Grave 3. Grave Inscription: ‘THE BELOVED SON OF MR. AND MRS. J.E. BOTT. UP THERE SOMETIME WE'LL UNDERSTAND’. Born on the 27th November 1915 in Barwell, Leicestershire. Son of James Edward and Frances Sarah (née Bonser) Bott of Barwell, Leicestershire, England.

Sgt. Russel Edward Dennis. Omerville Communal Cemetery Coll. Grave 3. Born on the 1st September 1923 in Manor, Saskatchewan. Son of Edward Arthur and Audrey Alice (née Brownell, deceased) Dennis of Parkman, Saskatchewan, Canada.

Sgt. Dennis was posthumously appointed to a commission and promoted to J92123 Plt Off on the 8th June 1944.

Sgt. William John Barr. Omerville Communal Cemetery Coll. Grave 3. Grave Inscription: ‘ETERNAL REST GRANT UNTO HIM, O LORD; MAY HIS SOUL REST IN PEACE’. Born on the 11th May 1924 in Sarnia, Ontario. Son of Joseph (deceased) and Edith (née Chester) Barr, of Sarnia, Ontario, Canada.

Sgt. Barr was posthumously appointed to a commission and promoted to J92196 Plt Off. on the 8th June 1944.

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

Other sources listed below:

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