Operation: Compiégne, France

Date: 10th May 1944 (Wednesday)

Unit No: 585th Bombardment Squadron (M), 394th Bombardment Group (M), 98th Bomb Wing, 9th Air Force

Type: B-26B Marauder

Serial No: 42-96058

Code: 4T:?

Location: South of Léglantiers, France

Base: Boreham (Station #161), Essex, England

Pilot: Capt. James Alvis Joy O-661772 AAF Age 27. PoW *

Co-Pilot: 2nd Lt. John Ovid Johnson O-757389 AAF Age 22. PoW **

Bombardier: Sgt. William Littleton Edge 6969780 AAF Age 22. Id No: 78267 ***, PoW No: 8167 ** (1)

Engineer/Gnr: S/Sgt Harold Julius Maynard 16132613 AAF Age 22. PoW Unknown Camp

Radio Operator/Gnr: S/Sgt. Louis Ingram Watts 18137057 AAF Age 28. Evader (2)

Tail Gnr: S/Sgt. Joseph John Houlihan 13096267 AAF Age 19. Evader (2)

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

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

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

REASON FOR LOSS:

The 585th Bombardment Sqn took off from Boreham in the morning of the 10th may 1944 on a bombing mission on targets at Compiégne in France.

The circumstances leading to the loss of Capt. Joy and his aircraft were described in the after mission reports by three witness from other crews on the mission:

Tail Gunner: S/Sgt. Kenneth K. Hubbard 33210331 witnessed the crash:

“I saw the plane behind our formation and smoking a little and still at our altitude. Shortly there were four chutes that came out of the plane which still seemed under control. After the chutes were out of the plane made a large circle, gradually losing altitude, still seeming to be under control until it hit the ground and burst into flames”.

S/Sgt. Lawrence M. Gloden 37331754:

“About six to ten minutes after crossing enemy coast I saw a lone B-26 going in the opposite direction. Pretty soon it started to lose altitude making a large circle. I sae five chutes open up. As far as I could see the plane seemed to be under control, although it was losing altitude”.

Top Turret Gunner: S/Sgt. William E. Durham 15115994:

“I saw B-26 airplane flying at our altitude. I thought the airplane was under control. Then I saw five chutes open and possibly six, but would confirm five. I watched the airplane descend approximately four thousand feet and then lost site [sic] of the ship due to the position I was flying”.

En route to the target the aircraft was hit by flak causing the right engine to smoke badly, destroying the flight instruments, Hydraulics system and rendering the interphone inoperable.

Capt. Joy, 2nd Lt. Johnson and S/Sgt. Maynard were all wounded aboard the aircraft but the entire crew baled out at around 8000 ft. The three were captured 1 km (¾ ml) south of Léglantiers at 11:00 hrs and all were initially admitted to the Luftwaffe Ortslazarett (Local Hospital) at Beauvais. Capt. Joy spent 8 months in various German hospitals and then 4 months at Stalag Luft 1.

The aircraft crashed at 10:39 hrs about 500 m. (550 yds) south of Léglantiers, 32 km (20 mls) east of Beauvais, France.

(1) Sgt. Edge landed about 6 km (3¾ mls) north of Saint-Just-en-Chaussée . He was quickly hidden in a house on the Rue de Paris in Saint-Just-en-Chaussée.

During a German raid at the house in which he was hiding he escape by being secreted in a baby carriage and wheeled through the City past blockades to the outskirts of the city. He was then taken to a house on the La Grande Rue, Froissy where he remained hidden for a month and was again aided to escape from searching Germans.

He was taken back to Saint-Just-en-Chaussée and hidden in the home of the local Chief of the Resistance. He was stayed here for 2½ months after which he was moved to another house in the village for another month.

He was captured in a trap which was organised by two French collaborators working for the who were working with the local Sicherheitsdienst (SD) (Security service of the Schutzstaffel (SS)). He was arrested on the 28th July and sent to the Beauvais prison and held there by the Gestapo until the 1st August 1944.

After liberation both of the French collaborators were eventually brought before the French courts and found guilty of the charges brought against them. They were sentenced to death, however, their sentences were commuted to hard labour and then to 20 years imprisonment. They were both released in the early 1960s and were never seen or heard of again.

He was then 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 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.

He was transferred to Stalag Luft 3 over the period 15th to 20th August 1944. In early April 1945 he joined the forced march to Stalag 7a, Moosburg in Southern Bavaria. The camp was liberated on the 29th April 1945 by units of the 14th Armoured Division from Patton’s 3rd Army.

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.

(2) S/Sgt. Houlihan’s Escape and Evasion report describes how he and S/Sgt. Watts remained out of German hands and returned to Allied lines:

“I came down near Ravenel at 10:00hrs, 10th May, 1944. I was soon helped by the French, and on 12th May I met with Sgt. Houlihan from my own crew. He was with me from then on. I also met Sgt. Edge of our crew, who was later separated from us. We went to Saint-Just-en-Chaussée, then to Froissy for 3 weeks. Next we were at Wavignies for 3 weeks, then 5 nights at Puits-la-Vallée, where I met 1st Lt. Harry Hunter. We passed though Maulers and Crévecœur-le-Grand, and then onto Paris. I met an RAF Sgt. Carey on the way, safe in French hands. It was told me that at Wavignies a Lancaster crashed on or about the 15th June, and 5 of the crew were buried in the town, 2 others being hidden by the French nearby. We were finally picked up in Paris by the Americans on the 26th August 1944”.

1st Lt. Harry Hunter was 1st Lt. Harry F. Hunter O-665801 DFC. His P-47D was shot down by flak on the 30th May 1944. He was betrayed and joined Sgt. Edge of this crew in Fresnes prison, Buchenwald and Stalag Luft 3;

RAF Sgt. Carey was Sgt. John William D. Carey 967050 RAFVR. He was the Flight Engineer aboard 467 Sqn, RAAF, Lancaster III, LM450 which was shot down on the 24th June 1944 (1 KiA, 4 PoW, 2 Evd);

The Lancaster noted in his escape report has been researched but has not been identified.

Above: The false French Identity Card for S/Sgt. Houlihan (from his Escape and Evasion Report)

Burial Details:

None. All of the crew survived

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the relatives of this crew (Jun 2023). Update to include forced-march information (Jun 2024). Thanks to Franck Signorile (French Historian) for additional information about the captured airmen (Sep 2024).

Other sources listed below:

Those who have long enjoyed such privileges as we enjoy forget in time that men have died to win them. Franklin Delano Roosevelt