Operation: Blainville-Sur-l’Eau, France

Date: 28th/29th June 1944 (Wednesday/Thursday)

Unit No: 102 (Ceylon) Squadron, 4 Group, Bomber Command

Type: Halifax III

Serial: NA502

Code: DY:S

Base: RAF Pocklington, Yorkshire

Location: 2 km (1¼ mls) NE of Ons-en-Bray, France

Pilot: Plt Off. George John Frederick Mulvaney 423422 RAAF Age 20. Evader (1)

Flt Eng: Sgt. Dennis George Brailsford Smith 1807478 RAFVR Age 20. KiA

Nav: Sgt. John Arthur Miller 1583459 RAFVR Age 21. Evader (2)

Bomb Aimer: Flt Sgt. James Baird Duell 424863 RAAF Age 23. KiA

WOp/Air Gnr: Flt Sgt. Leslie Keith Whellum 417545 RAAF Age 21. Id No: 78442 *, PoW No. 8123 ** (3)

Air Gnr (Mid Upp): Fg Off. George Stafford Heath 429808 RAAF Age 20. Evader (4)

Air Gnr (Rear): Flt Sgt. Thomas William Bastick 408416 RAAF Age 22. Evader (5)

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

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

Above: left to right: Plt Off. Mulvaney, Flt Sgt. Duell, Fg Off. Heath, Flt Sgt. Bastick from their service records

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the 28th/29th June 1944 102 (Ceylon) Sqn provided 20 aircraft to join a force of 230 aircraft that were detailed to attack the railway yards at Blainville-Sur-l’Eau and Metz.

20 aircraft were lost and 5 of the losses were from 102 (Ceylon) Sqn:

Halifax III LW143 DY:O (3 KiA, 4 PoW);
Halifax III LW159 DY:Q (6 KiA, 1 PoW);
Halifax III MZ644 DY:V (3 KiA, 4 Evd);
Halifax III MZ646 DY:W (5 KiA, 2 PoW).

Halifax III NA502 was attacked by a night fighter from beneath. The cannon fire raked the aircraft across the wing and the Flight Engineer position killing Sgt. Smith and setting fire to the aircraft. The Captain ordered the crew to abandon the aircraft and the other 6 crew baled out. It was reported that Flt Sgt. Dwell landed in a lake and was tragically drowned.

NA502 was claimed by Maj. Paul Semrau, his 26th or 27th Abschuss and either his second or third of four this night, from Stab III./NJG2, in the Gisors-Gournay area at 3.200 m at 00:45 hrs. (Nachtjagd Combat Archive (12 May 1944 - 23 July 1944) Part 3 - Theo Boiten).

Maj. Semrau was KiA on the 8th February 1945 when he was shot down landing at Twente airfield by 402 (City of Winnipeg) Sqn Spitfire XIV RM862 flown by Flt Lt. Kenneth Stephen Sleep J9483 RCAF. Maj. Semrau was credited with 33 confirmed Abschüsse and 2 awaiting confirmation. (Nachtjagd Combat Archive - Biographies - Theo Boiten)

Above: Flt Lt. Kenneth Stephen Sleep from his service record

Note: Flt Lt. Sleep was killed on the 1st December 1945 whilst flying 411 (Gizzley Bear) Sqn Spitfire XIV NH899 which dived into the sea ½ mile east of Romo Island, Denmark. No explanation for the accident was determined. He was laid to rest in the Hamburg Cemetery Grave 4A.F.7

The aircraft came down 2 km (1¼ mls) NE of Ons-en-Bray and 10 km (6¼ mls) west of Beauvais.

(1) Plt Off. Mulvaney baled out near Beauvais at 003:0 hrs. He landed near the village of Saint-Paul, which is some 5¼ km (3¼ mls) in the middle of a wood. After burying his parachute, Mae West and harness he wandered around and looked at several isolated farms.

Eventually he decided to approach one farm where he was sheltered and contact made with the local Resistance movement. The movement decided that he should stay at the farm and remained there until the arrival of British forces on the 1st September.

He then hitch-hiked to a forward RAF landing ground from where he was flown to Normandy and then onto RAF Northolt.

He had been promoted to Fg Off. on the 21st August 1944 which in hiding in France.

His appointment in the RAAF was terminated on the 30th August 1945 as “Surplus to present personnel requirements”.

George John Frederick Mulvaney was born on the 8th May 1924 in Sydney, New South Wales. He was a costing clerk in New South Wales prior to the RAAF on the 22nd June 1942.

(2) The Escape and Evasion report for Sgt. Miller is not currently available therefore the details of his evasion is not known.

What is known is that on the 18th July Sgt. Miller came to the house where Plt Off. Reed was in hiding. He remained there until about 7th August after which Sgt. Miller was taken away by the local Resistance group . He was evacuated by air on the 7th August 1944 and interviewed on the 29th August 1944.

Plt Off. Reed was the pilot from 158 Squadron Halifax III LV790 NP:L (Insert Link) which was shot down on the night of the 12th/13th June 1944 (2 PoW, 5 Evd)

(3) The details of Flt Sgt. Whellum’s evasion from the 29th June to when he was captured on the 2nd August 1994 are not known.

What is known is that he was 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 he 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.

Flt Sgt. Whellum 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.

During next days, PoWs were divided up according to Compounds, and they were led to railway sidings and loaded into tightly packed carriages.

Flt Sgt. Whellum joined PoWs from the North, East and remaining West compound PoWs and sent to the Marlag und Milag Nord PoW camp at Westertimke in Lower Saxony.

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, Flt Sgt. Whellum was amongst the over 3,000 men mustered and marched 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 und Milag Nord camp 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 1945.

On the 27th April the camp was 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.

He was repatriated to Australia on the 28th July 1945 and was discharged from the RAAF on the 25th October 1945 on demobilization.

Leslie Keith Whellum was born on the 23rd June 1923 in Kensington, South Australia. He passed away on the 23rd May 2003.

(4) Fg Off. George Heath landed in a field just south of Pierrefitte-en-Beauvaisis spraining his ankle upon landing. The following morning he was carried to a nearby farm and kept there for 3 days.

He was then taken to Lalandelle, which is some 11¼ km (7 mls) SW of Pierrefitte-en-Beauvaisis where he remained for a month. About the beginning of August he was taken to Ons-en-Bray some 3 ¾ km (2 ¼ mls) to the ENE.

From here until he was liberated his story is the same as that of Flt Sgt. Bastick (Ser No. 5).

George Heath was born on the 3rd November 1923 in Kadina, South Australia. He was an Assistant Electrician prior to enlisting in the RAAF on the 12th September 1942.

(5) Flt Sgt. Bastick baled out near Beauvais at 00:30 hrs. He came down at Saint-Martin-le-Nœud, some 4 km (2½ mls) SSW of Beauvais, near to an old disused French dug-out. He began walking and climbed into another dug-out and remained there until about 05:00 hrs. He buried his Mae West, parachute and harness in nearby woods.

That morning he walked through the woods for several hours and eventually came across a farmhouse. The farmer got in touch a Resistance Group, one of whose members took him to his house in the village of Ons-en-Bray which is some 10 km (6¼ mls) west of where he landed. Fg Off. Heath was also in this village and they both remained there in hiding with two families, between whose homes they moved from time to time.

An American (Sgt. Frank McCall USAAF) was also sheltering in Ons-en-Bray while they were there.

S/Sgt. Francis W. McCall 16096957 was the Right Waist Gunner from B-17G #42-102464 of the 750 Bombardment Sqn (H), 457th Bombardment group (H) which was shot down by Flak on the 14th June 1944 on a mission to bomb the Le Bourget Airfield in France (5 PoW, 4 Evd).

They were liberated by British troops who arrived in the village on the 30 August 1944.

Upon his return Flt Sgt. Bastick was informed that there was nothing to debar him from returning to operations in the ETO, however, he expressed the following preferences as to his future employment:

Return to Australia for completion of his tour on medium bombers;
To be posted to 27 OTU for instructional duties.

He had completed 12 operational trips in his first tour and it was recommended that he be repatriated to Australia on the 12th October 1944. WO. Bastick was discharged from the RAAF on the 2nd October 1945 as “Surplus to present personnel requirements”.

Thomas William Bastick was born on the 8th April 1922 in Hobart, Tasmania. He was employed as a Clerk prior to enlisted in the RAAF on the 22nd May 1942.

Burial details:

Above: The Marissel French National Cemetery (Courtesy of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission (CWGC))

Sgt. Dennis George Brailsford Smith. Marissel French National Cemetery Grave 260. Grave inscription: ‘SLEEP NOW, AND REST THE WHOLE NIGHT THROUGH’. Born in the 4th Qtr of 1923 in West Ham, Greater London. Son of Arthur C. and Winifred Edith (née Grosch) Smith of West Drayton, Middlesex, England.

Flt Sgt. James Baird Duell. Marissel French National Cemetery Grave 261. Grave inscription: ‘HIS DUTY NOBLY AND BRAVELY DONE. EVER REMEMBERED’. Born on the 28th February 1921 in Semaphore, South Australia. Son of James and Stella Alice Duell of Dunleath, South Australia.

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the crew and their families (Jun 2024).

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