Operation: Saint-Leu-d’Esserent, France

Date: 7th/8th July 1944 (Friday/Saturday)

Unit No: 57 Squadron, 5 Group, Bomber Command

Type: Lancaster III

Serial: JB370

Code: DX:O

Base: RAF East Kirkby, Lincolnshire

Location: 9 km (5½ mls) SE from Montdidier, France

Pilot: Plt Off. Norman Tudor Owen 54653 RAF Age 24. Evader (1)

Flt Eng: Sgt. Joseph Arthur Gains 1487389 RAFVR Age? Evader (2)

Nav: Flt Sgt. Geoffrey Bennett 1578765 RAFVR Age 20. Id No: 78344 *, PoW No 8077 ** (3)

Bomb Aimer: Flt Sgt. George Marley Shaw 1395561 RAFVR Age 18. PoW *** (4)

WOp/Air Gnr: Flt Lt. Keith James Stevens DFM, 408723 RAAF Age 25. Evader (5)

Air Gnr (Mid Upp): Sgt. H.L.J. Stephen R165184 RCAF Age 25. Evader (6)

Air Gnr (Rear): Flt Sgt. Kevin Patrick Joseph Kirwan 419366 RAAF Age 24. PoW No. 395 *** (7)

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

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

*** Stalag Luft 7, Bankau nr. Kreuzburg O.S." (O.S. standing for Oberschlesien, Upper Silesia). Today called Bąków nr. Kluczbork (Poland).

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the night of the 7th/8th July 1944 57 Squadron joined a force comprising 208 Lancasters and 13 Mosquitos on a mission to bomb the V-1 (Vergeltungswaffe) flying bomb storage site located in the underground quarry at Saint-Leu-d’Esserent, France.

The site was named by the Germans as the Leopold Low 1106 Feldmulag (Leopold Field Munitions Camp/Depot).

Three of the 29 Lancasters lost on this mission came from 57 Sqn:

Lancaster I ME868 DX:K. Fg Off. Max Rose 418179 RAAF and three others of his crew were KiA, one became a PoW and two were evaders;

Lancaster III LM522 DX:G. Plt Off. Stanley Findley 176090 RAFVR and his crew were KiA.

JB370 was claimed by Uffz. Konrad Beyer, his 9th Abschuss and second of the night, from 1./NJG4 in the Breteuil area at 2.400 m at 01:32 hrs. (Nachtjagd Combat Archive (12 May 1944 - 23 July 1944) Part 3 - Theo Boiten).

Fw. Beyer survived the war and was credited with 10 Abschüsse with 3 awaiting confirmation. (Nachtjagd Combat Archive - Biographies - Theo Boiten).

Flt Lt. Stevens reported that during the bombing and just before opening the bomb doors a heavy thud was felt in the aircraft and then bomb doors could not be opened. They orbited around the target until the bombs were released by the emergency air system. The starboard outer engine was hit and set ablaze and an attempt was made to feather the engine and extinguish the blaze to no avail.

The captain gave orders to abandon the aircraft and Flt Lt. Stephens left by rear escape hatch at about 9000 ft at which time the aircraft was in a slight dive and burning fiercely on the starboard wing.

The aircraft crashed at about 01:45 hrs in open country some 9 km (5½ mls) SE from Montdidier in the department of the Somme.

(1) Plt Off. Owen baled out at 01:30 hrs on the 8th July and landed in a field about 32 km (20 mls) NE of Montdidier.

He buried his harness, parachute and Mae West, and tore off his wings and rank badges from his tunic. He had lost a boot during the descent but managed to make a shoe from his cap and the set out in a south-westerly direction until daybreak and then hid in a cornfield. The next night, on the 9 July he continued to walk to the SW avoiding all villages and hid again at daybreak.

That evening he again began walking and as he was crossing a field he met a Frenchman (name unknown) who proved to be a member of the Maquis organisation. After Plt Off. Owen had showed his identity disks the man took him to a château at Ayencourt belonging to an elderly Frenchman. Here he was given hospitality and a permanent hiding place for as long as he required. He was provided with civilian clothes but was never given an identity card.

He kept in touch with the Maquis and during August he joined the local organisation. They were engaged in sabotage and collection of arms. During this period he got into communication with his flight engineer Sgt. Gaines who was also evading in the vicinity. He never actually saw him but had subsequently heard that he had returned to the UK.

On the 31st August the Maquis had word that the Allied forces were within 32 km (20 mls) of the village and they were instructed to capture another village west of Montdidier which was in their line of advance. There were some 400 evaders hiding in a wood prior to the attack and arriving there they found units of the American Army already in possession of the village. Plt Off. Owen got in touch with the Americans and later reported to an intelligence officer of the Grenadier Guards at Arras. He left France from an airfield near Beauvais on the 7th September 1944 and arrived in Bangor that day.

On the 17th July 1945 Fg Off. Owen was transferred to the Administrative and Special Duties Branch (London Gazette 3rd August 1945).

On the 1st January 1947 he was transferred to the Aircraft and Control Branch (London Gazette 1st July 1947). He was promoted to Flt Lt. on the 17th March 1949 (London Gazette 26th July 1949). Flt Lt. Owen retired from the RAF on the 26th December 1953 (London Gazette 5th January 1954).

Norman Tudor Owen was born on the 8th July 1920 in Toxteth, Lancashire. He enlisted in the RAF as an apprentice on the 14th October 1937. He passed away on the 13th November 2006 in Stafford, Staffordshire, England.

His brother L/Sgt. Robert Arthur Tudor Owen 862609 was serving with the 106 (The Lancashire Hussars) Light AA Regiment (LAA), Royal Artillery. He was posted KiA between the 26th and 27th April 1941 in Greece.

The 106th LAA were deployed in the southern Greece during the retreat and evacuation, one troop of the 106th remaining as rearguard around Larissa. It was decided that the entire force were to be evacuated and the port chosen was at Kalamata. On the 26th April, as the main body of the Regiment cleared Athens, the 106th were given orders to destroy their remaining guns. The troops were lightly armed with a few rifles and machine-guns and their resistance was quickly overcome. Many casualties ensued and many were taken prisoner, others escaped in the confusion and a party of about 130 reached the shore where they were rescued by the Royal Navy.

(2) The escape and evasion report for Sgt. Gains has not been found and consequently the details of his evasion and return to the UK are not known. What is known is that he was hiding in the same area as Fg Off. Owen and was in communication with him. See (1) above.

(3) The escape and evasion details for Flt Sgt. Bennett until he was captured are not known. What is known is that Robert Moulet of the French Forces of the Interior (FFI) and his assistant collected Flt Sgt. Bennett, together with Flt Sgt. Dowdeswell, Sgt. Hegarty and Flt Sgt. Fairclough who were hiding in several places around Breteuil.

Flt Sgt. Philip Dowdeswell 1586209 RAFVR, the Wireless Operator/Air Gunner from 158 Sqn Halifax III LW723 shot down on the night of the 10th/11th April 1944;

Sgt. Patrick W. Hegarty 1894062 RAFVR and Flt Sgt. Mervyn J. Faircloth 427078 RAAF were the Mid-Upper and Rear Gunners respectively from 51 Sqn Halifax III LV880 shot down on the night of the 10th/11th April 1944.

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 25th July and sent to the Beauvais prison and then on the 29th July to Fresnes after interrogation.

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.

Fresnes prison 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.

He was transferred to Stalag Luft 3 over the period 15th to 20th October 1944. Whilst there he was promoted to Warrant Officer (WO).

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.

He 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, It is believed that WO. Bennett 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.

Earlier 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 interviewed on the 3rd May 1945.

Geoffrey Bennett was born on the 20th August 1923. He enlisted in the RAFVR on 2nd March 1942. He passed away on the 30th October 2015 in Coventry.

(4) Flt Sgt. Shaw was captured NE of Paris on the 9th July 1944. After the statutory visit to Dulag Luft, Oberursel he was transferred to Stalag Luft 7 arriving there on the 26th July 1944. On the 19th January 1945, 1,500 prisoners marched out of the camp in the bitter cold. They crossed a bridge over the river Oderon the 21st January, reached Goldberg on 5th February, and were loaded onto a train.

On the 8th February they reached Stalag 3Alocated about 52 km (32 mls) south of Berlinnear Luckenwalde, which already held 20,000 prisoners, consisting mainly of soldiers from Britain, Canada, the US and Russia.

In early 1945, some 1,000 PoWs from the Stalag 8C and Stalag Luft 3 were brought to Stalag 3A, and also PoWs from the Stalag 21C in Wolsztyn In February 1945 prisoners from Stalag 3B Furstenberg were evacuated to Stalag 3A, adding to the already overcrowded and unhygienic conditions.

On the 22nd April 1945 as the Russians approached the camp the guards fled leaving the prisoners to be liberated by the Red Army.

Stalag 3A was turned over to the Americans on the 6th May at which time the Senior American Officers (SAO) took over the running of the camp until all the PoWs were evacuated. He was liberated on the 8th May 1945 and interviewed on 14th May 1945.

George Marley Shaw was born on the 25th December 1915 in Lincolnshire. He was a Police Constable in Stanmore, Middlesex prior to enlisting in the RAFVR during February 1942. Passed away on the 25th October 2003 in Watford, Hertfordshire, England.

(5) Flt Lt. Stevens DFM, saw no other parachutes in the air and made no contacts on the ground immediately. About 14 days later he was given a note from his Mid-Upper Gunner, Sgt. Steven through the Resistance Movement. He understood that he had suffered a broken ankle. There were two other Australians in his vicinity but had no clue as to their identity.

The escape and evasion report for Flt Lt. Stevens has not been found and consequently the details of his evasion and return to the UK is not known. What is known is that he returned to the UK on the 7th September 1944.

The Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM) was awarded to Flt Sgt. Stevens whilst with 57 Sqn. London Gazette 11th June 1943.

Citation reads: ‘Flight Sergeant Stevens has taken part in many operational sorties, including attacks on some of enemy’s most heavily defended targets, such as Berlin and Essen. He has performed his duties as wireless operator with courage, determination and calm efficiency in all circumstances and has always given his captain and navigator the greatest measure of support, setting a magnificent example to all’.

Appointed to a commission and promoted to Plt Off. on the 3rd March 1943, Fg Off. on the 3rd September 1943 and to substantive Flt Lt. on the 3rd March 1945.

He was repatriated to Australia arriving at Brisbane on the 16th January 1945. At his own request he was discharged from the RAAF to resume his civilian occupation on the 22nd May 1945.

Keith James Stevens was born on the 21st February 1919 in Coburg, Victoria. Prior to enlisting in the RAAF on the 22nd May 1941 he was employed as a motor mechanic in Coburg, Victoria.

(6) The escape and evasion report for Sgt. H.L.J. Stephen has not been found and consequently the details of his evasion and return to the UK is not known. No further information about him has been found.

(7) A General Questionnaire for British/American Ex-Prisoners of War has not been found for Flt Sgt. Kirwan. However, from other documents it has been possible to determine his time as a PoW.

Above: Taken whilst Kirwan was serving as a Signaller in the Victoria Line of Communication, Signals Unit (From his Service Record).

After the statuary visit to Dulag Luft, Oberursel he was transferred to Stalag Luft 7 arriving on the 28th July. He was promoted to Warrant Officer (WO) on the 27th November 1944.

On the 19th January 1945, 1,500 prisoners marched out of the camp in the bitter cold. They crossed a bridge over the river Oder on the 21st January, reached Goldberg on 5th February, and were loaded onto a train.

On the 8th February they reached Stalag 3A located about 52 km (32 mls) south of Berlin near Luckenwalde, which already held 20,000 prisoners, consisting mainly of soldiers from Britain, Canada, the US and Russia.

In early 1945, some 1,000 PoWs from the Stalag 8C and Stalag Luft 3 were brought to Stalag 3A, and also PoWs from the Stalag 21C in Wolsztyn In February 1945 prisoners from Stalag 3B Furstenberg were evacuated to Stalag 3A, adding to the already overcrowded and unhygienic conditions.

On the 22nd April 1945 as the Russians approached the camp the guards fled leaving the prisoners to be liberated by the Red Army. Stalag 3A was turned over to the Americans on the 6th May at which time the Senior American Officers (SAO) took over the running of the camp until all the PoWs were evacuated.

He was repatriated to Australia and disembarked in Sydney on the 28th November 1945. He was discharged from the RAAF on the 19th February 1946 on demobilisation.

Kevin Patrick Joseph Kirwan was born on the 29th March 1920 in Northcote, Melbourne, Victoria. He passed away on the 19th August 1992 in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.

Burial details:

None - All of the crew survived

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the crew and their families (Jul 2024). Thanks to Franck Signorile (French Historian) for additional information about the captured airmen (Sep 2024).

Other sources listed below:

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