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Archive Report: Allied Forces

Compiled from official National Archive and Service sources, contemporary press reports, personal logbooks, diaries and correspondence, reference books, other sources, and interviews.
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514 Squadron
03.08.1944 514 Squadron Lancaster III LL716, Fg Off. John B. Topham

Operation: Bois de Cassan, France

Date: 3rd August 1944 (Thursday)

Unit No: 514 Squadron, 3 Group, Bomber Command

Type: Lancaster III

Serial: LL716

Code: JI:G2

Base: RAF Waterbeach. Cambridgeshire

Location: 5 km (3 mls) south of Nerville, France

Pilot: Fg Off. John Backhouse Topham DFC 178865 RAFVR Age 27. Evader (1)

Flt Eng: Sgt. John David Reid 1675129 RAFVR Age 21. Id No, 78387 *, PoW No. 8113 ** (2)

Nav: Fg Off. Stuart Baxter 151338 RAFVR Age 23. Id No. 78384 *, PoW No. 8032 ** (2)

Bomb Aimer: Flt Sgt. John Ralph McClenaghan R163578 Age 21. Id No. 78373 *, PoW No. 8104 ** (2)

WOp/Air Gnr: Flt Sgt. Harry Gilmore 1045143 RAFVR Age 21. PoW *** (3)

Air Gnr (Mid Under): Flt Sgt. Francis William Dennehy 437587 RAAF Age 32. Evader (4)

Air Gnr (Mid Upper): Sgt. James Scully 1546284 RAFVR Age? PoW No. 627 *** (5)

Air Gnr (Rear): WO2. William Ernest Egri DFM R87920 RCAF Age 25. PoW No. 574 *** (3)

* 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).

Above Flt Sgt. Francis W. Dennehy from his service record

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the 3rd August 1944 LL176 took off from RAF Waterbeach and joined a force of 1,114 aircraft on a major operation to raids on flying bomb stores at Bois de Cassan, Forêt de Niepe and Trossy St. Maximin in France. LL176 was the only bomber to be lost on the Bois de Cassan raid.

Above: Avro Lancasters of No. 514 Squadron RAF, lined up at Waterbeach, Cambridgeshire, before taking part in a daylight attack on fortified villages east of Caen, in support of the Second Army's armoured offensive in the Normandy battle area (Operation GOODWOOD) (© Imperial War Museum (CL 4214))

Flt Sgt. Dennehy reported that the aircraft was either hit by bombs from above or by Flak which resultied with the aircraft entering a spin and after losing approximately 5000 ft in altitude the Fg Off. Topham called out “Can’t pull it out, Parachute”.

(1) Fg Off. Topham crash-landed the aircraft in a wood about 5 km (3 mls) south of Nerville-la-Forêt at 14:00 hrs and suffered a broken ankle in the crash.

Note: The wooded area to the south of Nerville-la-Forêt is encompassed by the Forêt Domaniale de Montmorency.

He left his parachute, harness and Mae West in the aircraft, which was burning. He then crawled away and a few minutes later met with Fg Off. Baxter and Sgt. Reid of his crew. They crawled further into the wood where they hid until dusk. During this time they heard other members of the crew blowing their whistles, but could not reply, as there were Germans in the vicinity.

After dusk they began walking to arriving at 09:30 hrs on the 4th August. Fg Off. Baxter left him and Sgt. Reid hiding in a wood on the outskirts of Nerville-la-Forêt while he approached a house. A short time later Fg Off. Baxter returned to the hiding place, accomplished by two Frenchmen.

Fg Off. Baxter, Sgt Reid and he were taken to another part of the wood, where they were given food and civilian clothes. Later that day a doctor was brought to the hiding place and he treated their injuries. The doctor then took Fg Off. Topham in his car to an address in Beaumont-sur-Oise. Fg Off. Baxter and Sgt. Reid were left in the wood with the Frenchmen. He did not see them again.

Beaumont-sur-Oise about 6 km (3¾ mls) north of Nerville-la-Forêt

He remained at the address in Beaumont-le-Roger until about the 20th August, when the doctor took him in his car to another address in Beaumont-le-Roger. He remained there until 1st September, when he made contact with Allied forces.

From the 1st to the 7th September I was in various hospitals in France then he was taken by hospital ship, an old Boston ferry boat, to the UK. He arrived in Southampton on the 8th September.

From here he was sent to various hospitals in England. He was discharged from RAF Hospital Weeton NE of Preston on the 23rd September on 28 days sick leave. On the 9th October he received instructions to report to the Air Ministry, and on doing so was directed to MI9 offices.

The Distinguished Flying Cross (DFC) was awarded to acting Plt Off. Topham whilst with 514 Sqn. London Gazette 6th February 1945.

Citation: "In air operations this officer has displayed courage, fortitude and devotion to duty of a high order".

John Backhouse Topham was born on the 9th December 1916 in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne. He was a Police Officer in Newcastle-Upon-Tyne, Northumberland before enlisting in the RAFVR on the 25th April 1940.

(2) After leaving Fg Off. Topham and Sgt. Reid hiding in the woods on the outskirts of Nerville-la-Forêt Fg Off. Baxter approached a house where the people provided him with food but would not help him. Some neighbours saw him and contacted the local Resistance movement. He returned to the wood and later two girls arrived, attended to the pilot and took him away by car.

That night they were given clothes and taken to the house of the Grand Paris Seine-et-Oise Resistance where they stayed for one night.

On the 5th August 1944 they were taken to Labbeville to the house of a motor mechanic who also belonged to the Resistance and who obtained false papers for them.

They were fed and sheltered for 3 days. On the 8th August 1944, the motor mechanic drove them to a village near Pontoise where they were handed over to 3 guides.The guides were a Frenchman, his wife and a woman married to an Englishman. Whilst here they were joined in the village by Flt Sgt. McClenaghan.

The group rode to Paris on a brewers cart. The Englishwoman left them in Paris and were taken to a Frenchman's flat who was a member of the Resistance. They stayed here for the night and the following morning, a M. Jacques arrived and told the three airmen that he was English and a member of the Secret Service. He interrogated them as to their true identity after which he told them that he would get them to Spain. As he left he told them that his secretary would come and collect them. At 15:00 hrs a woman arrived and drove them to the Gestapo Headquarters, handed them over and then left.

Note: From the description of the man and woman it is probable that this couple were Jean-Jacques and Madame Orsini:

Jean-Jacques was a Belgian traitor named Jaques Desoubrie (Jean-Jacques, Jean Masson 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.

Madame Orsini, also known as Colette, was Marie-Antoinette Orsini and an accomplice of Desoubrie. She was arrested by the French authorities but not before Desoubrie tried but failed to kill her so that she would not inform on him.

The three were separated and Fg Off. Baxter was interrogated by the Gestapo but only provided his name, number, rank, birthday, birthplace and address. It is assumed that Flt Sgt. McClenaghan and Sgt, Reid were also subjected to the same interrogation by the Gestapo.

The three 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 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.

They were 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. 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.

On the 31st January, Fg Off. Baxter and Sgt. Reid were amongst the PoWs from the West Compound that were sent to Stalag 3A 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.

Over January and February 1945 PoWs from numerous other camps arrived and the camp eventually housed 45,942 PoWs, including 24,996 French, 12,517 Soviet, 4,093 Serbian, 1,499 American, 1,433 British, 1,310 Italian, 86 Polish and 8 Romanian.

On the 22nd April 1945 the guards fled the camp in the face of the advancing Russians 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.

Flt Sgt. McClenaghan was amongst the PoWs from the North, East and remaining West compound prisoners at Spremberg who were sent to Marlag und Milag Nord PoW camp.

Note: Malag = Marinelager (naval prisoner of war camp) and Milag = Marine-Internierten-Lager (naval internment camp), Nord (North). Located at a former Luftwaffe (German Air Force) barracks near Westertimke NE of Bremen in Germany.

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 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. It is not known if, the then promoted Warrant Officer (WO) McClenaghan was one of those on this forced march.

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. The column slowly headed east, finally crossing the River Elbe, north of Hamburg, on the 18th April.

On 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.

At the Marlag-Milag Nord camp the guards fled on 9th April 1945 and were replaced by elderly civilian guards. Those remaining at the camp were liberated by the British Guards Armoured Division on the 27th April 1945.

(3) Flt Sgt. Gilmore and WO2. Egri was captured in Paris on the 3rd August 1944. After the statutory interrogation at Dulag Luft, Oberursel he was transferred to Stalag Luft 7 arriving there on the 22nd August.

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.

During January and February 1945 PoWs from numerous other camps arrived and the camp eventually housed 45,942 PoWs, including 24,996 French, 12,517 Soviet, 4,093 Serbian, 1,499 American, 1,433 British, 1,310 Italian, 86 Polish and 8 Romanian.

On the 22nd April 1945 the guards fled the camp in the face of the advancing Russians 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. Flt Sgt. Gilmore and WO2. Egri were evacuated on the 20th May and was interviewed on the 26th May 1945.

Harry Gilmore was born on the 21st August 1921. He was employed as a clerk in Blackpool prior to enlisting in the RAFVR on the 16th March 1941.

William Ernest Egri was born on the 23rd December 1919 in Hungary. He was a farmer in Abbortsford, British Columbia prior to enlisting in the RCAF on the 29th January 1941. He passed away on the 14th May 1988 in Vernon, British Columbia.


On the night of the 11th/12th August 1942 Flt Sgt. Egri was the tail gunner aboard 15 Sqn, Stirling I, N3756 LS:C on a mission to Mainz, Germany flying out of RAF Wyton. The Stirling was attacked and damaged by two German night-fighters, one of which was claimed damaged by return fire.

Whilst attempting to land at RAF Wattisham the aircraft crashed at 03:37 hrs into a pond and burst into flames at Potash Farm Brettenham, 14 miles NW of Ipswich. Sgt. Egri was saved by three members of the public who chopped their way into the fuselage and pulled him to safety. He was the only survivor from the crew of seven.

The actions of Sgt Egri during this mission were described by the citation accompanying the award of a Distinguished Flying Medal (DFM), promulgated in the London Gazette, 15th December 1942.

“During a recent sortie this airman was the rear gunner of a heavy bomber which was attacked by two Junkers 88s. In the face of strong attacks, Flt Sgt. Egri maintained a steady and accurate fire and probably destroyed one of the attackers and caused the other to break off the engagement. His a/c had sustained much damage and a fire broke out but Flt Sgt. Egri assisted in extinguishing the flames with his gloved hands and a fire extinguisher. His hands were severely burned but he returned to his post and, although his turret was unserviceable, he rotated it manually to keep watch. Throughout a most harassing experience this airman's courageous example was worthy of high praise”.


(4) Flt Sgt. Dennehy was the first to bale out at about 10,000 ft. He did not see any other parachutes in the air and had no further information about the fate of the other crew members. The last he saw of the aircraft it was not in control and in a slow spin but not on fire.

His escape and evasion report has not survived and all that is known is that he sprained his ankle when he landed at Parmain, near the L’Isle-Adam, which is some 30 km (18½ mls) north of Paris, and that he buried his parachute, harness and mae west in thick shrub in a small gully.

Flt Sgt. Dennehy returned to England on the 9th September 1944

As he was an evader he was given three preferences for his further service in the RAAF. He was given his 1st preference of being posted to daylight operations with medium bombers in the European Theatre of Operations.

He was posted on his 2nd tour of operations with 88 Squadron, 2nd TAF on the 8th January 1945. He flew 22 operations with the Douglas Boston III and completed his tour of operations on the 31st March 1945.

He was promoted to Warrant Officer (WO) on the 14th April 1945 and was repatriated to Australia where he was discharged from the RAAF on the 18th September 1945.

(5) A “General Questionnaire for British/American Ex-Prisoners” for Sgt. Scully has not been found. However, as he was at Stalag Luft 7 his movements thereafter would probably have been the same as those for WO2. Egri. (See Ser. 3 above).

Burial details:

None - all crew survived

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

Other sources listed below:

RS 14.04.2024 - Initial upload

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Acknowledgements
Sources used by us in compiling Archive Reports include: Bill Chorley - 'Bomber Command Losses Vols. 1-9, plus ongoing revisions', Dr. Theo E.W. Boiten and Mr. Roderick J. Mackenzie - 'Nightfighter War Diaries Vols. 1 and 2', Martin Middlebrook and Chris Everitt - 'Bomber Command War Diaries', Commonwealth War Graves Commission, Tom Kracker - Kracker Luftwaffe Archives, Michel Beckers, Major Fred Paradie (RCAF) and MWO François Dutil (RCAF) - Paradie Archive (on this site), Jean Schadskaje, Major Jack O'Connor USAF (Retd.), Robert Gretzyngier, Wojtek Matusiak, Waldemar Wójcik and Józef Zieliński - 'Ku Czci Połeglyçh Lotnikow 1939-1945', Archiwum - Polish Air Force Archive (on this site), Anna Krzystek, Tadeusz Krzystek - 'Polskie Siły Powietrzne w Wielkiej Brytanii', Franek Grabowski, Norman L.R. Franks 'Fighter Command Losses', Stan D. Bishop, John A. Hey MBE, Gerrie Franken and Maco Cillessen - Losses of the US 8th and 9th Air Forces, Vols 1-6, Dr. Theo E.W. Boiton - Nachtjagd Combat Archives, Vols 1-13. Aircrew Remembered Databases and our own archives. We are grateful for the support and encouragement of CWGC, UK Imperial War Museum, Australian War Memorial, Australian National Archives, New Zealand National Archives, UK National Archives and Fold3 and countless dedicated friends and researchers across the world.
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