Operation: Stuttgart

Date: 7th/8th October 1943 (Thursday/Friday)

Unit: No. 49 Squadron (motto: Cave canem - 'Beware of the Dog')

Type: Lancaster III

Serial: ED426

Code: EA-P

Base: RAF Fiskerton, but took off from RAF Dunholme Lodge, Lincolnshire, England (1)

Location: Bezimont, Forest of Commercy, Meuse, France

Pilot: P/O. Donald Wares, 156068, RAFVR - Safe (evaded)

Fl/Eng: Sgt. Archibald Halliday Brownlie, 1554013, RAFVR, Age 20 - Killed

Nav: Sgt. Timothy Thomas O'Leary, 1515353, RAFVR, Age 21 - Killed

Air/Bmr: F/O. Elmer James Hepburn, J/21468, RCAF, Age 32 - Killed

W/Op/Air/Gnr: Sgt. Raymond Barlow, 1330226, RAFVR - Safe (evaded)

Air/Gnr: Sgt. Gilbert George Attwood, 1506812, RAFVR, Age 22 - PoW No. 259846, Stalag 4B (Mühlberg)

Air/Gnr: Fl/Sgt. William Frederick Fitzgerald, Aus/415775, RAAF, Age 20 - PoW No. 259870, Stalag 4B (Mühlberg)

Reason for Loss

On this night the Lancasters of 101 Squadron from Ludford Magna operated for the first time with A.B.C. (Airborne Cigar), equipment designed to jam German night-fighter radio communications. Over 340 Lancasters, including 11 from 49 Squadron, bombed a cloud-covered target marked by H2S.

Two of the 49 Squadron crews were flying their first operation: P/O. Ewens in ED999 A-Able, and the unfortunate crew captained by P/O. Don Wares in ED426 P-Peter.

Towards midnight, as P/O. Wares and his crew were returning home across France, ED426 was attacked by a night fighter. Two engines were put out of action and, as the aircraft lost height, the pilot ordered the crew to jettison everything that was not needed. By the time they were over the Forest of Commercy, P-Peter was at treetop height. At 02:00 hrs the trees tore away the wings and the Lancaster smashed into the hill of Bezimont.

Four of the seven crew survived the crash. The pilot and the wireless operator, Raymond Barlow, who had married Peggy Angus only days earlier on 25th September 1943, succeeded in reaching Switzerland on foot and eventually returned to England.

The two gunners, one of whom was slightly injured, walked to America Farm, where local people cared for them and gave them civilian clothes. They were captured by the Germans two days later and, after two months in Fresnes prison, were transferred to a prisoner of war camp.

Above L-R: P/O. Donald Ware, Sgt. Raymond Brown, Sgt. Timothy O'Leary, F/O. Elmer James Hepb and Fl/Sgt. William Fitzgerald 

MRRU Report

Attention: R.O.4.

Flying Officer E.J. HEPBURN (J21468):

Further to my signal H.939 dated 2nd June 1945, given below are all available details in connection with the casualty to the above-mentioned officer.

A report was received from the French Red Cross Society which stated:

"4 engined plane 'with 11 seats' fell in the Commercy Forest 16th October 1943; 5 bodies were found; 2 wounded airmen tried to escape but were taken prisoners by the Germans at Chonville (Meuse); the bodies were inhumated only later on; it seems that three were inhumated in the Commercy Churchyard; the 'Captain' was identified and the name of J.E.P. Hepburn found on his body; a British soldier went on the spot at the time and gathered information on the 3 radios of the plane."

When Air Ministry received this report they attempted to ascertain whether the information on the radios was pertinent to the radios in Lancaster aircraft ED426, of which F/O. Hepburn was a member and which crashed in the vicinity of Commercy (Meuse) on the 7/8th October 1943. It was not possible, however, for the Directorate of Aeronautical Inspection to verify the radio apparatus details.

A report was later received from an American Unit which read as follows:

"An investigation was recently made by this Unit of crash of Bomber in vicinity of Chonville (Meuse). Conversation with Mr. Thomassin, Mayor of Chonville, revealed that the crash occurred in the first part of October 1943, in the Forest of Commercy. Five crew members are accounted for by residents of Chonville - three were killed in the crash, and the bodies of two of these were removed by the Germans to Commercy for burial. The third body was lodged underneath the plane, and left there for several weeks before being removed by a Mr. Dabit of Chonville, who worked secretly for several nights, finally extricating the body and taking it to his garden for burial. This body remained there until just a few weeks ago, when it was removed to the local church cemetery at Chonville and given proper burial services. The two airmen who survived the crash were given civilian clothes by local residents, but they were later found in the woods by German police and taken prisoner.

The only piece of clothing which remained in the community is a leather pilot's helmet, on which is marked the name "P/O. HEPBURN". The helmet is now in the possession of this Unit. Mr. Sunier, also of Chonville, claims that he burned the uniforms of the surviving airmen, and that they had their identification papers on them when they were taken by the Germans. The helmet mentioned was found by a Mr. Bocciarelle, who believes that it belonged to one of the two who were taken prisoner, since the bodies of those killed in the crash were badly burned and could not be identified.

Mr. Dabit said that he could find no identification tags or other equipment which would serve to identify the body which he removed from the wreckage, because the body, clothing and equipment were so badly burned that nothing remained. Map co-ordinates of Chonville are U.3618. The site of the crash, where a large part of the wrecked bomber remains, is in the Forest of Commercy about 4 kilometres south of Chonville. Approximate map co-ordinates scene of the crash are U.3716."

Both these reports, which appeared to tally despite slight discrepancies, were passed to M.R. & E.S. for further investigation. As the result of a visit by a representative of M.R. & E.S. to the French Military Cemetery at Commercy it was found that "2 British unknown R.A.F." were buried in grave #79. However, the Cemetery Keeper advised our investigator that the grave contained one coffin which included:

F/O. Hepburn - body intact and identified
1 body intact - unknown
1 part of body (leg only)

The report from M.R. & E.S. adds that the Germans marked the grave "Unknown British" but in fact knew that one of the bodies was Hepburn. As the result of visits by our investigator to the Maire of Chonville and also a Mr. Dabit, the following story was obtained:

"One body lay trapped in the centre of the plane, one leg only being free. It was this leg that the Germans removed with the two other bodies and buried at Commercy as stated above. M. Dabit, who is a woodman, states he only discovered the scene of the crash several weeks after and found the decomposing body trapped in the centre of the plane. He worked by night for secrecy and finally extricated the body and took it to his home for burial in his garden, always with a view to hiding his action from the enemy. A bunch of keys taken from the body would appear to be the only identity available and these were handed over to the American officer. The body taken away by M. Dabit has now been interred in Parish Cemetery at Chonville."

A request has now gone forward to Graves Registration for the exhumation of the bodies buried in Commercy Cemetery with a view to establishing positive individual identification. However, on the above evidence there appears to be no doubt that F/O. Hepburn was buried in the Military Cemetery Commercy (Meuse) in #79 Communal Grave. If any change is made in his burial place you will be informed.

Burial Details

Sgt. Archibald Halliday Brownlie. Choloy War Cemetery. Collective grave 2A. B. 17-18. Son of Archibald Halliday Brownlie and Agnes Ward Brownlie (née McCorkindale), of Rothesay, Bute, Scotland.

Sgt. Timothy Thomas O'Leary. Choloy War Cemetery. Collective grave 2A. B. 17-18. Son of Michael J. O'Leary and Mary O'Leary, of Wexford, Irish Republic. Epitaph: "Jesus Mercy!"

F/O. Elmer James Hepburn. Choloy War Cemetery. Collective grave 2A. B. 17-18. Born 16th March 1911 in Melville, Saskatchewan, Canada. Son of William James Hepburn (died 1971, age 92) and Rankin Campbell Hepburn (née Lockhart, died 1967), of Waldron, Saskatchewan. Husband of Hazel J. Hepburn, of Melville, Saskatchewan, and father of Glen Alan Hepburn (born 21st February 1931) and Joan Allison Hepburn (born 1st September 1932).

Choloy War Cemetery

Choloy War Cemetery was created by the Army Graves Service for the re-burial of casualties recovered from isolated sites, communal cemeteries and small churchyards in north-eastern France where permanent maintenance of the graves was not possible. In 1950, for the same reason, the Commonwealth War Graves Commission found it necessary to move more than 100 graves into this cemetery from a number of churchyards and civil cemeteries in the same area.

Those who lie in Choloy War Cemetery are mostly airmen, but there are also soldiers of the United Kingdom forces who died in the Saar region during the first few months of the war (up to May 1940) or as prisoners of war.

There is now 1 Commonwealth burial of the 1914-1918 war and 461 of the 1939-1945 war commemorated at this site, of which 20 of the 1939-1945 burials are unidentified. In addition there are 7 Foreign National burials, 2 of which are unidentified.

The Commission also maintains 334 non-world war burials in this cemetery. Of these, 332 are post-war Canadian service personnel, most of them RCAF aircrew and their families who died while serving as part of Canada's NATO commitment to Europe (1 Canadian Air Division) between 1953 and 1967. The remainder are Canadian Army or Navy personnel who served with NATO in Germany after Canada's departure from France in 1967.

Choloy is a village 28 kilometres west of Nancy and 5 kilometres west of Toul, a town on the N4 road from Paris to Nancy. The cemetery is 3 kilometres west of Toul, on the north side of the D11B road.

Choloy War Cemetery (CWGC) .pdf

Sources and Acknowledgements

• RCAF Personnel Files
• Paradie-Dutil RCAF Archive
• Australian RAAF Service Files
• 49 Squadron Association
• Raymond Barlow - 'The Long Walk Home' (via the 49 Squadron Association)
• Aircrew Remembered Archives
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• National Archives, Kew

Supplement: Further Research on ED426 and Crew

Additional information found while preparing the page

1. The Base: Dunholme Lodge, not Fiskerton

49 Squadron's home station in October 1943 was normally RAF Fiskerton. However, the runway there had begun to break up, and on 13th September 1943 the squadron moved to nearby RAF Dunholme Lodge while repairs were carried out and the FIDO fog-dispersal system was installed. It returned to Fiskerton on 24th October 1943. 

2. Raymond Barlow's Account - 'The Long Walk Home'
(courtesy 49 Squadron Association)

Before his death in September 1993 Raymond Barlow recorded his memories of the crash and the evasion. He dedicated the account to Elmer Hepburn, so that Hepburn's son and daughter would know of their father's bravery. The following is a summary of his story.

According to Barlow, the crew were due to fly a brand-new Lancaster, but it developed engine trouble before take-off. They were instead given the station's worn-out spare aircraft, previously used for circuit training, and took off roughly an hour behind the main force. As a result they arrived over Stuttgart almost alone, fought off an attack by several night fighters on the way in and faced heavy flak over the target, where Elmer Hepburn released the bomb load and took the target photographs.

In Barlow's version the aircraft was then hit by flak rather than by a night fighter. The starboard outer engine caught fire and was feathered, and the fire then spread to the starboard inner. Wares turned for home on two engines, losing height steadily, and the navigator, Tim O'Leary, had just reported that they were over northern France at about 2,000 ft when the Lancaster struck the high ground.

Barlow came round in the blazing fuselage with the machine guns firing in the heat and oxygen bottles exploding. Unable to open the escape hatch, he found Wares unconscious in his seat, revived him, and the two escaped through the pilot's side window. Seeing no sign of the others, they assumed the rest of the crew had got out.

After hiding overnight they discarded their flying kit and decided, on the toss of a coin, to head for Switzerland rather than Spain. Walking around 25 miles a day, they were fed and sheltered by farmers, a lock keeper and a village blacksmith, and learned along the way that two of their crew had been captured alive. About twelve days after the crash they were hidden in a chateau and put in touch with the Resistance, who gave them identity papers and moved them by lorry via Vesoul towards the Montbéliard area. Guides then took them across the frontier on foot at night, and they were taken to Porrentruy.

In Switzerland Wares was interned at Lugano, while Barlow was sent to Berne, where he worked part-time at the British Legation issuing clothing to new arrivals. Barlow left Switzerland in early October 1944 after the Allied landings in southern France, travelled via Annecy and Lyon, and flew by Dakota to Croydon on 6th October 1944, where his wife Peggy met him. He was later awarded the Winged Boot of the RAF Escaping Society, and was demobbed in June 1945.

Barlow also recorded that after the war Wares returned home to Liverpool, Gilbert Attwood to Birmingham, and Fitzgerald to Perth, Western Australia, where Attwood later joined him. Barlow refers to Fitzgerald as 'Archi', possibly a nickname.

3. Donald Wares

P/O. Wares married Jessie Bell on 21st July 1943; Ray Barlow appears in the wedding photograph together with Donald's sister, Diana. After his commission, Wares flew two 'second dickie' operations with Sgt. Edy's crew on 27th and 29th September 1943, before taking his own crew on their first operation to Stuttgart. The 49 Squadron Association records that he died in 1992.

4. Elmer James Hepburn - Family

The RCAF next-of-kin form lists the following family: widow Hazel J. Hepburn (age 32) and children Glen Alan (born 21st February 1931) and Joan Allison (born 1st September 1932), all of Melville, Saskatchewan; his father W.J. Hepburn and mother, both of Waldron, Saskatchewan; brothers Melville G. Hepburn of Saskatoon, and W.J. Hepburn and A.G. Hepburn, both of Chatham, Ontario; and sisters Joyce Hepburn of Waldron, Mrs. Fred Sevigny of Calgary, Alberta, and Mrs. Ab. Stratton of Brooks, Alberta.

45. The Commercy Forest Memorial

On Friday 8th October 2021, 78 years to the day after the crash, a memorial stone to the crew of ED426 was unveiled in the Commercy Forest near the crash site, with a flypast by a French Air Force jet. Through the work of the 49 Squadron Association, relatives of three of the crew have since been in contact: Rosalind Knowles, daughter of Raymond Barlow; Ann O'Leary, niece of Timothy O'Leary; and Alex Wares, grandson of Donald Wares.

6. Further Points

Stalag 4B at Mühlberg was in Germany (Saxony), although Barlow and the original notes refer to a camp in Poland. The gunners may have been held elsewhere first.

The cause of loss differs between sources: night fighter (49 Squadron Association summary) or flak (Barlow's own account).

Supplement Sources

• 49 Squadron Association - personnel pages for Donald Wares and Elmer Hepburn; Raymond Barlow, 'The Long Walk Home'; Association Magazine, Issue 60, April 2022
• Bomber County Aviation Resource - RAF Fiskerton history
• RCAF Association - RCAF Casualties, Second World War
• Commonwealth War Graves Commission
• RCAF next-of-kin form for F/O. E.J. Hepburn (family copy)