Operation: Villeneuve-Saint-Georges, France

Date: 4th/5th July 1944 (Tuesday/Wednesday)

Unit No: 433 (Porcupine) Squadron, RCAF, 6 Group, Bomber Command

Type: Halifax III

Serial: HX353

Code: BM:X

Base: RAF Skipton-on-Swale, Yorkshire

Location: Beaumais about 6½ km (4 mls) west of Montreuil-la-Cambe, France

Pilot: Plt Off. George Atkinson Wolstencroft J19990 RCAF Age 27. PoW No 4969 * (1)

Flt Eng: Sgt. Sidney James ‘Sid’ Chambers 2209363 RAFVR Age? PoW No. 385 **

Nav: Flt Sgt. Harry Peter Pergantes R136684 RCAF Age 24. Evd (2)

Bomb Aimer: Sgt. Peter Allan Reeve MiD R157637 RCAF Age 22. Evd (2 & 3)

WOp/Air Gnr: Flt Sgt. Hedley Roydon ‘Brews’ Brewer R154951 RCAF Age 23. KiA

Air Gnr (Mid Upp): Sgt. Arthur Richard ‘Hutch’ Hutchinson R192337 RCAF Age? Evd (2)

Air Gnr (Rear): Sgt. Donald Laird ‘Don’ MacLean R183260 RCAF Age 18. PoW No. 399 ** (4)

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

** 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 4th July 1944 16 aircraft from the squadron were tasked on a mission to bomb the railway yards at Villeneuve-Saint-Georges in the southern suburbs of Paris, France. There were no reports of any fighter activity over the target which was bombed accurately.

HX353 was one of three aircraft from the squadron that failed to return.

HX353, 61 Sqn Lancaster EE186 or 463 Sqn Lancaster ME614 was claimed by Fw. Blank his 1st Abschuss from 8./NJG5 in Rouen-Gisors area at 3.500 m, 01:53 hrs. (Nachtjagd Combat Archive (12 May 1944 - 23 July 1944) Part 3 - Theo Boiten)

Fw. Blank survived the war and this was his only Abschuss.

The other two aircraft that failed to return were:

Halifax III LW120 BM:E (2 KiA, 4 PoW, 1 Evd):

Halifax III LW123 BM:W (6 KiA, 1 PoW).

HX353 was homebound when attacked by the night-fighter which set the aircraft ablaze. Fg Off. Wolstencroft ordered his crew to bale out and all of the crew were known to have left the aircraft between Le Mans and Alençon. Flt Sgt. Brewer baled out safely but was found dead on the ground by the French, with his parachute burned.

The aircraft crashed at Beaumais about 6½ km (4 mls) west of Montreuil-la-Cambe in France.

(1) After landing safely Fg Off. Wolstencroft attempted to make for the Allied lines. However, he was captured south of Caen the next day. After the statutory visit to Dulag Luft, Oberursel he was transferred to Stalag Luft 1, Sagan arriving there on the 1st August 1944.

On the 30th April 1945, the prisoners were ordered to evacuate the camp in the face of the advancing Soviet Red Army, but the Senior American Officer, Col. Hubert Zemke, refused to give the order. After negotiations between Zemke and Commandant Oberst (Col) Gustav Warnstedt, it was agreed that to avoid useless bloodshed the guards would go, leaving the PoWs behind. The next day, the first Soviet troops arrived.

The Western Allied prisoners took over the camp Stalag Luft 1 in self-administration on the 1st May 1945. After protracted negotiations between the Western Allies and the Soviet leadership, the evacuation of the 8,498 inmates of Stalag Luft 1 finally took place on 12th to 14th May 1945, from Barth Air Base using aircraft of the 8th US Air Force. Hundreds of PoWs had meanwhile made their own way west.

According to his PoW questionnaire he was interviewed on the 11th May 1945.

George Atkinson Wolstencroft was born on the 27th February 1917 in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He was employed as a gas fitter before enlisting in the RCAF on the 24th February 1942.

Note: His surname was inadvertently abbreviated to George Atkinson Croft on his US naturalisation Certificate

He passed away on the 11th November 1968 in Erie, Pennsylvania, USA.

(2) On the 12th August Flt Sgt. Pergantes, Sgt. Reeve and Sgt. Hutchinson came under the shelter of the local Resistance in the village of Le Marais-la-Chapelle. Two days later whilst out and about an SS soldier appeared and asked them who they were. His French was not good but he left satisfied when Flt Sgt. Pergantes explained that they were refugees. (Ref 1 - pp 312-313).

The next day on the 15th August they were discovered by a patrol from a Luftwaffe Flak unit. It was believed that they were betrayed by the Mayor of Montreuil-la-Cambe. A local man who lived nearby who had been providing meals to the airmen appeared with his face badly beaten up as he had refused to give up the names of his organisation. (Ref 1 - pp 312-313).

The PoWs were being taken under guard to Rouen when, at the Forêt de Londe-Rouvray on the southern edge of Rouen, two American P-38 Lightnings, looking for an ammunition dump in the forest, spotted the small convoy in which they were travelling and dived in to the attack. (Ref 2 - pp. 237-240).

An American report citing a local resident in Le Petit-Quevilly, some 3½ km (2¼ mls) WSW of Rouen, described an ambulance enroute from Bernay stopping in Le Petit-Quevilly adjacent to his home because of an American Major’s (Maj) serious condition.

The report was in the Missing Air Crew Report (MACR) for Maj. Sylvan Feld O-437064 USAAF. Pilot of P-47D #42-25966 from the 410th Fighter Squadron, 375rd Fighter Group posted missing in action on the 13th August 1944

The local resident asked if he could be of assistance. The American Maj. had been mortally wounded and was unconscious but he died before the local resident’s eyes. He watched as the German in charge of the ambulance take his watch, fountain pen and money. The Canadian who was not so seriously wounded, then told the local resident to take one of the Maj’s ID tags and get it into the hands of American or British officers at the earliest opportunity which the local resident said he would do.

The Canadian was Flt Sgt. Harry Peter Pergantes of this crew

He saw the ambulance depart with the wounded Canadian and a British soldier, as well as the body of the American. He watched as the ambulance was being loaded onto a barge and taken across the river Seine. He assumed that their destination was Maromme some 10 km (6¼ mls) north of Rouen.

The British soldier was believed to be Bomb Aimer, Plt Off. Lyndon Warwick Clive Lewis 173388 RAFVR, from 514 Sqn Lancaster II DS822 shot down on the 7th June 1944 PoW No. 5860, Stalag Luft 1, Sagan.

Flt Sgt. Pergantes was liberated from a hospital in Tournai, in Belgium on the 3rd September 1944. After returning to England for further treatment he was discharged from hospital on the 25th October 1944 and interviewed the next day on the 26th October 1944.

He was appointed to a commission and promoted to J87784 Plt Off.

(3) Sgt. Peter Reeve wrote a letter to the parents of Flt Sgt. Hedley Roydon ‘Brews’ Brewer (transcribed as follows):

Dear Mr. and Mrs. Brewer.

I now that by now you must have had word of "Brew’s" misfortune from the air ministry. I hope you won’t mind my referring to him by that name, the use of it brings back many fond

memories of our association with him and it was the name by which all of us in the squadron knew him.

As you may have heard, Hutch (the rear gunner) and I have returned safely to this country as lucky and as fortunate as we should feel, we cannot forget Brew nor the sacrifice he has made for his country and we feel his loss deeply as you must also.

As a wireless operator he lead his department and in fact, since we first knew him, he always had the highest marks of his department. Because of that we were proud to have him as a member of our crew, but morose because of his friendliness towards everyone and his eagerness to do all he could for the great cause for which we are fighting. Brew I’m sure was the hardest working member of our crew, and as such, he set an example to us that we could not ignore. There are many times that the rest of us maintained that such a fact was true. The result of this example he set for us was greatly responsible for the success of our operations.

It was I who first learned of Brew’s misfortune and it was I who was present when he was buried. To have been was a great honor. I know that you though saddened by his loss, will be glad to know that he was given a magnificent funeral.

I will never forget the sight of it. There were a great number of people present, a very great number. Brew was buried in a large and very lovely cemetery. His grave was surmounted by a large white cross, and was covered with hundreds of flowers. There is much more I should like to tell you about it, such as the location etc., but hope you will understand when I say that I cannot because of security reasons. After the war is over I will be able to, and will also be able to obtain pictures of the grave for you.

Hutch and I are at present awaiting a boat to take us back to Canada. We should be there soon, and I intend stopping off at Fredericton on the way hone. It will be very good to see you.

We have heard that Sid Chambers, the Flight Engineer, Don MacLean, the other gunner, and the skipper are prisoners of war, as such, we know for certain that they will be treated very well and the day is not far off when they will return to Canada. I know that you are thinking of, and praying for them as we are.

We are terribly sorry to have to return bearing such bad news for you, and we ask that you accept our sympathy in the loss of your son, Brew was as a brother to us and we will never forget the great sacrifice he has made to bring Peace and Security to us all.

Sincerely yours,

Peter Reeve

Sgt. Reeve was Mentioned in Despatches (MiD) which was promulgated in the London Gazette 1st January 1946.

Peter Allan Reeve died suddenly at the age of 29 on the 1st September 1952 (Courtesy of The Vancouver Sun, dated 4th September 1951)

(4) Sgt. MacLean’s parachute snagged on a tree knocking him unconscious. He came round to find himself lying close to a large tree near a stream. Oddly he found that he was not wearing his parachute harness but reckoned that a Frenchman must have removed it. Taking off his flying clothes he hid them under the bank of the stream.

He then pulled his trousers over his boots, removed his rank and wings from his tunic, pulled his sweater over his jacket and started off across the fields heading for the glow where the aircraft had hit the ground about 3¼ km (2 mls) to his north. Enroute he came across a signpost which indicated that Caen was 75 km (45 mls) away, which would have nee to his NW..

He found the aircraft a burnt out mass of wreckage and still smoking. He left the area and using his small escape compass walked all night, dodging Flak gun emplacements and an airfield. He badly cut his hands on brambles whilst pushing through a forest.

At about 10:00 hrs the next day he came to a village called Saint-Pierre-en-Auge, about 16 km (10 mls) north of the crash site, which was teeming with German troops. To detour the village and a large house, which a French girl whom he had met earlier had told him was a German HQ, he crawled across several fields.

A few miles further on from the village he was fired upon by a German sentry: He fell to the ground feigning injury and waited until the sentry came up and poked him.

Grabbing a stick Sgt. MacLean struck the German across the head knocking him to the ground and kept hitting him to make sure that he would trouble him no more. After he calmed down he was somewhat sickened by what he had done. A day later he had an encounter with another German sentry who was blocking his path: This time he crept up behind him, grabbed his head and cut his throat. This killing troubled him less that the first.

Around 15:00 hrs the next day he was standing on top of a hill looking at Allied forces fighting the Germans. Between him and the fighting there were dug-in troops and machine-gun posts. He sat down beside a stream to think over what to do next and must have fallen asleep because the next thing he knew was looking at a German soldier pointing a pistol at him. He was taken to the soldier’s officer who accused him of being a ‘gangster and a spy’.

MacLean could hardly have looked the part as he was only 5’ 7” tall and appeared to be so young that when he eventually arrived at Stalag Luft 7, the German guards gave him the nickname the ‘Baby Bandit’. This was on account of his age and height and because he was employed to steal whatever he could from the guards.

Laird MacLean was born on the 23rd November 1925, He was so keen to join up that he forged his older brother’s birth certificate to show that he had reached the minimum required age of 18. Armed with his forgery he called at the recruiting office in Sydney, Cape Breton, Canada, on the 12th November 1942. Accepting the certificate as proof of his age, he was sworn in to the RCAF 11 days short of his 17th birthday.

He was then taken a farmhouse where there were 18 captured Canadian soldiers. The following day they were moved to a small camp that held about a 100 PoWs. He was moved to Alençon, some 50 km (31 mls) to the SE of the crash site, and then Chartres, some 100 km (62 mls) east of Alençon. His journey continued by train to Paris and then on to Metz some 37 km (23 mls) short of the German border.

He would have taken to Dulag Luft, Oberursel where he and Sgt. Chambers ,from his crew, were processed before being transferred to Luft 7 with Trupp 15 on the 27th July 1944. (Ref 2 - pp. 237-240).

Burial details:

Flt Sgt. Brewer was buried in the church at Montreuil-la-Cambe and in order to keep the Germans from finding him he was buried as a Frenchman by draping his coffin in the tricolour and the villagers turning out for the ceremony. The ceremony was witnessed by Sgt. Reeve. His remains were recovered and laid to rest at the Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery on the 28th May 1945.

Above: Plt Off. Brewer and initial grave marker from his service file

Plt Off. Hedley Roydon Brewer. Bretteville-sur-Laize Canadian War Cemetery XVIII.C.10. Grave inscription: ‘HE GAVE HIS LIFE THAT OTHERS MIGHT LIVE’. Born on the 4th June 1921 in Nashwaaksis, New Brunswick. Son of Walter Lee and Myrtle Burdette Brewer (née Gourley) of Prince William, New Brunswick, Canada.

Flt Sgt. Brewer was posthumously appointed to a commission and promoted to J91055 Plt Off. with effect the 3rd July 1944.

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

Other sources listed below:

References:

1. RAF EVADERS by Oliver Clutton-Brock.

2. The Long Road: Trials and Tribulations of Airmen Prisoners from Bankau to Berlin, June 1944–May 1945 by Oliver Clutton-Brock and Raymond Crompton.

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