Hello, I am the nephew of Sgt L Maiden - my dad was his younger brother.
Regarding the differing burial sites - I have heard the testimonies of people involved in the events via my late father who heard them from his parents (my grandparents & obviously the parents of Leon).
My grandparents travelled to Marquise after the war - to visit Leon's grave & they actually met people who witnessed the Lanc & Leon's body. As I remember they spoke to a young French woman (a Jeanette Laverie) had seen Leon's body brought from a field to a nearby church, from where it was collected by the German forces. She told my grandparents that Leon's chute was only partially opened & that it was probable that he had bailed out too low & was killed in the fall.
A French official (possibly the mayor?) had told my grandparents that the Lanc had been seen flying low & "jinking" to avoid rooftops/towers & had crashed on the beach further on from Marquise. This implies that someone was flying the Lanc.
The testimony from the pilot was that the had lost consciousness & had come to floating down in his parachute. The conclusion was that in the chaos of a flack damaged Lanc losing height & injured pilot that the pilot was ejected for his own safety & that probably Leon as the flight engineer had steered the stricken Lanc over buildings to avoid civilian casualties, but bailed out too low to land safely & lost his life. One wonders if he had stayed with the Lanc he may have survived? The dead crew members were recovered from the Lanc & Leon was found by locals & taken to the church & laid out respectfully. The young French woman said that he looked peaceful & there wasn't a mark on him.
I am saddened to learn that the pilot he flew with regularly, (F.O.E Bennett) also lost his life only a month later - such was the attricion rate of bomber aircrews.
It is quite unnerving to see that in the flight records of 676 Sqn that his name appears in the flight logs for the crew of N2 PD235 after his death! - Obviously his name had not been removed from the crew listings? Which obviously leads to the question who was the Flight engineer on those missions?
I would like to thank all involved in contributing to this post & ask who was the family member that enquired in 2009?
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