440526 - Unaccounted airmen 26 May 1944

[Bertrand H]

Looking for aircraft, place and possible cause of crash of French Aircrew (BLOT/PONTON/FICHBACH) dead on 26 may 1944 when they were posting on 20 OTU.

TIA

Bertrand

[Dick]

Hi Bertrand
The incident involving your 3 Airmen took place during the night of 25-26/5/44 when they left Lossiemouth for a night X-Country exercise, during which they encountered severe icing at 15000ft.They descended to 7000ft but it did not improve and they were all ordered to prepare to abandon the a/c.Before anyone did the captain felt a slight improvement in the a/c handling and attempted a force landing at what he thought was an airfield.In fact he came down at a place called Bunker Hill about 1 ml E of the town of Consett in County Durham.4 died and 3 were injured by the crash and fire but not seriously.Those who died were:-
Capt R Richard the pilot
Lt R Blot
S/Lt A Pontin
and Sgt J Fischbach.
The 3 injured were
Lt J Vles
Sgt J Foury-Lavergne
and Sgt G Allain
They were all FFAF and the a/c was Wellington X ME553, JM-F
This comes from W Chorley, Bomber Command Losses, Vol 7 who has no information as to where the dead were buried and believes that they may have been re-patriated to France after 1945 having been first laid to rest in Harrogate
Regards
Dick

[Bertrand H]

Many thanks Dick for your ultra quick and precise reply !.

René Richard (died some days after the crash) and Raoul Blot are buried in the Brookwood cemetery.

Bertrand

[Henk Welting]

Thaks all.
Bertrand: Do you know the matricules of the crew and first names and burial locations of PONTIN and FISCHBACH ?
Dick: ME553 was never allotted to any aircraft; correct serial was MF553 and ME553 may have been a printing error in Chorley's BCL-OTU.
Regards,
Henk.

[Bertrand H]

Hi Henk,

Sgt Jean-Lucien FISCHBACH, Matricule 190 (Came from North Africa). I do not know if he had a bristish/french service number and Alexandre PONTON. I have nothing on him

HTH

Bertrand

[Henk Welting]

Thanks Bertrand; enjoy the weekend,
Henk.

[jossleclercq]

Hello

The re-arrangment of some old threads by the new mods brought up this old query.

I have a Guy Soury-Lavergne (S, not F), service number 37968, who was shot down on 2 November 1944 during a raid against Dusselforf. He was by then a member of No. 347 Squadron (aka "Tunisie") from Elvington. He filed an evasion report which can be found in WO 3208/3324 (#2747). He was the rear gunner of his Halifax crew

Just my two pence Worth, as I think this is the same man.

Joss

[COL BRUGGY]

Hello,

It should also be noted, that Lt J Vles FFAF did not survive the war. He was aboard No.346 (Guyenne) Sqn Halifax III NA558, which failed to return from attacking Bochum on 4-5 November, 1944. (BCL5/476).

Col.

[efwalter]

I can confirm that René Richard is buried at Brookwood cemetery. I visited his tomb. He was my great uncle.

[efwalter]

Many thanks Dick for your ultra quick and precise reply !.

René Richard (died some days after the crash) and Raoul Blot are buried in the Brookwood cemetery.

Bertrand

Where did you find this information? I thought he died in the plane.