Unknown Canadian Airman shot Poggio Mirteto Italy 28 May 1944

Discussion in 'Prisoners of War' started by vitellino, Nov 21, 2017.

  1. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello everybody,

    What I really need here is an expert on Air Force service numbers but I will post all the details I have.

    A Canadian airman, rear air gunner, shot down over Sicily on an unknown date, was imprisoned in PG 66 Capua, transferred further north at some stage to Florence (possibly to PG 82 ) and escaped at the Armistice on 8 September. On a date between 8 and 15 September he arrived at a farmhouse asking for food and was given hospitality until May 1944 when he was picked up and shot by a Fascist and a German officer. All this information comes from War Crimes file WO 311/343.

    In giving evidence to the enquiry several Italians gave his first name as Armando, which, if he were French Canadian would presumably have been Armand, and his surname as Gioni, the Italianised version of a French surname, perhaps Jonin. One witness gave his service number as 108909B. Here I am stuck.

    The airman's body was picked up and is now buried in Bolsena War Cemetery.

    The Canadian authorities believed him to be F/Sgt L.S. Barker, R 62010 but this was not accepted by JAG : Case for Barker WO 311 343.jpg Refusal Barker  WO 311 343.jpg

    The Canadian Veterans cannot find anyone with the service number quoted. The number looks like a RAF Officer's number to me.

    Does anyone have a list of missing Canadian Airmen or of planes shot down over Sicily up to September 1943? I know that many Canadians were flying with the RAF.

    Thanks,

    Vitellino
     
    BarbaraWT and alieneyes like this.
  2. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

  3. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Thanks.

    I wish I knew why JAG had turned down the idea that he was F/Sgt. Barker. He doesn't give his reasons.
     
  4. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    Trouble is that the Canadian Archives give a March 1944 date of death for Barker:

    Item - Library and Archives Canada

    Surname: BARKER
    Given Name(s): LAURENCE SIDNEY
    Age: 24
    Date of Birth: 03 Jan 1920
    Date of Death: 11 Mar 1944
    Rank: Warrant Officer Class I
    Unit: Royal Canadian Air Force
    Force: Air
    Service Number: R62010
    Reference: RG 24
    Volume: 24801
    Extra Information: Son of Sidney H. Barker, and of Amy Nora Barker (nee Dell), of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, Canada.
    Item Number: 1601

    This is obviously 2 months prior to the date described
    TD
     
  5. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    alieneyes and canuck like this.
  6. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

    I am putting this here so that others will see the information has already been searched

    UK, Royal Air Force Airmen Records, 1918-1940
    Name: James Richard Booth
    Gender: Male
    Age: 41
    Birth Date: 1875
    Service Date: 16 Jul 1917
    Service Number: 108909

    Spouse: Ethel M Booth
    Next of Kin: Ethel M Booth
    Relation to Airman: Wife

    TD
     
    alieneyes likes this.
  7. horsapassenger

    horsapassenger Senior Member

    I note that the memo of 23 March 1946 states that they had been provided with photograph, medical records and dental charts of Baker. I would imagine that this was the reason why Baker was so quickly dismissed as being the suspected victim. I am advised by a person currently actively involved in the recovery and identification of wartime casualties that comparison with the dental records is considered to be even more reliable than DNA for identification purposes. Bodies being recovered today after, 70+ years in the ground, can be positively identified within a matter of days if their wartime dental records can be located.
     
    vitellino, alieneyes and Tricky Dicky like this.
  8. alieneyes

    alieneyes Senior Member

    There are only two RCAF airmen buried at Bolsena War Cemetery.

    R62362 (posthumously commissioned P/O, new number J94345) WO1 DJE Schmitz, a No. 243 Sqn RAF fighter pilot who was killed when his Spitfire was shot down strafing German columns north of Rome on 5 June 1944.

    R124510 WOII PE Nichols was a navigator on a No. 40 Sqn Wellington lost on 17 September 1943.

    A search of the RCAF Casualty Lists for the war show no one named Armand or Armando as a POW in Italy. Several in Germany.

    Dave
     
  9. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Tricky Dicky, I hadn't seen the pieces on Barker- thanks.

    Alieneyes, unfortunately if the Canadian airman had been shot down after the middle of August 1943 he wouldn't have been on the POW lists for Italy. I know this from other research. However, the fact that he was in two camps, the first being Capua and the second one further north, suggests that he had been shot down much earlier than August. I think I am correct in saying that Capua was evacuated in May 1943.

    CWGC has sent me the following:

    Service Soldier
    Unit Unknown Canadian Regiment
    Date of death 28/05/1944
    Grave (Section, Row and Number) IV, A, 10
    concentrated from Map Ref. 917062 Poggio Mirteto

    I am not very hopeful in tracing him, though he must appear on a 'missing' list somewhere.

    Vitellino
     
    Last edited: Nov 21, 2017
  10. alieneyes

    alieneyes Senior Member

    Hi Vitellino,

    He would be on the list of "Missing after air operations". So far, I have found no one who fits.

    Dave
     
  11. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    Hello Dave,

    Thanks for looking.

    I am begiinning to suspect that he gave a false name and identity to the Italian family who sheltered him. I don't intend to pursue this any further,

    Vitellino
     
  12. vitellino

    vitellino Senior Member

    However, here I am again, as there WAS and Armand Gionet ( thanks Tricky Dicky) who was killed in the spring of 1945 in the Netherlands.

    We might be talking of an assumed identity...
     
  13. Tricky Dicky

    Tricky Dicky Don'tre member

Share This Page