Unknown Hurricane Pilot, Mid May 1940, Belgium

I am looking for help identifying a Hurricane pilot that my 94 year old relative buried in May 1940, west of Brussels in Belgium. He was a Royal Engineer in the B.E.F. and had to bury an un-identifyable British airman that he witnessed being shot down in the Zottegem area in mid-May as the Germans advanced. I am trying to find out as much info as I can on RAF men with NKG who went down at the time. The identity of the pilot was unknown to my relative and the body has since been moved after the war to another unknown site, probably a CWWG cemetery. My relative is still hanging on and wants me to try to find out the identity of this pilot so that he can let his family know what happened to their boy. After four years of work I think I have found the crash site but RAF records from the time were chaotic and blurred so can anyone help direct me towards tracing the identity of this RAF Pilot? Any help or guidance would be greatly appreciated!

Rob Creasey

email: robcrazey (at) yahoo.com

 

Hi Rob and welcome to the forum.
Plenty of RAF experts here who I am sure will help. Mid-May 1940 Hurricane loss is not a great deal to go on and it might be difficult to narrow it down to a single possibility. Having said that I would put a few quid on someone here getting it right.

Good luck - will follow this one.

Mike

 

Good Luck with your research Rob.

I asume that you've pinned down which squadrons could have been flying Hurricanes over France and Belgium and used Geoff's search engine to identify any casualties with no known grave ?

Geoff's 1939-47 Search Engine

Which Royal Engineers unit was he with ? A war diary might help narrow the area further.

On a personal note, I'm very keen to have contact with anyone who might recall BEF Royal Engineers vehicle markings.

Rich

 

Not sure if this helps. But.

Hurricane L1645. Believed shot down by Me 109s in combat near Dinant 12.40pm. Sgt J.L.C. Williams missing. Aircraft lost.
Possibly occupant of the isolated field grave of an unknown RAF pilot killed 15/5/40 located at Corroy-Le-Grand who in 1946 was interred at Heverlee, Leuven, where date of death is recorded as it May 12th. Despite post-war investigation by MREU proved impossible to positively identify the pilot concerned. Three Hurricane pilots remain 'missing' following combats near Namur on this day.

Hurricane P2870. Shot down near Charleville between Givet and Dinant 12.00pm. Sqd Ldr L.E. Smith Missing.

Hurricane P2538. Shot down during combat south-east of Brussels 12.00pm. P/O T.J. Edwards missing. Edwards may have been found during excavation at Huldenberg. Roland Beamont's autobiography records, 'an identity bracelet delivered by Royal Engineers confirmed the end of Taffy Edwards'.

Info taken from Battle of France Then and Now by P. Cornwell

 

Hello Rob, welcome to the forum.

Any chance of a few more details regarding this loss? During May 1940 there were many Hurricane losses and it would help if we could pinpoint the date a little closer.

Regards
Peter

 

Hurricane P2538. Shot down during combat south-east of Brussels 12.00pm. P/O T.J. Edwards missing. Edwards may have been found during excavation at Huldenberg. Roland Beamont's autobiography records, 'an identity bracelet delivered by Royal Engineers confirmed the end of Taffy Edwards'.
Is it possible there was more than just your relative involved in this burial, and that another RE chap may have taken the ID of the pilot?
This account does note that the bracelet was returned by Royal Engineers.

Would S/L Smith had had some visible rank emblems (unless of course not visible due to burning etc)?

 

Hi Rob and welcome to the forum.

What RE unit was he with? I'll check the units war diary at Kew-There's a good possiblilty the even maybe recorded.

Cheers
Andy


Glad to see you have now got the second best 'Then and Now' book Craig

 

Glad to see you have now got the second best 'Then and Now' book Craig

Yes I thought it should go with my Battle of Britain one.
(It's a great book thou)

 

Hello again, thank you all for you quick and positive replies. I am currently in a place near Zottegem, west of Brussels where I am now 100% sure that the plane was shot down. My relative was a Royal Enginner attached to 50th Northumbrian Inf Div and he drew me a detailed map of the area with key landmarks including a lake, a big house, a railway line and a church. I had gone over maps of the region for years to find a place with all these landmarks in the correct place and I believe the area I am in now is it. He is not able to come over and visit this area to confirm it and from the photos I have shown him he is unable to confirm for sure and some things will have changed...at 94 his memory is beginning to fade. But I have now taken his photos and shown them to locals who have confirmed this is the correct location.

I think that the plane came down between 13th and 18th May, prob around 15th as the Germans moved towards Brussels from the Leuven area. The unit he was attached too at the time were well behind the rapidly moving front lines which were still to the east of Brussels. The aircraft was flying low and crash landed after being shot by at by a single german fighter, it did not fall from a great height. It landed in a field and my relative forced open the cockpit that was jammed and took the burnt body out of the Hurricane, but did not take or remember anything that could identify the man nor does he remember the identification number of the plane. The other man helping him get the body to the church was one of his men. I do not know who this other man was.

My relative was questioned thoroughly afterwards by an unknown senior officer over what he found in the cockpit.

The small catholic church nearby in Elene was where the body was taken to be buried, but elderly local residents suggest it was moved after the war along with another military casualty to an unknown destination. The old Catholic priest who managed the site throughout the war died three years ago....

I have tried unsuccessfully to find out who moved the bodies and to where but to my knowledge there are several CWWG cemetries that bodies from this area were moved to post-war....however, without a palusible name or grave-site I can move the search on no further.....

Best,

Rob

 

Hurricane L1676. Shot down in combat with Me 110s south-west of Rethel 8.30am. P/O R.L Lorimer missing. Aircraft a write off.

Hurricane L1941. Failed to return from patrol east of Brussels and believed victim of heavy ground fire 1.00pm. P/O S.A.C Sibley missing.

Hurricane L1616. Shot down during attack on He111s west of Maastricht 9.40am. P/O P.L. Jarvis missing.

Hurricane P2635. Believed shot down by return from He111 and reported crashed east of Renaix 7.00pm. P/O L.L. Appleton missing.

 

II Corps Royal Engineers:

HQ II Corps

222 Army Field Company

234 Army Field Company

240 Army Field Company

108 Corps Field Park Company

14 Corps Field Survey Company

No.1 General Construction Battalion HQ

655 General Construction Company

656 General Construction Company

659 General Construction Company

665 General Construction Company

50th Division Royal Engineers:

232 Field Company

505 Field Company

235 Field Park Company

 

If after the war,the burials at Elene were "concentratrated",then the CWGC might have the detail and record of the "concentration".Worth an inquiry.

 

Thank you for all the feedback! My relative was 232 Field Coy, Royal Engineers, 50th Northumbrian Infantry Division. He was a sgt attached to the Durhams and is still a canny lad at 94 who wants to find out who this pilot was from 71 years ago so that he can tell the family what happened that day in May.

Rob

 

Sorry, forgot to add this earlier with regard to Rich Payne's post. I have been unable to pin down exactly which Hurricane squadrons were involved in this theatre of the Battle of France at this time and have no RAF connections myself to maybe even source reconnaissance aerial photographs of the crash site at the time?

Rob

 

Do you know what Bn of the Durhams he was in? I have all of their war diaries and if he was attached he will be recorded in the OR field returns.

 

I have had a quick look at possible "concentrations" and can find only one at Adegem Canadian War Cemetery around the date given and that is P/O M H G Rawlinson of No 85 Squadron.His Hurricane 1 was brought down on 16 May 1940 and he was recorded as initially being buried at Quievrain which is further south from Zottegem.

I think it is possible to check through all the likely concentration cemeteries around the dates given,then back check the individual squadron and pilot for the operational incident.However if the identity of the casualty has been lost on remains reinterrment then there is little that can be done since the CWGC do not record the exact information on unknowns on their CWGC web site data base.

 

From memory my relative thinks it was the 6th (black buttons) but it may be the 8th or the 9th. He seems sure about the colour of the buttons being black... The crash site was very close to their HQ, maybe a quarter of a mile. The HQ was a half mile from Elene church on the route from Zottegem to Aalst, (off Oudenaarde-Aalst road) based in the grounds of the Kasteel Leeuwergem. This has taken many years of research from his hand drawn maps as he has never re-visited this part of his life or been part of anything to do with commemorating his time in the forces since the war. I am now certain that I have found the correct area where this all happened but regimental records may certainly shine some light on my amateur detective work!! Also, wonderered if there would be anything worth looking at from the German side? He remembers getting his Bren gunner to fire at the German fighter plane and also remembers enemy bombing of the area with civilian casualties in the following days so there must be some record somewhere of all this taking place!

Rob

 

Looking through Fighter Command Losses by Franks isn't really showing anybody outstanding for the dates. Could be tough to nail the pilot's identity.

 

Has anyone asked the CWGC if they have a "Known Unto God" or possibly a named re burial from this site? They should have records about recoveries from the Elene area, maybe possible to work back from the concentration point to where they retrieved the body?

Once we have the site confirmed, then tracing a crash there might be easier to resolve?
Yeah, I know, Monday morning quarterback, but just throwing an idea in....

 

I've a strikingly similar story from my Grandad who wrote his first hand account of his experiences during the war, he also was a sapper in 232 Field Company Royal Engineers. At the time he was billeted in a farmhouse at Borbeke (Boorsbeke/Borsbeke) between 10th - 18th May and was detailed filling craters at Alost (Aalst) South bridge. As near as I can work out from the timeline at some time between the 13th-16th in the afternoon he witnessed a hurricane shot down. Here's the relevant excerpt:-

"...Late on the following day, we heard again the sound of aircraft engines and as they approached fairly low, one of the two "Messies" let go a long burst of machine gun fire at the Hurricane sandwiched between them which made our backsides crawl as we fled for the nearest shelter. We saw the Hurricane, with smoke streaming from him, dive into the nearby woods and, before we could recover from this shock to our vanity, explode into a mass of flame and bursting ammunition. We couldn't believe that we British could take on two to one and lose. As no one could approach the blazing fury, we had to wait until the following morning to remove the pilot's body. Strangely enough, he'd been out of his plane but his wrist was pinned under the fuselage. I remember our Sergeant puking as we lifted the charred remains on to a stretcher and how the smell of the burned flesh lingered in my nostrils for days afterwards..."
​

Grim stuff. Movement orders subsequently arrived and they had to beat a hasty retreat back through Belgium. I can find no mention of this in the war diary for 232 Field Coy although the HQ was in a different location to my Grandad's section and with all the various goings on at that time it's understandable that this was simply one more incident amongst many and had to be dealt with quickly in the rush of the withdrawal.

Hurricane P2635 flown by Pilot L L Appleton is one of the nearest reported sightings I had marked down, and the time of his disappearance matches this period as well as the lack of know location/remains, although reports of his crash appear to be further south west then the area my Grandad is likely to have been in at the time. This does not rule anything out of course as planes could travel some considerable distance quite quickly, as well as deviating from known positions if engaging the enemy.

The crash your Grandfather witnessed near Zottegem would appear to be a separate occurrence given his recollection of events, although the location is certainly not too far away. There were of course a large amount of RAF losses throughout that period, I would note the Belgian Air Force also had Hurricanes in the air at the time. Did you come across any further information attributing a possible location or confirming which pilot was involved?