Lancaster Bomber 514 Squadron

Skipper,

Regarding more information about Freteval Forest, you are probably familiar with the Freteval information I have on the Internet:

http://www.hilaroad.com/RCAF/freteval/freteval.html
http://www.hilaroad.com/RCAF/freteval/freteval_reunion.html

Here is another link that may be useful. While in Freteval, Dad was involved in taking a 100 Franc note around the camp to be signed by everyone there. The note belonged to Bill Vickerman. Bill's daugher Lorraine Vickerman has this note, it is posted on the Internet here:

http://www.rafinfo.org.uk/rafescape/freteval/banknote_vickerman.htm

All of the names are listed below the note. Dad met many of the people listed on this note, unfortunately neither Dad nor Bill Vickerman signed it.

I don't remember which members of Dad's crew ended up at Freteval. I'm sure he will provide that information.

Wayne Campbell

 

[ 24. August 2006, 11:09 PM: Message edited by: TA152 ]

 

Thank you for these links. I am familiar with Lorraine's site. I understand that there were in fact two camps. You probably know that a second camp had to be built because too many airmen were hidden and Commonwealth and U.S. airmen were separated. In fact some of them started fights and the resistance feared that the Germans might discover them. I am trying to find out how people actualy got to the camp. From your father's experience I believe some got there with directions, others were taken there by Resistants. (This is what the lady from Chateaudun wrote). However it is quite amazing to realise the distance between some of the crashplaces and how these men eventually got to Freteval safe. St Cloud was one of the closest places to the camp (within walking distance). Others were even closer such as Chambord, but there must have been a long distance network too.

 

Six of our crew ended up in Freteval Forest- "Jock" Donaldson(FE), Earl "Jonesy" Jones(MUG), Ben Lyons (WO), Sam Harvey(RG), "Chappie" Chapman(BA), and Alex Campbell(Skipper). This group was enabled to get back to England.
Earl "Judy" Garland(NAV) spent the rest of the war as a POW. Bob Giffin (Second Pilot) died from his wounds sustained during the attack.

 

I believe this is quite unique. It is amazing that almost an entire crew managed to evade and end up at Freteval. Most crews were separated. It must have been a relief for those six to be together after the crash. When your group arrived it must have been quite an event as I suppose most arrivals were much smaller groups.
Also your group must have been one of the last ones to get to the camp before Patton's troops got there mid August.

 

This is a 514 Lancaster LL678 coded A2* L running up the inbourd engines at Waterbeach. It was lost over Gelsenkirchen 12-13 June 1944 with Pilot offcier H.S. Delacour RAAF and crew.

From Lancaster at War vol. 3 page 23 by Mike Garbett and Brian Goulding

What size bomb is this ?

 

This is from Vol 2 page 145
The 514 Lancaster piloted by Sgt Charlie Medland tried a touch and go at Leiston with the navigator acting as engineer and things did not work out well. LL669 coded JI*K The aircraft was declared a write off. 17 March 1944
The crew was later lost over Duisburg 21-22 May 1944

 

514 Lancaster BII DS842 coded JI*F Firkin II
ghosting in at Deenethorpe,Northants, 3 May 1944

Aircraft was struck off charge March 1945 with 1668 HCU

Pilot officer Bob Langley lasted 18 ops, Feb-June 1944

Hope you enjoy the pictures Mr Campbell and I am glad you survived.

 

The bomb shown on the picture is a 4000 lb "Cookie" . A typical Lanc load would be fitted with one of these and fourteen 500 lb Cluster bombs. Units fitted with jamming devices such as 101 SQN would carry less cluster bombs. The "Cookie" was an explosive bomb with amathol and TNT. It was meant to explode as soon as it hit the ground. The 500lb bombs were incendiary bombs which were "long" delay bombs, but could also explode upon touching the ground.

 

Thanks for the great pictures TA. Skipper 67 has given a fine explanation of the bomb load. You will note the aircraft ident lettering on the side of the fuselage. The first two characters divulge the flight to which it was attached and the single letter referred to the actual aircraft. On our squadron the J1 indicates Flt A or B. While A2 denotes the the more recently formed C Flt. Hence our own a/c displayed A2 C as in "C Charlie". There has been some confusion regarding this very aircraft. It had been involved in some unsavoury incidents resulting in changes to the registration
I think Frank Haslam among others has been able to shed more light on this.
Another term for a destructive load was "cookies and cans". This neant a 4,000 lb cookie or blockbuster and many canisters of incendiaries.
As you said earlier you must be following this thread closely. Thanks TA and 67.
Cheers Alex Campbell

 

Hello mr Campbell,

On your site I saw a great picture which shows you in a cockpit with nose art. Is this AC-2? If yes, could you tell me the colors of the nose art? I would love to draw this art in it's original colors for you, if you agree of course.

 

The picture you mention is of the replacement A2 C.
A bit humbling to see that we can be replaced so readily. That of course was not quite the case. It took a lot of scrambling to keep a squadron up to strength when we wrote them off so recklessly. I'm
not sure if other views would show how the
lettering had been altered. Wish I could supply you with a view of the original. We had just applied to the Wingco for permission to have our ship named "The Adelphi Queen" after the Adelphi Hotel in Glasgow. Miller Gordon and staff had virtually adopted the whole crew of C Charlie.
Maybe it was just as well we didn't as they would have been further saddened by it's demise. I would like to see some of your work if possible.
Thanks Skipper 67. Cheers Alex Campbell

 

This is a great story. Did you stay in the Adelphi on your leave? Was this some sort of airmen party place? I suppose it was impossible for you to go home for short leaves. Did your crewmates invite you in their families in Britain? Regarding the artwork I will size some documents down for you in the future. Actually I make the drafts with the technical details and one of my friends makes the colour drawings on his computer. He is currently working on A Ju-88 flying over the castle of Chateaudun. This spring he made some great drawings for 405 Sqn (Canadian)Association, which includes a Lanc and a BF-110

 

More trivia- St. Elmo
First to Skipper 67- Yes, we were welcomed as royalty each time we stayed there. We also met some of the celebrated entertainers of that era. Among them being Harry Lauder and - no more names at the moment.
St. "Elmo's Fire" brightened up an otherwise dismal trip home one night. We had been in and out of fragmented cloud and rain showers with glimpses
of an uninviting ocean below us. Suddenly brilliant splashes of blue light appeared all over the windscreen and leading edges of the wings. This was quickly followed by exclamations from the gunners reporting lightning bolts dancing off their turrets and gun barrels.
This was somewhat startling at first as we had not yet seen such a display. However it was short-lived and no serious situations developed. At de-briefing we learned that many others had encountered very similar experiences. Over the years it seems that St Elmo's is a relatively harmless phenomenon. If there are any differing opinions out there I'd be glad to here about them.
Cheers Skipper of "C Charlie" Alex Campbell

 

I've always wanted to see a St Elmo's fire. It must have been an exceptionnal experience. The lighning bolts must have been scaring and fascinating at the same time.
I have been looking for archives at at the local paper from the Chateaudun area caled the "Nouvelle Republique". People are still commemorating the Freteval evaders every year. There is a ceremony in August . Too bad I missed the 2006 one. I bet that at least some of your helpers or people who remember you would attend the meeting. I will see if I can get in touch with the organisers.

 

I have an interesting testimony that confirms what I told you earlier about the water and hospitality. It is all the more interesting as it was written by a RCAF airmen downed in France in July 1944
"Everybody brought me food and the Mayor and another chap dug in their cellars for some old brandy. in my time at their home I had never any water but drank all kinds of wine. I had really good, though sometimes peculiar meals. At one time I ate snails using a needle and many times we had pig's knuckles. Vegetables were plentiful and eggs and milk seemd always on the spot. I had quite a time adjusting to French black bread, but loved the many types of thick soup".