by Judi Mcleod
april 8, 2004
Reading newspaper accounts about a long ago plane crash near his home, Belgian Filip Doms decided to put wings on a cherished dream.
"I am searching for the relatives of the gallant airmen who lost their lives for the freedom we take for granted today," Doms wrote in a letter to Canadafreepress.com.
an active member of several Belgian patriot organizations "which are trying to keep the memory alive so that the dark years of Nazi occupation will never be forgotten", Doms and Company are not daunted in the least that they are on a search that found its beginning 60 years ago.
Successful in their search or not, Belgian patriots are planning a late-april 2004 memorial ceremony in the City of Mechelen to celebrate a September 4, 1944 liberation, by brave young men barely out of their teens.
In reaching back through six long decades, Doms wants to give a face to the names of the gallant airmen who died for the freedom of the world.
Photographs, documents and all leads are welcome to honour the fallen World War II heroes, to give them a prominent place in the memorial exhibition.
The documented story of their fate is breathtaking in the courage displayed.
Instruction came from Bomber Command with military strategy for an air raid on the night of april 24, 1944. The target was nothing less than the transportation system at Karlsruhe, West Germany. a total of 637 aircraft would take part on this night sortie.
Pilot Officer Robert Cagienart, commander, and his crew flew the Lancaster Mk11 Bomber, DS 734, KO-Y. It was the crew’s eighth flight over enemy territory. at 21.51 hours, they took off from Witchford airbase, where since November 1943 the 115th squadron had been operating. The heavily loaded plane got slowly airborne, setting off to the rallying point near Reading, 60 km east of London. The waiting bomb bay contained a load of one heavy brisant high explosive bomb of 500 kg; 108 30-lb. and 1,054 four-pound incendiary bombs--good for a destructive load of four tons.
The plotted route was to take the plane further southwest to cross the English coastline over Beachy Head. airmen knew Le Touqet-Paris-Plage marked the beginning of hostile territory. anticipation was running high on this mission with all knowing that as soon as the French-German border was crossed, the primary target was only some 25 kms ahead. Known too was that the flight back to the safety of the base was more than 900 kms long.
after the devastating bombardment above the German city, the bomber stream took off to their home bases in England. They presumably altered their original plotted route and were flying over Belgium. Normally they would have been heading south. Why the diversion?
Six planes were to crash that night in the northern provinces of Belgium. During this time the German Freya and Wartburgh radar were carefully charting all their movements.
Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, his wireless operator Lieut. Fritz Rumpelhardt and gunner Oberfeldwebel Willi Gaensler took off at Brustem on a Messerschmitt BF-110 G-4, heading east from Nieuwkerke ground station on an interception mission.
at 02.03 near alken, the first Lancaster of the 115th squadron was shot down. Nearly 20 minutes later the Lancaster of Pilot Officer Cagienart and his crew was under attack.
In 1994, an eyewitness of the attack was interviewed.
"at that time we were living on the Frans Halvest and were wakened during the night of april 24 by the ear-deafening sound of a burning aircraft that was rapidly losing height and was to crash shortly afterward," recalled the eyewitness.
"The day after we went to find out where the aircraft had come down. It was between the Hoeveweg, a country lane situated parallel with the Borgersteinlei (then named Kerkhoflei) and a small river called the Vrouwvliet, the local border between Mechelen and the Village of Sint-Katelijne-Waver in the Province of antwerp. German soldiers were blocking off the plane, or what was left of it. But down the lane we spotted a group of bystanders, grave and quietly staring. There, behind a row of six identical houses and still standing, was a glasshouse where the body of a British airman was still lying, His half opened parachute was lying on the metal structure which was broken and bent due to the fall. The image that I still bear in my mind to this day is the immaculate, light beige uniform of the airman, an image strongly contrasting with the soldiers’ grey coat of the German guard."
as it happened, Mr. Van Der auwera from Bonheiden and his wife had only recently been married and were living on the Kirkhoflei 137, where they still live to the present day. a courageous soul, he refused to work for the enemy, hiding out during the day at his in-laws’ farm on the Berkenlei. On that fateful Tuesday morning, he was, as usual by morning light on the way to his in laws. He was the first to see the British airman lying in the glasshouse, where he had planted tomatoes only the day before. The impact must have been very violent there were other airmen found dead in the moat surrounding the Kennis farm.
That night nine Lancaster and eight Halifax airplanes were shot down. Two were accounted for by Schnaufer, the Ghost of Sint-Truidena as he was called by his British counterparts.
Seven of the downed airmen, known by name are resting in the Schoonselhof Cemetery in antwerp, Belgium.
as a Belgian patriot organization, the May 8 Committee Mechelen is building a memorial for the airmen, and 60 years after the tragic night, a remembrance ceremony is being organized.
at noon on Saturday, april 24, 2004, the patriots will visit the graves of the crew at Schoonselhof Cemetery, followed by the unveiling of the monument.
Delegates will be attending from the Ministry of Defense air Force, the Embassies of England and Canada, the local Mayor and council members, Belgian patriot organizations, surviving members of the underground, Royal British Legion antwerp and Brussels, Normandy Veterans association, RaF members living in Belgium, including F.R. Leatherdale, DFC, Squadron Leader RaF (retired).
Members of the Cagienard family will attend the ceremony.
Doms hopes to find relatives of the following airman:
Letcher albert Clayton: Pilot officer J/92031, air Gunner 115 (RaF) Squadron, Royal Canadian air Force. Born July 3, 1922, Brule Mines, alberta, died april 24, 1944 at age 20. Job in 1939, Forest Protection, B.C. Forest Service. Joined RaF 1942;
Son of Letcher, George Lavers was born in Nova Scotia and Burrows Jessie was born in Fernie, B.C.
Their address in 1945: Mountain Park, Ottawa. Mother deceased in 1945. Married on august 12, 1945 to June Evelyn Blackmae in North Vancouver. address in 1944: 117 West Seventh ave., Vancouver, B.C.
One child, Susan Marilyn Letcher was born on June 30, 1943 in Vancouver, B.C.
Should anyone be able to help the Belgian patriots in their search, contact:
Filip Doms,
Member May 8 Committee,
Mechelsesteenweg 315,
2860 Sint-Katelijne-Waver,
Belgium, Europe or email: filip.doms.j@planetinternet.be.
Canada Free Press founding editor Most recent by Judi McLeod is an award-winning journalist with 30 years experience in the print media. Her work has appeared on Newsmax.com, Drudge Report, Foxnews.com, Glenn Beck. Judi can be reached at: judi@canadafreepress.com
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