Lost in France 1944
By Ronald Vickers
Picture of memorial stone in Breel cemetery
At twenty five past midnight on 8th August an R.A.F. Wellington Mk. XIII bomber of 69 Squadron left its base at Northolt heading for Normandy in France.
The Invasion, begun on 6th June was well under way with the Allied forces closing in on the German army soon to be squeezed into the so-called Falaise Pocket.
One of the crew of four, the pilot, was Squadron Leader Kenneth George John Wakefield service number 40035. He was aged 29 years and came from the BRIGHTON area. The others were F/O J.B.T-H.Bigland, Navigator of Sussex aged 34, P/O K.F.Rawlinson Air Bomber of Richmond Surrey aged 24, and F/O J.F.A.Neal Tail Gunner aged 24, from Leicestershire.
They were operating in darkness with 34 Wing of the 2nd Tactical Air Force in support of the British and Canadian Armies and their unarmed mission was one of photo-reconnaissance using the flares that they dropped to take pictures of enemy positions and troop movements. Unfortunately this low, hazardous, flying technique put a slow flying aircraft like a Wellington into an exposed position where search lights and German 'ack-ack' using tracer bullets, could bring them down.
This was the fatal outcome for their Wellington on photo and visual reconnaissance of the town of Conde-sur-Noireau and it went on to crash in flames 18 kilometres South East near the small village of Breel.
S/Ldr Wakefield and P/O Rawlinson are believed to have died on impact although Bigland and Neal deployed their parachutes, but only Neal survived and successfully evaded capture. John Bigland is thought to have died in an orchard where he fell. All except Neal are buried in a collective grave in Breel Churchyard where local villagers recall that they were given a full military funeral by the Wehrmacht
The Normandy Association of Air Remembrance http://ansa.ornemaine.free.fr wishes to commemorate the event next year with a church service, a parade and an unveiling of a new memorial in the village and also to make welcome any known relatives or friends of the deceased airmen.
Kenneth George John Wakefield was the son of Alfred Thomas and Mary Gertrude Wakefield; husband of Margaret Joyce Yrene Wakefield, of BRIGHTON, Sussex.
My task is to find any members of the families alive today who may wish to attend.
This page was added on 10/08/2007.