Remembering D-Day: Visit by Relatives to Laval Cemetery, 2015

Report received this morning from Jean-Louis Cholet in Laval: On June 10 Brian and Carol (sister of Leslie Brotherton) visited the Vaufleury cemetery in Laval. They also visited the monument to the Tom Henderson-piloted plane in Saint Brethren. Carol laid a wreath of poppies at the foot of the monument. It was cold, but the visitors were able to borrow two jackets. Comment Many relatives came in 2014 for the 70th Anniversary of D-Day. It is good that visits are made in the  "off" years. The crash of the two Halifax bombers was the subject of a book by Dr. Robert Wack. The book is partly a biography of one of the pilots, Willem van Stockum, and partly a what-if science fiction novel. It has a five-star rating on Amazon with seven reviewers.

Willem Jacob van Stockum - What Air Force Was He In? (Comment)

Dr. Robert Wack signing his book, Time Bomber
at a book fair in suburban Baltimore.

Dr. Robert Wack, author of Time Bomber - a Five Star book on Amazon based on five reviews - recently reported that he had received multiple inquiries from readers of his book.

The readers were curious about details of some aspects of the life of Willem van Stockum, the bomber pilot and time-travel thinker who is the subject of the book.

One question was the flag under which Willem van Stockum flew as a bomber pilot. His life story is accurately told by Dr. Wack except for some time-travel additions that are acknowledged in a note to the reader.

The reader asked whether Willem flew for the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) or the British RAF. Here is Dr. Wack's response:

The answer is, both. How could this be? Part of the answer lies in the circumstances of Willem’s enlistment, as well as the relationship between Canada and Britain as part of the Commonwealth, and lastly the specific needs of the war time Bomber Command. Willem initially enlisted with the Canadian RAF purely for logistical reasons: it was the closest place he could go to get into the war. 

In 1940 and early 1941 (before Pearl Harbor), there already were Americans frustrated with isolationism traveling north to enlist, and Willem took that path, leading him to the new recruit depot in Toronto. Canada had already been supplying England with food and weapons since the outbreak of the war in 1939. The relationship between Canada and England was still very close, despite the Statute of Westminster in 1931 granting autonomy to all the Dominions of the Commonwealth. The Canadian RAF assembled units and sent them to England as separate units under British command, and it was one of those that Willem wanted to join. 

However, his value as an instructor was of more interest to his Canadian military superiors, so they repeatedly denied his requests to be assigned to combat units. Eventually, he applied for transfer directly to the British RAF, which was finally granted, resulting in his transfer and assignment to No. 10 squadron at Melbourne Station, a few miles southeast of York. The British RAF took volunteers and assigned units from anywhere willing to send them. No. 10 Squadron was a particularly diverse group, with members from all the occupied countries, as well as other Commonwealth nations. Willem wrote home about other Dutch members of the squadron, as well as French, South African, Canadian, and even American flyers. It was a tumultuous time, with citizens of many countries all joining efforts to defeat the Nazis, regardless of nationality or native origins.

Comment

I would like to add two things to this admirably thorough response:

1. Willem's gravesite is the only one of the 14 gravesites with a non-RAF gravestone. There were other flyers from Australia and Canada - the RAF was desperate for experienced pilots and other airmen then because so many airmen were being shot down and the training period for a pilot is long. Although Willem was flying under RCAF and RAF colors, he was a Dutch citizen (he was in the process of getting American citizenship). My mother, sadly, arrived with her husband and children in 1954 to find there were 13 gravestones and only a wooden cross for her brother, because the Dutch hadn't gotten around to putting in a gravestone. (I have posted her diary entry for that day, December 26, and the next day.) Willem now has a proper gravestone, as well as a monument to him and his crew contributed by the French people who live in the area. To add to the confusion about Willem van Stockum's national identity, he received his undergraduate education at Trinity College, Dublin, and his Ph.D. in Mathematics from the University of Edinburgh.

2. No. 10 Squadron has an illustrious history. In 2015 it celebrates the 100th anniversary of its creation.

RAF No. 10 Squadron to Celebrate Its Centennial in 2015

The 10 Squadron Halifax Mark II, Series 1 at RAF Leeming, December 1941 - 
the plane flown by the two RAF crews shot down over Laval, June 10, 1944.

The No. 10 Squadron of the Royal Air Force will be 100 years old on January 1, 2015.

The No. 10 has been repurposed throughout the last century from observation to bombing, transport and aerial refueling.

During World War II, the No. 10 was a bomber squadron. It lost two Halifax bombers to anti-aircraft fire  over Laval, France on June 10, 1944, four days after D-Day.

One plane was piloted by F/O Henderson, an Australian, the other by a Dutchman who had been teaching at the University of Maryland and was  flying for the Royal Canadian Air Force, F/O van Stockum (subject of the novel Time Bomber). The 14 crew members of the two planes have been memorialized by two monuments outside of Laval unveiled on June 10, 2014, on the 70th anniversary of their deaths.

These two planes were less than 2 percent of the 128 Halifax planes lost by the Squadron during the war's 300 missions. With seven airmen on each plane, that would be 896 flyers killed, or about three per mission. The loss of two planes, 14 crewmen, on one mission would be four times the average.

 The 10th Squadron currently flies the Airbus Voyager, a transport and tanker.

First World War

1915-1919. No. 10 was formed in 1915, as part of the Royal Flying Corps, in 1915 at Farnborough Airfield, Hampshire, UK. It served as a spotter and bomber in France.

1928-1941. In 1928 it was reconstituted as a night bomber unit on Hyderabads at RAF Upper Heyford. It moved to RAF Boscombe Down in 1931 and later on to RAF Dishforth in 1937 to form part of the newly created No. 4 Group of RAF Bomber Command, using including Hinaidis, Vickers Virginias and Handley Page Heyfords.


Second World War 1941-1945


The squadron began in the Second World War as the first unit equipped with the Armstrong Whitworth Whitley.

The squadron remained a part of No. 4 Group throughout the war,re-equipping with the Halifax at the end of 1941.

In mid-July 1940 the squadron moved to RAF Leeming, Yorkshire. In mid-1942 they moved to RAF Melbourne, Yorkshire.

Since World War II

1945-50. No. 10 spent four years with Transport Command, flying Dakotas in India. After a one-year 1947-48 disbandment, No. 10 took over No. 238 Squadron and operated in Europe, taking part in the Berlin Airlift.

1953-1964. No. 10 Squadron reverted to its original bomber role, taking part in the Suez Crisis, equipped upon reformation at RAF Scampton with Martin B-57 Canberras, the first jet planes to drop bombs during combat. After 1968, the squadron was reformed at RAF Cottesmore, flying Handley Page Victors. The squadron's VC10s have also been used to fly the British Royal Family and top government ministers around the world. Former Prime Minister Tony Blair reverted to the VC10 for sensitive flights, such as during his diplomacy to Pakistan and after the 9/11 attacks.

No. 10's Vickers VC-10 C1 in 1977.

1966-2005.The squadron received 14 new Vickers VC10 C1s, which were named after the airmen who had been awarded the Victoria Cross. No. 10 thereby reverted to air transport at RAF Fairford and then RAF Brize Norton. The C1 flew 1,326 sorties during the Gulf War, carrying 50 bombs weighing 1,000 lbs each for the Tornado GR1 force. It took part in most other operations including the 1982 Falklands War and the 2003 war in Iraq.

2011-present. With the closure of RAF Lyneham and the transfer of the RAF's Hercules force to Brize Norton, No. 10 Squadron has been reformed as the first operator of the new Airbus Voyager.

Monuments Unveiled to 14 RAF Airmen Who Crashed 70 Years Ago

Top photo shows two of the relatives of the crew of the MZ 684, JT Marlin (your
blogger), nephew of Willem van Stockum, and Pamela Turney, great-niece of Fred
Beales. The newly unveiled monument to the 70-year-old crash is in Entrammes.

Two monuments were unveiled on June 10 in memory of the two planes downed that early morning on a mission in the Laval area.

One was at a pear farm in Entrammes, Mayenne. It was dedicated to the MZ 684 Halifax bomber and its crew. The pilot was Willem J. van Stockum, my uncle.

The other was at Saint-Berthevin, dedicated to the MZ 532 Halifax bomber and its crew.

Comment

Uncle Willem was the person who brought my parents together. He roomed with my father at Trinity College, Dublin in 1929-32. When my father discovered that Willem had a sister, he set about wooing her.

They were married in 1932, had their first child in 1934 (my sister Olga will be 80 this year), and ten years after they were married they got me (#5 out of 6 children).

When Uncle Willem died in 1944, a light went out in the lives of my parents. It was unspeakably tragic for them and for my Granny who lived with us.

"Time Bomber", by Robert
Wack, centered on the life
of W. J. van Stockum.

When we came to visit the graves in 1954, the 13 RAF-administered British and Commonwealth graves had tombstones. My uncle's grave just had a simple wooden cross. I remember my mother burst into tears because she couldn't understand why her brother was singled out for not having a tombstone. It turns out it was because Willem was still a Dutch citizen (he was seconded from the Royal Canadian Air Force but he had applied for American citizenship). The Dutch Government had asked my mother what she wanted to have on the tombstone and she said: "Greater love hath no man..." The tombstone arrived in due course, but my mother never came back to see it. My brother Randal and I have been back several times. The Dutch tombstone is very impressive, but it does not have on it the epitaph that my mother requested.

On the other hand, my uncle is the only one so far of the 14 members of the crew to have a book written about him - Time Bomber, by Robert Wack. I recommend it. The story is based mainly on factual material about my uncle and the life he led until it was ended. The additional elements that have been added to the story, what we could call the sci-fi meta-story, make several important points that are hard to discuss any other way.

WW2 | Veteran Jean-Louis Cholet Says Thanks

Remembering Five of 14 Airmen Buried Together in France (listed in bold face): L to R: Nicola and Robin Sumner (nephew of Daniel Gilbert), Cpl Pamela Turney (great-niece of Fred Beales), Luke Shergold (son of Suzanne), Michael Hayes (Beryl's husband), Beryl Hayes (daughter of Edward Wicks), Martin Clegg (Suzanne's husband), Suzanne Clegg (Beryl's daughter), Ashley Shergold (Suzanne's son), John Tepper Marlin (nephew of Willem van Stockum), Silvia and John Ellyatt (son of John Elyatt).

This Veterans' Day, I would like to appreciate Jean-Louis Cholet, a French Army veteran who has made it his life's work to show gratitude for those who liberated France in 1944. He brought together 12 relatives, from four countries, of airmen from two bombers who gave their lives to liberate France in June 1944. The airmen were all shot down near Laval, France.

Willem van Stockum (front, center) with crew, training, 1944.  

We all came together to Laval, at a moving memorial on the 66th anniversary of VE-Day. I was the sole American; the other eleven were from Britain, Canada and Switzerland. We represented families of five of the 14 airmen, in two Halifax bombers, who were on a mission from the RAF 10th Squadron base in Yorkshire on June 10, 1944. This was the squadron's fifth mission over northern France in the first ten days of June to destroy Nazi supply lines to the Normandy Front.

The pilot of one of the bombers was my Dutch-born uncle, Willem van Stockum, a mathematics Ph.D. from Edinburgh University.

Willem van Stockum.
Portrait by his sister, c.1942.

Willem followed his sister (my mother) to the United States, taking a post at Einstein's Institute for Advanced Study in Princeton and then at the University of Maryland. Willem is a well-known pioneer of time-travel theory. He was in the process of obtaining U.S. citizenship and is listed as a resident of Washington, DC in a Washington Post necrology of the war dead, on November 11, 1945. 

None of the five families of the downed airmen had met previously. Some of us had been to the gravesite before - my family visited in 1954. But until this year none of us knew much about the airmen we were not related to.

Cholet is a 32-year veteran of the French Army, son of a Resistance fighter who was shot by the Nazis. Cholet has been recognizing the crews of the two downed bombers every year on V-E Day since 1988, when he became head of the Laval unit of a group named "French Remembrance". Through an Internet query in 2010, Cholet connected with Canadian Pamela Turney, great-niece of airman Fred Beales, and she reached out to the rest of us. The other two airmen on my uncle's Halifax were Brits Gilbert Daniel and John Ellyatt, both from West Hartlepool, Co. Durham.

By the end of our stay in Laval, we had become good friends, charmed by Cholet's genuine gratitude for the sacrifices made by the Allies as part of the liberation of France from Hitler's occupation. He wrote a poem that sums up his feelings that my brother Randal has translated into English: 

I Have an American Friend
By Jean-Louis Cholet, Laval. © 2007; translated from the French by Randal Marlin, 2011. Reprinted by permission.

I have an American friend. 
I don’t know his name; 
He doesn’t know mine. 
But I have an American friend.
I do not know him; 
He does not know me. 
But he is my American friend.
What is the color of his eyes? 
Of his hair? 
Is his skin light or tanned?
In what State was he born? 
Of all that, nothing! 
Is he Southerner or Yankee,
Californian, Cherokee?
But I care about my American friend, 
Because I am indebted to him. 
I owe him springs, summers, 
The women I have loved,
The son, the daughter and the little last-born.
I owe decades, 
My past, my present and the future,
To my American friend.
The only thing I know about him, 
Is where to find him. 
In the big field of crosses and stars, 
The length of the Normandy coast,
A field where I go to pray and weep.
He rests there ever since his blood 
Reddened the sand. 
He fell there, my American friend. 
In his kit he had a present for me.
Freedom.
I have it always.
I have an American friend.

Jean-Louis Cholet, 2011.