h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Hello Peter
Have read, and thoroughly enjoyed, several of your articles! I am researching our 2 uncles who both died while flying with bomber squadrons in WW2.

One (mine, from Dewsbury - your neck of the woods!!) with RAF 102 Sqdn, died in a mid-air collision over Pas de Calais and is buried at Fontaine l'Etalon.

The other (my husband's), with SAAF 34 Sqdn, disappeared over or near Verona on the night of 2/3 March 1945. The official findings of the RAF Board of Inquiry into the disappearance, concluded that the aircraft must have crashed into the Adriatic or Lake Garda. Despite very strong rumours that the crew had survived a forced landing and been captured and executed (by locals or Fascist units?), no "conclusive evidence" was ever found. Can you help? Or know of anyone else who can? Or can you suggest where I might look for information on either the RAF inquiry or Veronese partisan history?

I have quite a lot more detail about the raid and the disappearance if you need more information.
Regards
Melanie
(South Africa)

Hi melanie

Many thanks for you kind words. I know very little about the South African airforce other than that 31 and 34 Squadrons were heavily involved in supplying the Warsaw insurgents from Italy, in August- September 1944, with an extremely high loss of crews and planes.

Let me know what information you have, you probably already have more than I know, but I'm sure others will help.

All the best,

Peter

Hi Peter!
Thanks for the reply. Please don't apologise - it's your knowledge of Italy that's important, not of SAAF!
You are right, of course, about the role 31 & 34 Sqdns played in the Warsaw Airlift, although my uncle only joined 34 Sqdn in December '44, after the "Warsaw Concerto" took place. (In case you are interested, there is a South African book, published 2 years ago called "The Men Who Went to Warsaw", which details the history of 31 & 34 from formation to disbanding.)

My uncle, WOII Harland Trevor Benn, aged 20, was an Air Gunner on his 3rd tour of duty, flying Liberator B VI's out of Celone, one of the network of airfields at Foggia. 31 and 34 Sqdns SAAF formed part of RAF 205 Wing, but retained their own command structure. Crews comprised mostly South Africans, but with RAF personnel too.


- Harland’s plane EW 207 coded K took off 00h29 on Sat 3 March
Crew comprised
542859V W/O II Harland Trevor Benn Air Gunner SAAF
607376V W/O II Robert James Faull Air Gunner SAAF
607330V W/O II Ronald Esme Wicht Air Gunner SAAF
103554V Lt Joscelyn Albert Tudor Steele Observer SAAF
206234V Air Sgt Derek Knight Austin Pilot SAAF
206044V Lt Philip Anthony Klapper Pilot & A/C Commander SAAF
1319962 Fl/Sgt Alfred Matthews Bomb Aimer RAF(VR)
Sgt Edward Moody Stoves W/Op-Air Gunner RAF

- The target was marshalling yards in Porta Vescovo, Verona East
- 24 planes took off (23 returned safely)
- Encountered “the usual” flak, plus "some attention" from night fighters (ME109’s). This info is from the log book of one of the 31 Sqdn pilots on the same raid
- At the debriefing it was reported that EW207 was seen to deliver its bomb load; it was seen climbing off target (some reports say the pilot, Lt Klapper, radioed that mission was accomplished, was setting course for base); this was the last known position; it was never seen again
- No aircraft was seen in distress; no reports of a/c being shot down; no reports of POW’s
- Military authorities apparently conducted searches over wide area but found no trace of plane or crew
- Very strong rumours circulated on the SAAF base (and still persist today amongst 31 & 34 veterans) that the crew had crash-landed, been captured and executed by Italians (partisans or Fascist units)
- A special commission appointed by the RAF investigated the disappearance; it found no "conclusive evidence" to support the rumours, and concluded that the aircraft came down in the Adriatic, Lake Garda or Lake Comacchio
– The matter was described by one RAF official as “one of the biggest mysteries of the war”
- SAAF made no further information available after "Missing, death presumed" notification
- after the war Harland's father and sister made extensive enquiries at the Air Ministry in London as well as in Italy, but to no avail.

And that's where the story ended till I started "digging" a couple of months ago!
Any ideas???!!!
Regards
Melanie

Hi Melanie,

thank you very much for posting the very impressive reults of your research.

You say that there were rumours that the crew may have been killed by either Italian Partisan or Fascist bands.

You can immediately rule out Partisans, they were totally on the Allied side. They ranged from Christian Democrats to Communists, but all were united in the common cause. Many Allied airmen and ex PoWs were escorted either south to Allied lines or to Switzerland by Partisans and some Allied ex PoWs joined them and fought with them. The Partisans were fighting the Germans and Fascist Militia, not the Allies. By late 1944 the RAF was supplying the larger Partisan formations with air drops.

As to Republican Fascist killing them, this is unlikely too. Not for any morral scruples but rather that they would be more valuable alive for propaganda purposes and for interrogation. In any event they would have had to completely dispose of the wrecked aircraft, leaving no trace. Captured airman, caught by the Fascist Militia, were usually handed over to the Germans. Moreover, by March 1945 the writing was well and truly on the wall and I doubt that a Fascist group would risk being executed, at that very late stage, for killing an entire Allied air crew.

From what you have said, a crash in the sea seems more likely.

Peter

Hi Peter
Thanks for your comprehensive reply - it confirms everything I have read about the situation in Italy at that time. I must admit (strange as it may sound) I'd rather believe that Harland and his crew died (quickly) in a fiery plunge than by slow torure and eventual execution, which is the version the veterans brought back. Knowing that there was a lot of (understandable) anger amongst civilians towards Allied bombers, and knowing that similar lynching incidents were recorded in Germany towards the war's end, I thought it was worth following up. I have even read that the Italian airforce on bomber escourt duty would sometimes not fire on Axis fighters as the fighters were de facto "protecting" Italian towns from being bombed!!! I wonder where rumours like the one I heard get started? Do you know of any other stories like this one?

In the meantime, since I last wrote you, I have had some new information - from the SAAF death register. Apparently each of Harland's crew has a notation written in pencil (at a later date?) next to their names: "grave presumed Lake Comacchio". Perhaps this could have been a finding of the Board of Enquiry - I am still trying to find out if records of the enquiry are extant. Comacchio certainly makes more sense than Lake Garda as it would be on a direct route back to base from the target..........another clue to follow up! Any contacts amongst amateur archaeologists or crash investigators in the Po Delta?!!

Regards
Melanie

Hi Melanie

There is no Lake Comacchio, it is best described as a lagoon rather than a lake. It may well look like a lake from the air and on a map, but in reality it is a shallow saline brakish area known in Italian as the Valli di Comacchio (Valleys of Comacchio); it really is a series of shallow pools criss-crossed by embankments and land. Until 1984 part of it were salt pans, and salt had been commercially extracted from Roman times to 1984. It is an important fishing area particularly of eels and is a vast nature reserve. It silts up and depths constantly change, only a very narrow spit of lande separates it from the sea. You can see the area here http://www.vallidicomacchio.it/esc3.htm I think a crash here would have had a very good chance of being found in the first year.

Lake Garda is a different matter, it is very deep, 346 meters (1,135 feet) with an avarage of 136m.

Peter

Hi Peter
Oh dear - back to square one again!!! I've been doing some "surfing" since I posted you and had begun to fear exactly what you say - not really a place to hide a Liberator for 60 years!!! Especially with all the reclamation and development that seems to have occurred there since the war.

I wonder if the notation could have meant "near" Comacchio Lake/Lagoon, meaning the plane ditched in the Adriatic near there. I guess I'll only know if I find the records of the Inquiry.....and maybe not even then! One of the veterans I have interviewed (SAAF 12 Sqdn where Harland was prior to 34 Sqdn) was also badly shot up on a (different) raid on Verona. His was a daylight raid and he managed to get the plane back to Cervia and land it (winning an immediate DFC in the process). His take on Harland's case is that they also would have tried to make it back as far south as possible before trying to ditch in the sea. Being night time, this was not a good idea, but may have been the only option. But then why wouldn't the crew have baled out beforehand? Or at least some of them? ......Most peculiar!

Have you had any further thoughts about other stories of renegade partisan units or executions? I forgot to tell you that one version of the rumour had it that the group of abductors comprised only women!!! This sounded a bit far-fetched even to an amateur like me, and perhaps like a fantastic detail dreamt up by airmen long deprived of "home comforts"!!!!

Regards
Melanie

Hi Melanie

There were no 'renegade' partisan units, they were extremely courageous young men, all staunchly anti-fascist. Any wound meant certain death, since partisan groups had to move swiftly; all captured partisans were executed often after prolonged torture.

There were hundreds of massacres and executions in northern Italy in 1944/45, up to 20 were hung at once but usually groups over that number were shot. The local population was invariably turned out to watch. It was a dreadful period.

The best books covering the civil war are in Italian, except for Richard Lamb's "War in Italy 1943-1945 - A Brutal Story" (John Murray, 1993).

Peter

Hi Peter
OK - I get the message!!! No bad guys (or girls!) amongst the partisans!! Sorry if I touched a nerve.

I have the Richard Lamb book on order which I'm sure will prove most unpleasant reading if the bits I've read so far about this period are any indication.

As for Harland, I think my best bet is still to access the records of the Board of Enquiry. If I can find them.

You've been a great help, though - thanks a million
Regards
Mel