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5th February 1943On this day:
If you can provide any additional information, please add it here.
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Remembering those who died this day.
- Holroyd Frank. Pte. (d.5th Feb 1943)
- Ritch Aliston Rank Gray. F/O (d.5th Feb 1943)
- Wilkinson William Alfred. Sgt. (d.5th Feb 1943)
The names on this list have been submitted by relatives, friends, neighbours and others who wish to remember them, if you have any names to add or any recollections or photos of those listed,
please
Add a Name to this List
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Want to know more about the 5th of February 1943? There are:14 items tagged 5th of February 1943 available in our Library
These include information on officers, regimental histories, letters, diary entries, personal accounts and information about actions during the Second World War. |
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Stories from 5th February 1943
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F/O Aliston Rank Gray Ritch. Royal Canadian Air Force, 57 Squadron. (d.5th Feb 1943) On the night 4-5 February 1943, an Avro Lancaster I, serial ED352, code DX-Q, of squadron n°57 of 5 Bomber Group, Royal Air Force, based at Scampton Lincolnshire took off for a bombing raid on Turin. In terrible weather the plane crashed on the slopes of Belleface in the mountains of the Massif de la Pointe de Terrasse opposite the small hamlet of Crêt Bettex, ten kilometres north of Bourg Saint Maurice, Savoie, France.All seven crew members were killed.
- F/O Aliston Rank Gray Ritch J/10305 RCAF, pilot
- Sgt Thomas Cosford 1244294, Flight Engineer
- Sgt Eric Atkins 1318855 RAF, Navigator
- Sgt D.G.Busby 1391156 RAF, Bombardier
- Sgt Douglas McNeil 1025811 RAF, Wireless Operator
- Sgt Eric Norman Perkins 1601353 RAF, Gunner
- F/Sgt Ronald Shears 542963 RAF, Gunner
There was thick snow covering the spot at the time but as the snow melted a search was set up by the Italian army of occupation. At the end of June 1943 two bodies and later three more were recovered from a snow drift in the area. On July 1st the Italian authorities requested the town council of Bourg Saint Maurice to make coffins and to dig graves to bury these airmen. Eight bodies enclosed in six coffins were carried from the village of Les Chapieux to Bourg Saint Maurice with the assistance of the Italian authorities. On July 5th July a religious service was held in the Parish church and the burial took place in the local churchyard in the presence of the local council, the local police officer and officers of the Italian Army who buried the dead with Military Honours. In 1950 the bodies were exhumed and transferred for burial to the British Military Cementry of Saint Germain au Mont d'Or, Rhône, France
Lancaster RAF of Bourg Saint Maurice, Memoire- Aeronautique.
To aid in the research any details would be most welcome from any of the families or friends of the airmen. Local interest has indicated that a historical group would like to erect a monument to commemorate these airmen. Michèle Howell
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Sgt. William Alfred Wilkinson. RAF (VR), 235 Squadron. (d.5th Feb 1943) My uncle, Billy Wilkinson, I know very little about. He, I think, was on a recce flight looking for one of the main German warships (Turpitz I think) when he and his pilot (Sgt. Barkham) went missing. I have only this one photo, that I can verify as my uncle - he looks very much like my late mother. I would, of course, like to know more but... John Ferguson
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Pte. Frank Holroyd. British Army, 1st Btn. Parachute Regiment. (d.5th Feb 1943) All we know is that my grandfather's uncle Frank Holroyd is believed to have been at Dunkirk and died in Tunisia on the 5th of February 1943, supposedly married to a woman named Elizabeth from Glasgow though this was unknown to the family.
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