208962 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.
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