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259340 James Ernest Wiggall Royal Air Force 144 Squadron from:Birmingham James Wiggall was born in Birmingham, England on the 25th November 1920. During WW2 he served in Bomber Command as a Wireless Operator Air Gunner on Hampden bombers of 144 Squadron.
On the morning of 24th of July 1941, as part of Operation Sunrise, a Hampden bomber formation from 144 Squadron took off from North Luffenham Air Force Base in Rutland, England. Its mission to bomb and destroy the German cruisers Gneisenau & Prinz Eugen based in the port of Brest, France.
144 Squadron, despite the anti-aircraft fire, crossed the French coast and flew over its objective. After dropping its bombs on the port of Brest, the formation returned towards England. Hampden AE225, was severely damaged by the formidable German flak. The right engine being put out of action.
Despite the pilot's efforts to join his squadron, Hampden AE225 became separated from its unit. The crew were:
Canadian pilot Robert Benjamin Barr, navigator Gordon Anderson, wireless operator James Wiggall and two air-gunners Albert Bertram Cooper and Donald Parkin.
To the north-west of Brest, the bomber was intercepted by a German Messerschmitt 109 fighter based on the Guipavas aerodrome. The first attack destroyed communications and mortally wounded the navigator Anderson and the two gunners, the sergeants Cooper and Parkin. At the second attack, wireless operator James Wiggall was injured. Shrapnel perforated the left wing and ignited the fuel tank. The uncontrollable plane, unbalanced, flared up and lost altitude. The radio operator James Wiggall, despite his injuries managed to climb onto the wing and jump into the void pulling the ripcord to release his parachute. Pilot Robert Barr also managed make his escape from the stricken craft, both men landing safely but injured, the plane finally crashing at a place called Sanou Ploudalmezeau.
James was rescued by a French family, and word was passed via the French Resistance to his family to inform them of his predicament but importantly that he was alive. James was quickly arrested by the Germans where he was relieved to be reunited with his pilot Bob Barr. After treatment in a hospital in Brest he was interred in a P.O.W Camp in Germany, which I have discovered from records was Stalag 357.
James and Robert were liberated in 1945.
An interesting addition to this story is that a search campaign was conducted in the late 1990s which uncovered the remains of the Hampden AE225, shot on 24 July 1941 in Sanou.
On July 14, 1998, in Sanou en Ploudalmazeau, Mr. Alphonse Arzel, senator mayor of Ploudalmazeau, solemnly inaugurated in the presence of the former aviator James Wiggall, and an emotional crowd, a memorial dedicated to the valiant Allied crews fallen on the commune of Ploudalmazeau.
James was the son of my grandmother's sister, Fanny Wiggall (nee Edwards). James died on in September 2007 at Tamworth Staffs, at the age of 87.
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