Something more about 464 squadron. It is not surprising that you remember that at least one of the crew members was Australian because 464 was an Australian Squadron. They participated in the attack of the Amiens prison and other famous targets such as Gestapo HQs. There is a good book about this story :
http://www.banner-books.com.au/produ...?products_id=6

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Skipper when do you take time to sleep? I see you contribute so much here and throughout this great Forum. Alex Campbell

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Skipper in my post of Mar22nd I mentioned a 2 wheeled buggy. This is likely wrong. I can't picture such a vehicle out on the roads. It must have been 4-wheeled. I do remember the seat with three men side by side. There was a two wheeled cart in the grain storage barn at my first safe-house. I slept on the ground beside it covered with sheaves from the cart. The only other traffic I can recall that day was a large black car raising a pall of dust and carrying 5 or 6 uniformed passengers. Sorry about that. Good luck Alex Campbell

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Well , actually I think you were right when you mentionned two wheels. This was a typical local carriage and I even know a farmer who used one to transport hidden airmen. I'll try to get a picture of it. By the way, I will be going to Vendome tomorrow.

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Well, I'm back from my trip to vendôme. Although I had very little time, I managed to concertrate on the historirical aspect related to Alex's Campbell's evasion to Freteval. Therefore I took the road from Orleans to Vendôme (last time I drove from Orleans to Chateadun) So this time you will not see the pictures of the crash place , but of the hiding place in the Freteval Forest. It is incredible, but in one of the villages , about 3 miles from Freteval there was a two wheeled buggy on display, exactly one of those you mentionned that were used to hide airmen. I also saw a Lorraine cross monument. It was dedicated to six resistants were caugt and shot by the Germans on August 10th 1944, only a week before Patton arrived. I will try to find out about their story. The monument is near the main road, about 2 miles from Vendôme. Itired to take pictures of placesthat you may remember, such as the village of Freteval, an old tavern, a ruin of a medieval tower, the landscape etc...

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Road at Freteval between the forest and the River (hidden on the right)



Mansion at Freteval forest



Ruins of Medieval tower at Freteval








monument dedicated to six resistants who were shot near Vendome.



Two wheeled buggy on display in a village near Freteval. these karts were used by farmers to hide airmen.



Old tavern, probably almost as it was during WWII



The Loir river on the bridge at Freteval village and the local church.

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Skipper that's fantastic. I did not know of the Resistants being shot on Aug 10th/44 and so near to our refuge in the Forest. Your photos are excellent and so thoughtfully chosen. Gives me an eerie feeling. I shall go over them all at leisure and thanks again. Alex Campbell

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You are more than welcome. Feel free to use the pictures for your personnal archives and share them with your relatives and other Freteval veterans.
Regarding the Resistants, I have found some interesting material, including a terrible picture of their dead bodies that I shall not post. Those germans who killed them thought it was "funny" to take pictures as a souvenir. However the French captured the owner the next day and when the pictures were developped they found that one! In fact Vendôme was liberated by the FFI as early as August 11th after some street fights. The Amercians did not know this and when they realised there were no more fights going on , they send a patrol on August 12th. They got to Freteval the next day. In fact these patriots were executed only hours before the French took control of the town by retreating Germans. On the picture there is a Kübelwagen and there must have been a truck to transport the prisonners too, so I believed this was one of the last actions the Germans did in Vendôme while retreating to Orleans. After Vendôme, the Americans rushed towards Olreans where they got on August 15th. Meanwhile the Resistance assaulted Blois and were therefore able to Harass the Elster column that surrendered with 20.000 men when the got to the Loire. I shall try to find out what the resistant mission was, but I wouldn't be suprised their job was to disorganize the Germans in Vendôme before the attack.

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Skipper,

Thanks for the images. I'm sure you are right about "La Taverne" certainly unchanged in 60 years.
The monument to the Resistance Fighters (Maquis?) is poignant, hard to imagine the brutality of those times.

Wayne

I found some more info regarding the maquis people. By typing the names, I found some information on a carpetbagger site. These guys were called "Sussex agents". They had been dropped by Carpetbaggers crews above Vendome and the Resistance had given them a German truck . Their mission was to infiltrate the German lines before the allies arrived. However they got caugt by the Germans who fled from vendome on August 10th when the FFI fighters arrived. The Germans tortured them , but they revealed nothing and were shot. I believe the woman was from Le Mans.

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That adds more to this intriguing story. Again thanks Skipper, Alex Campbell.

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Carpetbaggers were indeed involved in support for Patton troops in August 1944. They even supplied infantry with petrol tanks , but they also dropped sabotage agents called "Sussex men" I will try to see if there was a link with the Vendome men with Freteval, or if they were used for the 3Rd Army, or both. If you want more Freteval area pictures, I have some more.
Reagarding St Cloud, the Town Hall has not answered my letter at this point.

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The carpetbaggers subject appears quite extensive and interesting. I was not aware of such a group or at least not by name. More Freteval photos? Yes I recall Erich some time ago suggesting this thread needed more pictures. I think you are doing your part quite well with your informative input. Alex Campbell

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I will post more photos later or send them directly to you if there are too many of them. Also Christian told me that you are almost Number one for the waiting list regarding the drawing of your Lancaster. We are currently working on a P-38 for an American veteran, it's almost done. After you lancaster, we will draw a B-24 for an other veteran and we are also working on P-47s.

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Great news. Today I have recieved a letter from Saint Cloud en Dunois. We have now identitified some of the people who helped Mr Campbell, his hiding place and the crash place. Also we have hints to find some of these people alive after all these years.

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I see this fine thread continuing on it's journey .........

yes back a couple of posts the Carpetbaggers were known quite well for moving agents into enemy territory along with some stealth bombing raids and leaflet-propaganda leaflet drops. Several all black B-24's were shot down by German Bf 110G-4 night fighters during 1944. the carpetbagger missions were dropped the unit then stayed on daylight missions. Another stealth like unit with all black B-24's was attached to the 15th AF as the 2461st bg and they proceeded to drop agents, soldiers/armaments and supplies in Yugoslavia, Czech lands and towards southern Austria. They also felt in 1945 some losses due to Ju 88G-6's of NJG 100

Skipper it will take me some time to digest all the info in these latest discoveries of yours-locating the crash site,and where the wreckage now lies,details of Bob Giffin's death, the tragedy of the bomb defusing, the names and the places. This is just another remarkable development. Thanks Alex Campbell

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As Dad mentions above, our friend Skipper has provided us with some remarkable new details about the night of July 28/29, 1944. He managed to contact a member of the community in St. Cloud en Dunois who had actually written a short article about the events that night and who subsequently has taken the time to find out as much as possible about the identities and current whereabouts of the people who supported the crew of Lancaster A2-C.
Congratulations Skipper, your persistent detective work has added more important chapters to this story. We all look forward to seeing the results of your work on this forum.

A new and tragic part of this story, that was unknown to Dad, was that the morning after the crash, two brothers, the Travers brothers from the nearby community of Ormesec, attempted to defuse some of the unexploded bombs, sadly there was an explosion that killed them and two others, Marceau Linget from Porcheronville and Marcel Maury from Morenneville. Replacing the impersonal term "casualties" with real names and communities changes the story to something personal - one has no problem imagining these people and the lives they led in France, 60 years ago.

Dad mentions in the audio files at this site http://hila-store.webcentre.ca/ww2/
that he had warned the community that the Lanc was carrying delayed fuse bombs ("First Contact With French") and on the "The First 24 Hours" tape he tells of hearing and feeling a huge explosion as bombs detonated at the crash site, unaware that there were casualties.

Wayne

Below find (with permission) the first of two documents translated by Skipper.
This was created by a former mayor of St. Cloud en Dunois. As Skipper noted to us it has a couple of minor errors:

Remember….

The death of Lt Robert Giffin, a Canadian airman buried in the Saint Cloud en Dunois cemetery.

During the night of July 29th 1944, a Lancaster MK I bomber took off at 21.47 from Waterbeach, north of Cambridge, England in order to bomb Stuttgart. This aircraft was one of many who were to be shot down that night, while on bombing operations to either Stuttgart or Hamburg. In both cases the casualties were high due to the German Night fighters. The aircrafts were shot down all around France and Germany. During this night of madness, the Flak near Chambrie (sic) shot down a Lancaster that fell between Juvrainville an the Farm of the Moulin de Pierre, some 100 meters away from the road. The eight crew members managed to bail out. Seven of these were scattered around the countryside:
- Pilot Campbell (evaded)
- Navigator Garland (POW)
-bomber Chasinger (evaded)
-Radio operator Lyons (evaded)
-Flight Engineer Donaldson (evaded)
-Mid upper Gunner Jones (evaded)
-Rear gunner Harvey (evaded)

Unfortunately , the second pilot : Flight Officer Robert Giffin , Canadian landed in a field near le Pensier, right next to the ancient Roman road, but he was strangled by the ropes of his parachute. Marius Bois, who worked at le Pensier at the time, found his body the next morning, as he was about to set wheat sheaves.
The Officer’s watch and ring had already been taken….
This Officer of the RCAF was buried in our local cemetery. His grave is well tended.

In the crashed aircraft none of the bombs had exploded. On July 29th, some tried to defuse the bombs. While doing so, the two Travers brothers from Ormesec, as well Marceau Linget from Porcheronville were instantly killed. A fourth man, Marcel Maury, who was a pig butcher at Morenneville, was watching the scene from a distance of 100 yards, but he was hit by a shell and died a few days later. The aircraft was dumped in a quarry near Auvilliers.

These were difficult times. Let us never forget these.