Lancaster Bomber 514 Squadron

Skipper, those are wonderful pictures of the street.

I wonder if this picture of Marcel Liger and family was taken at their residence on Rouget de Lisle:
img_4476.jpg

Andrew, we would be very interested in pictures from the street.

W. Campbell

 

Wayne, it will be done tomorrow. As I wrote earlier, I've not got to the end of this thread so I don't know what's the latest information you have about Marcel Liger.
If he is still alive and lives in the region of Paris, I don't mind looking for him(or members of his family).
There is so much to read, it is not always easy for a newcomer like me to take it all in!

 

Well it certainly looks like a suburbian garden, and the architecture reminds me of the 1930s houses around Paris, so it could be very possible. This would bring us to a two or three floor house with concetre walls and brick decoration around the edges. The small garden could not be seen from the street.

 

Wayne, when was this photo taken?

 

Hi Andrew, there are two Ligers in Courbevoie at different streets (check the white pages) , it's a very common name, but you never know. I don't want to give false hopes though. You may have more chances by asking old people in the Rouget de Lisle street. They may recognize a face on the picture. Thanks for your help.

 

I'll try and print the photos out at work tonight. There is a Jérémy Liger in Courbevoie, I might just try and give him a ring if nothing comes out of my little trip there tomorrow...
Of course all this will most probably be vain, but at least we can't say we didn't try !

 

Andrew and Skipper,

Thanks for your work on this. I suspect the picture was taken in 1944, date of the letter.
Dad received this photo with the letter.

Wayne

 

Hi everyone.
Sorry for the late reply.So I went to Courbevoie yesterday. The building where Marcel Liger lived is still there, but as we expected, there is no Liger on the letter boxes.

I had a chat with people, but they hadn't lived there long enough to remeber him. However, I got the information that the owner of the "tabac" shop on the corner had been around for a very long time.

The shop is now his son's. I showed him the prints of M.Liger but he couldn't remember him, so I left the pictures and my phone number and he promised he would ask his father and uncle who live in the region "le Var".

I have a busy month ahead of me, but as soon as I get time, I'll go back and ask at the Townhall. I'll also try and go on a market day, you'd be suprised what information you can gather there !

Also, my parents are coming to France tomorrow, and they have a photocopy of the logbook and photos.

 

These are the photos of rue Rouget de L'isle taken from the same spot as the pictures Skipper sent. It was funny to see the kids going in the same school 62 years later.
View attachment 3939

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This is the building where M.Liger lived.

 

View attachment 3944

 

Hi Andrew,

Thank you very much for these nice pictures and above all the link with the Tabac shop owner . Hopefully he"ll remember someone , or else one of his friends.

The school children going to school would have been in the 1910s-1920s .The Number 2 building looks very new to me , I wouldn't be surprised if it was built on the same spot after the war.

 

Hi Skipper,

I'm actually going to go to the Townhall to enquire about the building. Marcel Liger writes in one of his letters that the family picture was taken in his garden in Courbevoie. Obviously, now as you can see it's a 4 storey building. The thing is on the 1946 photo of the street, it is not a house either (the building on the right of the photo with the school on the left, is now where number 2 is).

So either the street was seperated in 2 (there is a tiny "cul-de-sac" just before n°2), or his house was demolished. If that is the case, the Townhall should have all this registered.
I'd really like to find out more for Alex, so I'll go back as soon as I can.
If you have any idea of what I could do or what I could ask for (and to whom I would need to ask) please tell me.

 

You are welcome Andrew. he townhall might have archives in their "Cadastre section" or the buiding permit. You could also try the Archives Départmentales des Hauts de Seine or the DDE (tax office for building permits)

 

I forgot to add, you could ask for Marcel Liger's birth or deatch certificates and also go to the Courbevoie cemetery to see if there are Ligers buried there.

 

Anytime Andrew, I just returned from it and despite the heavy rain and few sellers, I still came back with a 37mm (empty) shell for my collection .
They also had two 75mm.

 

Mr Campbell, I was surfing some sites and came across this one and I have a question on the RAF ranks. The tail gunner is listed as a pilot officer. Does that mean he is a pilot as well as a gunner ? I had thought all the RAF gunners were Sgts.

Loss of Lancaster Mk II LL640 (115 Squadron)

 

Hi Andrew,

You are not disturbing at all Andrew, but you are right it would be nice to have your own thread so people who help you with your grandfather can post there. I have opened a special thread for you here .

http://www.ww2f.com/battle-europe/27414-lesley-james-fieldhouses-crew-514-squadron.html#post332251



Hi TA.

Being a gunner was usually the lowest rank, but not always, there were F/O and EVEN P/O Officers who were Gunners and some Pilots were not P/O . If you check records you will find F/Os piloting aircrafts..

 

Well there's a lot of catching up to be done here. For Grandson Andrew a few abbreviations
X country- a cross country training exercise
HLB-high level bombing
H2S-a radar device visibly located underside of rear fuselage able to produce images of the earth through layers of cloud cover.
HCU- Heavy Conversion Unit- introduction to "heavies" or 4 engined aircraft
W/CDR or W/C the rank of Wing Commander.
G-H- A more advanced navigation aid to bombing accuracy.
For TA152 I see Skipper has explained P/O for you.
He has also engineered a thread for you Andrew, not that I or anyone else would object to your input on the existing E.Campbell thread. Cheers Alex Campbell

 

Thank you so much Sir Alex Campbell for all this precious information. Skipper has done a great job in creating another thread.
Thank you for this fantastic thread that I've actaully gone through twice. As soon as I get news about what happened to M.Liger, I will let you know. I should go to Courbevoie pretty soon and I'll spend the whole day there to be more effeciant in my research.
By the way, are you on the group picture?