Looking for crash photos of 12 SQ Fairey Battles from 12.05.40-Garland PHoK P2204 & McIntosh PHoN L5439
 

Hello,

For the EoE Project, our research team is trying to locate photos which must exist of the following two 12 SQ Fairey Battle losses during the famous attack on the Veldwezelt bridge over the Albert Canal on May 12, 1940. One involves the award of the Victoria Cross to two members of the crew.

1) "12 May 1940: Battle P2204. Shot down by flak during low-level attack on the Veldwezelt bridge over the Albert Canal 9.15 a.m. Crashed and burned out near Lanaken. Flying Officer Donald Edward Garland, Sergeant Thomas Gray, and LAC Lawrence Royston Reynolds all killed. Aircraft PH*K a write-off.
The badly burnt remains of this crew was buried in two coffins in Lanaken Communal Cemetery, but later reinterred in Heverlee War Cemetery, Leuven. Donald Garland and his observer, Tom Gray, were both subsequently awarded the Victoria Cross for gallantry. Their gunner, Lawrence Reynolds, received no award of any kind."

2) "12 May 1940: Battle L5439. Set alight by groundfire during low-level attack on the Veldwezelt bridge over the Albert Canal, jettisonned bombs and crash-landed at Neerharen 9.20 a.m. Pilot Officer I. A. McIntosh, Sergeant N. T. W. Harder, and LAC R. P. MacNaughton all captured unhurt. Aircraft PH*N a write-off."

Can anyone help?

Regards,

Re: Looking for crash photos of 12 SQ Fairey Battles from 12.05.40-Garland PHoK P2204 & McIntosh PHoN L5439
 

Hello Larry

I have always felt that LAC Reynolds drew the short straw on this one - he as much did his duty on this mission as much as the other two, and trying to keep the opposition fighters off of their back couldn't have been easy.

He should have been awarded a VC the same as the other two.

Allan

Re: Looking for crash photos of 12 SQ Fairey Battles from 12.05.40-Garland PHoK P2204 & McIntosh PHoN L5439
 

Allan,

Thanx for your comment. I agree that the gunner should have at least been awarded some significant medal, but I don't want this thread to get distracted from the focus on finding photos of these two downed 12 SQ Battles. The Squadron lost five Battles on 12 May, and we've got photos of the crashes of three of them in the EoE Photo DB. We still need photos of the other two, including the most significant Battle and its crew lost during the war, and one of the most important incidents involving British participation in the Western Campaign. At a minimum, photos of the force-landed McIntosh plane, PHoN, down at Neerharen, almost certainly exist somewhere.

The crash of Garland and his crew at Lanaken is likely to be more problematic, since it both crashed and burned. It is not clear that any recognizable remains of the aircraft ever existed in photography, so we may have to use unidentified wreck images with captions mentioning the Lanaken area to make the match. If the exact site of the crash can be located today and photographed by someone in Belgium, that might also offer some help in being able to match the background against otherwise unidentified wreck photos. I'm also wondering if the newly released RAF historical files on losses might provide some help. This one is likely going to be tough.

Who can help?

Re: Looking for crash photos of 12 SQ Fairey Battles from 12.05.40-Garland PHoK P2204 & McIntosh PHoN L5439
 

Hello gentleman,

Perhaps you contact the History Society of the village Lanaken , perhaps they can tell you were Garlands aircraft crashed.

adress : http://www.gossu-lanaken.be/

Regards
Alain57 from Belgium

Re: Looking for crash photos of 12 SQ Fairey Battles from 12.05.40-Garland PHoK P2204 & McIntosh PHoN L5439
 

Alain,

Thanx for this excellent suggestion. Does anyone wish to pursue this for the EoE Project?

Regards,

Re: Looking for crash photos of 12 SQ Fairey Battles from 12.05.40-Garland PHoK P2204 & McIntosh PHoN L5439
 

Hi Larry,

I'll contact them.

best regards

Luc

Re: Looking for crash photos of 12 SQ Fairey Battles from 12.05.40-Garland PHoK P2204 & McIntosh PHoN L5439
 

Luc,

Thanx. I'll be looking forward to what they might know.

Regards,

Re: Looking for crash photos of 12 SQ Fairey Battles from 12.05.40-Garland PHoK P2204 & McIntosh PHoN L5439
 

Larry,

Have you seen this one?

Looks like a Battle and mentions the Albert Kanal.

http://www.ebay.de/itm/2243-Foto-Bel...item5b094fa978

regards

Mark

Re: Looking for crash photos of 12 SQ Fairey Battles from 12.05.40-Garland PHoK P2204 & McIntosh PHoN L5439
 

Hi Mark,

a very intersting picture, and new to me.
The background indeed is almost certainly the Albert-canal.
However, this is not at Lanaken, because there the canal branches off into the Verdinsingskanaal (literally the Connecting - or Liaising canal) towards the Dutch Willemsvaart-canal. This branching is nowhere on the picture.
Given the curvature of the canal I think this is further downstream in the direction of Antwerpen. Looking at the map and the curvature my guess is the section between Eigenbilzen en Gellik. The wreck would then be on the southern side of the canal, and the picture looks east.
The aircraft would then almost certainly be the P2332 PH-F of F/O Thomas and his crew, which crashed and burned out during the same mission as the one of Garland that Larry is looking for.
Great find!

Cheers, Pieter

Re: Looking for crash photos of 12 SQ Fairey Battles from 12.05.40-Garland PHoK P2204 & McIntosh PHoN L5439
 

Sorry guys, I made a mistake. Too eager to post :o
Confused two aircraft.
Of course the picture is not the P2332 PH-F, there are many pictures of that one. But it made a fairly controlled emergency landing, ending in a ditch with the crew unhurt.
This picture at Eigenbilzen must be the L5227 PH-J of Sgt Marland, sgt Footner and LAC Perrin who all died in the crash.

Cheers, Pieter