RAF Heinkel 115
 

On September 22nd 1941, a Heinkel 115 float plane, ex Norwegian, belonging to squadron 69 stationed in Malta, went missing during a special duties mission (agents pick-up ?) off Sardinia. The a/c was flown by two Free French sailors seconded in the RAF, Petty officer pilot Georges BLAIZE and Petty officer TAG Raoul GATIEN. A third person was also on board, most probably an RAF or FAA observer. Nothing is know, in the French records, about the condition of their death and, if bodies were recovered, where they were buried.
Thanks for any help on that mater.

Re: RAF Heinkel 115
 

According to 'Malta the Hurricane years', the He115 was forced to alight on the sea 20 miles from Malta and then broken up by high waves. The third crew member was the observer S/Lt (A) Reginald G. Drake RN. The book states that the bodies of F/Sgt Blaize and S/Lt Drake were recovered by a Swordfish floatplane on the 23rd, but it is not clear where they were buried. S/Lt Drake is shown by the CWGC as having no known grave and is remembered on the Lee-on-Solent memorial.

Hope this is of some help

Regards

Steve Pegge

Re: RAF Heinkel 115
 

Thanks for this info. I wrote to CWGC but I doubt wether they can help.

Re: RAF Heinkel 115
 

Thinking twice, I came up with a tentative explanation.

The Stringbag had a crew of three and was a float plane. As far as I know, it seems impossible for two crewmen, the pilot remaining at the controls, to haul the bodies aboard, in the fuselage I mean.

Thus it leaves a possibility, after the identity of the deads were established via their identity discs or other, the bodies were simply returned to the sea.

Blaize and his crew were sailors as the Stringbag crew probably also was... and at the time, that the way matelots were buried when their death occured at sea...