whirlwind crash 30 oct '41 brittany

[Andy Saunders]

Jerry

This has cropped up as a query in the long-term work I am currently doing with Norman Franks and Chris Goss on 1941. Whilst the on-line listing is interesting one always worries with these things about the reliability (or otherwise) of their sources which, invariably, are never referenced.

It will be interesting to know what sources tie the crash site to this date. If correct, then it does look to possibly be Stein's aeroplane. If so, then the question must be asked; what has become of his remains? One or two possibilities exist, I suppose. Either he is still with his wrecked aircraft, he is buried somewhere locally by the CWGC as "unknown" or, maybe, the Germans somehow discovered the Jewish roots of Stein and he was simply "disposed of". The latter seems unlikely, but perhaps it is just possible? I would have thought that Stein would have had nothing on him to indicate his Jewish faith....but you never know!

As to "unknown" RAF burials in CWGC plots it would be helpful and interesting to have a list of cemeteries etc containing unknown RAF casualties. When the CWGC published registers in book form it was quite easy to extract them. Although these burials will have all been looked at by the MREU postwar it is sometimes possible to pull up a link 'twixt unknowns and local incidents.