13.05.1940 Neerwinden MIA ?

[Peter Cornwell]

Arnaud,

According to my notes taken from the No.59 Squadron ORB in NA(PRO) AIR27/554, P/O C.J.E. CHAMBERLAIN and crew failed to return from an evening reconnaissance sortie on 13 May 1940 their take-off being timed at 18.30 hours. I further noted that the Squadron Equipment Officer's Report filed in the ORB Appendices AIR27/558 dated the loss as 12 May 1940. So, given the degree of confusion apparent in the squadron records, and the time of the sortie on which they went missing, it is perhaps not surprising that this crew are officially commemorated on the Runnymede Memorial as missing on 14 May 1940.

The records of the CWGC confirm that three unidentified RAF airmen buried in collective grave VI.G.7 at Hotton War Cemetery had been re-interred from Neerwinden Churchyard where they were originally buried, their date of death being recorded as 13 May 1940. They remain 'Unknown'.

It is I that made the connection and first suggested the possibility that the missing CHAMBERLAIN crew was that buried at Neerwinden in The Battle of France Then & Now published in 2007.

Clearly, if you have evidence to the contrary then I will be pleased to hear of it and, in any event, would be most interested to learn your own source for saying that the aircraft in question was shot down near Sedan on the following day and that P/O CHAMBERLAIN died in hospital in Luxembourg.

Many thanks.