They Shall Not Grow Old

As with all Remembrance Days, one cannot but help thing of all those that gave their lives in various wars over the past hundred years or so and so it was today. Normally I will make a trip to our local War Memorial, but this year I decided to pay a visit to a simple memorial to an airman, Canadian Sgt Frank Samuel Martin, that died in our local woods in WWII. His story is as follows:

Wellington Mk X, LN 293, was part of 12 Operational Training Unit, RCAF, based at Chipping Warden near Banbury. It was involved in a deception sortie over Normandy as a distraction for the main bomber raid elsewhere on the night of 25/6 August, 1944. On board were pilot W.O. J.R. Harvey RNZAF, Navigator Sgt. D.M. Paterson RCAF, Wireless Operator Sgt. W.E. Hankin RAFVR, Air Gunners Sgts. A. Blewett RAFVR and D.D. Evans RAFVR. The bomb aimer was a 28-year-old Canadian, Sgt. Frank Samuel Martin RAFVR (1398507), and it is this site that commemorates him.

Taking off at 20:10, the aircraft was returning from Normandy. It is believed they lost their way and were off the expected course, possibly using the River Avon for reference. At some point they ran into trouble. Reports are not clear - some mention being caught in searchlights and blinding the pilot or receiving 'friendly' fire, despite dropping two yellow flares recognisable to home forces. The end result was that the aircraft went into an uncontrollable dive. Harvey ordered the crew to bail out and Martin did so, along with Hankin. Both seem to have had their parachutes fouled, probably by wrapping around the tail, and they fell to their deaths. The tumbling aircraft came down near Uplands, close to Keynsham and a few miles further along, at 01:46. All the remaining crew perished.

The body was found by a local 9 year old boy who went home to tell his Dad that he had found a man asleep in the woods. The boy never forgot where he found the body and some years ago, he made simple memorial to commemorate the spot where Sgt. FS Martin died.

The memorial site in a small clearing in the woods.

I laid a small cross at 11.00am to remember him and the rest of his crew.

The view along the river Avon valley, looking towards Bristol, along which the plane would have flown.

The view towards Keynsham where the plane ultimately crashed. Sgt. FS Martin was found along the tree line top left.

It was quiet and peaceful in the woods and everytime I pass this memorial, I always pause and think of him and his crew and cannot but help the following come to mind:

Kohima Epitaph

'When You Go Home, Tell Them Of Us And Say,

For Your Tomorrow, We Gave Our Today.'

The Exhortation from 'For the Fallen'

"They shall grow not old, as we that are left grow old,

Age shall not weary them, nor the years condemn.

At the going down of the sun, and in the morning,

We will remember them."

Response: "We will remember them."