It's hard to escape the horrors of war even on holiday sometimes. Out for a bike ride in the Vendee, my eye was drawn to a memorial a few metres from the side of a country lane outside the village of Angles, about 20m N of La Rochelle.
I parked my bike and walked to the memorial, and was surprised to see that it honoured an RAF Halifax crew of 35 Sqn whose aircraft had crashed there. It had been shot up approaching/overhead the Scharnhorst on July 24th 1941. They had taken off from Stanton Harcourt, though the squadron was based at Linton on Ouse.
I found this on another
site:
Halifax Mk.I serial L9527 of 35 Squadron (coded TL-M) crashed near Angles, Dept. Vendée, about 15 km WSW of Lucon. Also killed and buried same cemetery:
F/Sgt (Pilot) Clarence A. GODWIN - 745859;
Sgt (Pilot) Greville ESNOUF - 929408;
Sgt (Flt Eng) Conrad H. NEWSTEAD - 567204;
Sgt (WOp) Reginald T. RUDLIN - 912084, and
F/Sgt (Airgunner) Sidney H.J. SHIRLEY - 804422.
Two crew members were taken into captivity:
P/O (Nav) Arthur G. EPERON - 84713 (NCO nr 759159), and
Sgt (Airbomber) Eric O.T. BALCOMB - 968379.
Those killed are buried in CWCG graves in the civilian cemetary in Angles (on the N side of the village).
If you look closely at the third picture you will see that there is a small plaque commorating Eric Balcomb who returned home after captivity and died in 1994.
The local expat Anglican community hold a service each year.
Another
listing of the crash.
A
description of the raid by a survivor, taken prisoner after abandoning his aircraft having dropped its bombs.