The experiences of 'Taffy' after baling out on 9th - 10th June 1944 (Continued)

(Continued)

9/10 June 1944. The Crew of Lancaster Bomber ND764. OF-B took off from Coningsby for ETAMPES and shot down leaving the target area with the loss of 5 of the 7 crew members on board.

RAAF P/O.Bryan W Giddings - Killed in action 10th.June 1944

RAAF W/O. W.Bryce Webb - Killed in action.10th.June. 1944

RAAF Bomb Aimer. F/Sgt.Charles Clement - Killed in action June 10th 1944

RAAF Mid Upper Gunner. F/O.John A.D.Mcgill -Killed in action June 10th

RAAF Rear Gunner. F/Sgt. W.John Seale - Killed in action.10th.June 1944

RAAF W/O. R.H.Bethell. P.O.W. Stalag Luft 7 Bankau. Nr. Kreulberg

RAF.F/Sgt.Arthur Pritchard. Flight Engineer - Evaded capture

The following are the recollections of Sgt. Arthur Pritchard (later became Warrant Officer) of what happened to him from the moment he, with the rest of the Crew who flew with P/O. B.Giddings on the night of 9th/10th June 1944.

June 10th
‘Woke up with a jolt as the village clock in the church of Boissy-sous-Saint-Yon struck six, but sat on the sand as my foot was all in. About 0830 a chap came along wheeling a barrow. I made motion for him to come near me, instead he bolted down the street as if he had seen a ghost, and I don’t think at the rate he was going he wouldn’t stop until safely behind locked doors. At 10am a farm hand came along, saw me nursing my foot, so away he went without saying a word, and came back later with bandages and lotion. After getting my foot fixed up I started to walk again. Dumped my Mae West and took off my chevrons and brevet, and walking for an hour or so came to another village (Egly) I made for the church thinking that the padre would help but the old boy wasn’t in. Arthur Pritchard stayed for a moment in the porch of the church waiting for the cafe to open. So away again fed up to the teeth.

On leaving the village came across a small cafe. (The Town Hall cafe belonged to Mr Paris. Now called the Cafe des Sports with several steps at its entrance. The entrance at the time was on the west side near the church. In fact, Arthur was led to the cafe by two women, Madame Couty from the Town Hall and her daughter Antoinette). Went in for a feed or what I thought at the time. All for sale was a drop of wine. When I put a 100 franc bill on a counter the dame nearly fell through the floor. Thinking that wasn’t enough I gave her another. This made things worse and all the locals eyed me with suspicion, so I let the cat out of the bag and told them that I was in the RAF or had been. That caused some panic. One old boy, Guy Clausier made for the door and in no time was back with his son who could speak a little English. Another came back with a civvy suit, Rene Chaumette, son-in-law of the Egly Town Hall secretary, Madame Courty, while all their wives and daughters came in to have a look. I was given bread and jam to eat while waiting for the local underground leader, Hector Gaillet who had been forewarned by Madame Courty to come in. He was along in no time and with a spare bicycle (one belonging to Rene Chaumette, the school teacher). So away we went to his house.

After a wash and brush up I was taken to a nearby wood where they hid me in a small air raid shelter. The son (Jean-Claude Gaillet) came along with dry straw and everything was pink. That evening nearly every Frenchman for miles around came down to see me, all asking questions as to ‘how I came to bale out’, ‘how long did I think the war would last?’ All this was done either in signs or broken English.’

Arthur’s recollection in November 2004
‘When I landed I just went about it totally the wrong way and got away with it! I was approaching people you see. I slept by the roadside say from 2 o’ clock till I woke up around 6 or 7. I heard a noise, and what it was, was a fella wheeling a wheel barrow with a case in it, a suitcase. So I thought I stop the fella and ask, but he just put the damn thing in top gear and went flying past! Then he put the brakes on and he stopped and he signalled at me. He was pointing at some gates. I’d been through that gate before I went to sleep and the dogs came out, barking and barking. Anyway, I went there again and the two dogs came running up, they were a bit apprehensive you know, smelling me, wagging their tails. So, two little kids came out, about 11/12 years old and they led me to a barn and I sat on a pile of hay and said that my foot was broken. I thought at the time it was, but it wasn’t it was sprained.

The boys went into the house and got his mother out. She spoke to me then she went back in and got some sort of bandage, and she gave me a cup of coffee. She put the rest of the coffee on the bandage and wrapped it round my leg. It helped a lot because it was warm, and then she says, ‘You go now’.

Anyway I set along the road and I came to a junction with like an angel on the crossroads, something like that. So I took to the fields. There was a kissing gate there and you could see there was a path right along, quite a long way. So I walked along there. It was all growing peas, both sides of it. A kissing gate the other end now must have been about half a mile away, and I went through and came out between two houses, and on this side, the right hand side was a shop, like a corner shop. So I went in there and she wouldn’t even serve me. “Non, non.” I think a lot to do with it was the RAF suit looked much like the Germans you know, because I taken everything off, my stripes and put them in my pocket. So, as I was just going out a motorbike passed, and there was a German sitting in the sidecar with a gun. So I went back in and closed the door and she said, “You go, quick, quick, go!” I went and turned right again and followed this road right down through woodland, trees both sides, so I was going down the hill there and I heard this motorbike again.

I thought, ‘what shall I do? Stop him or what?’ So I thought, ‘well, I’ll take a chance’, and I went between two poles and I hid in the woods, and he came sailing past and didn’t bother. I listened until they were out of hearing, got out and walked, and I came to this village. I saw the church there so I went in and saw a fella doing some work at the altar, getting it ready for mass I suppose. I sat at the back seat and he saw me and he came over. I said “I RAF” He said “Oh yes, what do you want?” He spoke good English. “Drink of water” I said. He got me a drink of water from the font or whatever and down it went. He said “This way my son” and opened the church and said “Over there”, pointing at the cafe. So I went to the cafe, walked in, got my escape kit out and a big Franc bill and I said Champagne! “No champagne, no champagne”. So, I said “RAF”. There were curtains dividing the place, like the kitchen. There was a chair in the middle of the room where I sat down and one of the fella’s went away and came back with two tough looking fella’s and two young lads. One was in a college in Paris, taking English. So, there was a big conference. They were interrogating me and I was saying “Yeah” and they wanted to know “Why you say ‘ya’?” I explained I was Welsh. So they said someone would come along in a minute. Anyway, M.Gautier came and this young lad said “You have to go with M.Gautier now and we let you know in the morning what’s going to happen to you.” So I went to his garden and he had a little sink, a corrugated sink. He shifted it to one side. “In you go” he said, pointing to a big hole in the ground. So I was kept in there while they checked me out. About midnight a jam pot came down from the top full of soup. That was quite welcome, that went down. Then I got soup again in the morning. I don’t think they had anything else to give you.’

This story was submitted to the People’s War site by Becky Barugh of the BBC Radio Shropshire CSV Action Desk on behalf of Des Evans and has been added to the site with his permission. The author fully understands the site's terms and conditions.

See more of Des’s stories:

• Bale out!
• Missions from Woodhall Spa
• Tracers coming through the thatch
• I didn’t quite get the chop
• Little humour in adversity
• Ted Porters Crew
• The ‘Augsburg Raid’
• S/L Sherwood’s recommendation for the Victoria Cross
• The worst night of the War…
• The worst night of the War (Part 2)
• The worst night of the War (Part 3) - Crew
• The worst night of the War (Part 4) - Losses
• The worst night of the War (Part 5) — Extract from ‘the Berlin’ Raids’
• The worst night of the War (Part 6) — Bombers over Berlin
• The worst night of the War (Part 7) — Combat Report
• A Dedication to Skipper Wing Commander Ted Porter - Pause for Thought
• A Dedication to Skipper Wing Commander Ted Porter — A Navigators View of the Route to Heaven
• Did you know?
• Flight Operations carried out with Sgt. D.C Plaunt
• Flight Operations carried out by Sgt. J.J Johnson
• The experiences of ‘Taffy’ after baling out on 9th — 10th June 1944
• The experiences of ‘Taffy’ - 11th June 1944
• The experiences of ‘Taffy’ - 12th — 15th June 1944
• The experiences of ‘Taffy’ - 16th - 18th June 1944
• The experiences of ‘Taffy’ - 19th — 23rd June 1944
• The experiences of ‘Taffy’ — 24th August 1044
• ‘Our Heroes’

For further stories read ‘ACHIEVE YOUR AIM’ by Kevin Bending

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