FAIREY BATTLE 100 YEARS OF THE ROYAL AIR FORCE
BOMBERS RAF CENTENARY CELEBRATION 39Left
Battle I K7674 of 12
Squadron cavorting
for the camera.
Issued to the unit
at Andover on
February 23, 1938, it
retired in February
1940, becoming
an instructional
airframe.Bottom left
On the day German
forces broke into
the Netherlands,
Luxembourg and
Belgium, May 10,
1940, the Battles of 12
Squadron operating
from Amifontaine
in France were
detailed to attack
troop concentrations
in Luxembourg.
Canadian Plt Off A
W Matthews had
to force-land the
damaged L5190 in a
fi eld near Kirchberg.
The crew of three
became prisoners
of war. German
personnel are seen
here inspecting the
wreckage.
PETER GREEN
COLLECTIONBelgium, the Netherlands and
Luxembourg on May 10, 1940,
with Paris as the ultimate prize. The
relative inactivity of the ‘Phoney
War’ was no more.
Response from the AASF was
immediate. It was soon clear that
French and British ground and air
forces were not going to repulse, or
even hold, the German advance.
By the 15th, Sedan, just inside
the Franco-Belgian border, became
the focus of attention. The
Germans were
laying
pontoon
bridges over the
River Meuse, which had to be
destroyed in a desperate attempt
to slow down the advance.
From Sedan, the road to Reims
pointed the way to the French
capital.
Having already taken a
beating, the Battle squadrons
of the AASF mustered for
strikes against the improvised river
crossings and road choke points.
Tuesday May 15 was a horrific
day for the RAF. From improvised
airstrips and established airfields,
Battles from 12, 88, 103, 105, 142,
150, 218 and 226 Squadrons set off
in the afternoon. Thirty-three failed
to return; 45 men were killed and a
dozen personnel began what turned
out to be five years as prisoners of war.
As darkness fell at Bétheniville,
northeast of Reims, the
staff of 105 Squadron
began to appreciate that their
unit had suffered the most: seven
aircraft gone, 12 dead and one taken
prisoner.
Airborne from Écury-sur-Coole,
southeast of Reims, at 15:24 hours,
Battle P5232 I-for-Ink of 150
Squadron, piloted by Flt Sgt G T
Barker with observer Sgt J Williams
and gunner LAC A K Sumerson, was
shot down and crashed at Raucourt-
et-Flaba, south of the Meuse. Barker
and Williams were killed. Ink was
one of four Battles lost by the
squadron that day.
Volume 1 of Bill Chorley’s
masterful Bomber Command Losses
(Classic 2013) provides proof that
not every aspect of war is inhuman.
Terribly burned and with an injured
leg, Sumerson managed to evade the
Germans – all the more remarkable
as their direction of travel was the
same as his.
After 72 hours he was picked up
by French personnel and rushed to
a hospital in Verdun.
Interned, he was
eventually allowed to
return to Britain on humanitarian
grounds, travelling via Spain and
Gibraltar and arriving in the UK in
March 1941.
Like most Battle units, 150
Squadron never recovered from the
action of May 15. Changing bases
twice as the Germans marched
relentlessly onwards, the unit
evacuated in early June and began
regrouping at Abingdon on the 15th.
By October it was at Snaith and
converting to Vickers Wellingtons.