Monday, 24 July 2017
Saved by Calvados
Newspaper article: A Pilot from the Landing at Beaumais, Sunday
Translated from a French Newspaper article
(Note: Calvados is an excellent liquor only made in this region of France)
A
PATRIOT SAVED BY THE CALVADOS
On
the 18th of June, 1944, the battle of Normandy is raging. Returning from his mission aboard his
Spitfire MK 622, a Canadian pilot, Barry Needham, is hit by German DCA, above
the community of Bons-Tassilly. His
airplane catches fire. Seriously burned
on his hands and face, he has time to parachute and lands three hundred metres
from his airplane which had crashed.
Witness to this drama, an inhabitant of the community, Guy Oriot, about
20 years of age, runs to his aid but is captured by some SS. As soon as they were stopped, the two men are
driven to the Chateau de Beaumais, then occupied by the SS.
Informed by some neighbours, Mr. & Mrs. Hoste intercede through a
German colonel who is staying with them.
Due to their pleas in favour of the young man, and without doubt, in
recognition of the quality of the Calvados from the Hoste vineyard, that he
particularly appreciated, he consents to intervene with the SS of
Beaumais. Guy Oriot would be freed the
same evening. As for the pilot, after
having been cared for by the Germans, he would be released at the time of the
‘liberation’ in the month of August.
Upon the
involvement of Michel Rainfroy and Jean-Claude Clouet, Barry Needham,
accompanied by four members of his family, would return to Beaumais, Sunday
afternoon in order to see once again the castle that he has never forgotten,
nor the French person, since disappeared, who had risked death while wanting to
hide him. The next day he must attend
the organized searches at Bons-Tassilly in order to recover his Spitfire
Lest We Forget
Lest we forget
Eyewitness honours gunned down Canadian airman
By Anne Sanderson
A story that began 65
years ago recently came to life again for Canadian airman Barry Needham.
This October he had the opportunity
to travel to France. There he met a woman who claims she has never forgotten
the sacrifices he made during WWII.
Eighteen at the time,
Georgette Dorn says she watched Needham plummet from the sky when his plane was
hit by anti-aircraft fire over the small village of Bons-Tassilly, France on
July 7, 1944.
On New Year’s Eve, 2008
she decided it was time to let him know how much she appreciated all that he
has done.
Needham received the
phone call in January. After sharing the story with her family over the
holidays Dorn’s English-speaking granddaughter had agreed to contact him on her
behalf.
“I could hardly believe what I was hearing
when her granddaughter started telling me everything her grandma remembered,”
Barry said of the call. “She remembered it with such detail that I asked her to
get her grandmother to write out what she observed.”
The letters arrived in
the mail a short time later, along with a hand-drawn map of the crash site
showing where Dorn had been standing hanging wash to dry when Needham’s plane
was hit.
“The parachute and the
pilot came down quite slowly while we tried to get his attention with our white
tea towel,” Dorn remembered. “We were hoping to get his attention so we could direct
him away from the Germans but the terrain was not in our favour.”
“We followed you with our
eyes until you landed and we have always remembered your legs dangling,” Dorn
continued. “A few hours later when I made my way to the road I saw you in the
SS car. I waved Au Revoir and someone waved back. I always thought it was you.”
Dorn expressed an interest
in meeting Needham in person and when he didn’t show up to a celebration at
Juno Beach in June she sent him a bottle of wine in the mail.
“It had been wrapped
several times to protect it – it must have cost her a lot to send. It made me
realize just how important all of this was to her so I arranged a trip to go
and see her,” Needham said.
Accompanied by his
son-in-law Alfred Moshurchak and family friend Jackie Ferraton their
interpreter, Needham arrived in Paris, France on Oct. 12.
He met Georgette Dorn at
a small village. She was accompanied by Madame Oriot, the wife of a man who had
attempted to help Needham after the crash.
“When I walked up to her
it was as if I was meeting an old friend,” Needham says of the meeting. “As is
expected in France I kissed her on both cheeks and gave her a hug. She had
tears in her eyes – it was a very emotional moment.”
Needham was honoured during
a short ceremony, which was filmed by French television stations and later
recorded in the daily newspaper.
While it is hard to
imagine, what is especially hard to believe is that is only half of the story.
It is not the first time
he has been honoured by eyewitnesses.
In fact it was newspaper
accounts of his previous visits that led his most recent eyewitness to locate
him.
In 2005 he was invited
back to watch his plane be exhumed from the ground.
It ended up being a P51
Mustang, but a newspaper article reporting the details of the war-time crash
drew forward some valuable eyewitnesses who were able to pin-point the exact
location of Needham’s spitfire.
Elie Lemarchand was a farmhand at Bons-Tassilly
when he saw the plane go down. The event had begun with the familiar sound of a
plane turning overhead. Then a barrage of anti-aircraft fire had filled the
midday sky.
Upon hearing the noise,
Lemarchand quickly ran outside to see what was happening. His heart sank when
he realized the plane had been hit. As he watched the plane spiral downward
from the sky, it was with sickened horror he saw the pilot bail out and fall
through what had become an incredible ball of flame.
Lemarchand was close
enough to see the pilot fall into the woods on the other side of the road
behind the water filtration plant of Bons-Tassilly. The airplane met its final
demise only a short distance away, not far from the entrance of the road from
Caen to Falaise.
As Lemarchand watched,
he saw the pilot attempt to undo his parachute straps. He had been badly burned
and was obviously suffering a great deal.
Although Lemarchand was
tempted to help the ailing pilot at 21 years of age he knew he was no match for
the Germans. To his relief someone else stepped forward. He recognized the
young man as his neighbour, 20-year-old Guy Oriot.
The idea appeared to be to get the injured pilot
behind the water plant before the enemy arrived. Unfortunately for them both, a
carload of Germans would arrive at precisely the wrong time. “Sharp” discussions
ensued and eventually both men were taken into the custody of the dreaded SS. Lemarchand
later heard that Oriot had been released. However, according to rumour things
had not ended so favourably for the Canadian pilot. The Germans locked him
up in a German prison, where he was kept
for well over 30 days.
The night Needham’s plane was gunned down Lemarchand
sat down and wrote five pages in his diary. Sixty-one years later he presented
his diary as evidence of the true account of the events that had transpired.
When combined with the details provided by the other three witnesses the hobby
group was able to pinpoint the exact location of the missing Spitfire, some 15
to 20 miles away from the first dig.
Needham
was present when the Spitfire was successfully exhumed on June 19, 2006 almost
62 years from the day it had gone down.
The stench of old gasoline filled the air when
the backhoe's first shovelful broke ground bringing up some shattered pieces,
soon identified as MK622, Needham's Spitfire.
The excavation continued for several hours,
uncovering more and more pieces, including the engine and still inflated
tail-wheel buried almost 20 feet underground. Even the serial number plate was
intact.
When he was back this October, Jean-Claude
_______ who heads up ANSA the group responsible for the dig, took Needham back
to the crash site again and used a metal detector to see if there was anything
else left.
“We had barely scratched the surface and we
found a 303 shell,” Needham said. “It is no wonder these people have never
forgotten – it is still all around them.”
While at Bons-Tassily Needham and Dorn also went
back to her old house and stood where she had watched his plane come down.
“A young couple have the house now, but as we
stood there I could see how clearly she had seen what transpired that day,”
Needham said. “It was emotional for both of us to think that after all these
years we have finally met.”
While Needham has no idea what will transpire
next he has already been invited to travel back to France in 2014 to attend a
special ceremony to honour the efforts of WWII veterans.
In the meantime he admits he is one of the
fortunate few.
“It’s a miracle really
that they still remember after all these years,” Needham told Airforce Magazine
in an interview recently. “I am starting to think that being hit may have been
the best thing that has ever happened to me – it has certainly made my life a
lot more interesting.”
Altogether the
now-retired newspaper publisher residing in Wynyard, Sask. has been back to
France six times and each time he is honoured he is reminded of the esteem the
French have for Canadian servicemen and women.
“Many good men and women
died never knowing how much their sacrifices meant and now that the French have
found a live body it is as if I have been chosen to tell the story. I am truly
honoured to be put in such a position and I want everybody to know it is an
honour I share with everyone who was part of it.”
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