This story of plane crash in the Monts d’Eraines near Cliff, Michel Rainfroy discovered it by chance in 1999.
At the time, I was looking for evidence and witnesses concerning an American pilot who was said to have been hiding in the Monts d’Eraines. By bringing home two people who came to help me, I decided to go through the mountains, via the small paths. That’s when they told me about this American plane that had crashed in 1944.
This plane is the Boston.
Intrigued by this fragment of history, Michel Rainfroy decides to interview the inhabitants of Perrières.
I ran into an old man. He pulled out a Royal Air Force type pilot’s jacket for me, left by a crew member in a ditch.
It was then that he realized that the plane in question was in fact an English plane.
A night harassment mission
Former butcher in Falaise, Michel Rainfroy is passionate about aviation. He was also a pilot for about thirty years at theFalaise aerodrome.
I had this fad for 7/8 years. The story of an American pilot killed by the Germans in the Monts d’Eraines. I started to investigate, to find witnesses, evidence …
During his research, he discovered that the crew of the Boston BL 390 were all French.
That evening, August 4, 1944, Sergeant Pierre Pierre, pilot, Hubert Cornement, navigator, François Dumont, radio gunner and Louis Ricardou, machine gunner took off from England with 11 other Boston from the Lorraine bombing group.
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Their mission is a “night intruder patrol”. That is to say, a mission of harassing the enemy, at night.
During the day, the Germans were constantly embarrassed by Allied aircraft. So it was at night that they made their big supplies. This kind of harassment mission was only done during the full moon
The team’s goal: the Falaise-Caen route
At 12:45 a.m., while patrolling near the front, Hubert Cornement spotted movement on the Falaise-Caen road. But, once the bombs armed by Pierre Pierre and a correct altitude reached, the Boston of the four Frenchmen is hit by three DCA shells (Defense Against Aircraft). Their fall begins.
I met François Dumont. He told me that at the time they knew they were too low to parachute. Pierre Pierre therefore asked them to take the crash position. They hit the treetops of the Monts d’Eraines at more than 450 km / h. A crash at this speed, one can imagine that it is almost impossible to get out of it unscathed
Of the 11 Boston that took off on the night of August 4, 5 will not return to England.
“He was killed by a round of submachine guns by the SS”
The gunner Louis Ricardou died instantly.
Sergeant Pierre Pierre is ejected from the Boston. He wakes up with a sore head. “He often faints. His wound and the crash at 450 km / h sounded him ”.
Around 9 am, he discovers Hubert Cornement, seriously injured, who calls for help. He has both broken legs.
He wanted to go and seek help. But as he was constantly feeling uneasy, he didn’t have time.
François Dumont is, for his part, completely unharmed. He wakes up still hanging on his seat, facing his machine gunners, dozens of meters from the plane.
He also faints a lot. Dumont and Pierre are not going to cross each other around the plane. They will not see each other again until the end of August, when they return to England.
On the night of August 4 to 5, the radio-gunner heard Hubert Cornement calling for help. “They are talking and at this moment, a Mosquito Night Hunter, attracted by the fire from the plane, bombs the area.” François Dumont is hit by a shrapnel in the left eye.
The next morning, August 5, weakened by his eye sore, François Dumont went into hiding.
From a bush, he hears German voices. They were drawn to the smoke. At that time, there were only SS in the Pays de Falaise. François Dumont hears them brutally questioning Cornement. They wanted to know how many men were in the crew. Hubert Cornement refused to answer them. He was killed in a burst of submachine gun by the SS.
Canadian soldiers later bury the two men, naming their graves. Louis Ricardou is still buried today in the cemetery of Perrières.
On the roads
Later, a farmer in Épaney and his son find Sergeant Pierre, still weak and seriously injured in the head, in their field in Épaney. For 3 days they will help him hide, take care of him. With Calva and tapes, they cleaned his head wound, says Michel Rainfroy. They will also find him civilian clothes, false papers and a bicycle.
He takes the direction of Bagnoles-de-l’Orne. What he does not know, when he passes in front of the Saint-Gervais church and sees the American shell which did not explode, is that Dumont passed in the same place. Approaching Bagnoles, he finds a large farm at a crossroads. He hears the battle in the distance and tells himself that the Americans will inevitably come to this large farm. It was not lacking. The next day, the allies arrive. Pierre Pierre reveals to them his true identity and shows them his military plate which he had kept in his sock.
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François Dumont got away with it, thanks to a paint pot. “He left Falaise by taking the roads on foot. A bucket of paint and a brush in hand. The people who helped him told him that, if questions were asked, he had only to pass himself off as a DDE agent repainting the kilometer markers ”.
He never disclosed his real identity.
On his way he met a pregnant woman and her ten-year-old daughter. They were constantly flown over for planes. François Dumont told them when to hide, and when it was unnecessary, because the allies were on top. The young woman did not understand how he could know airplanes so well.
It will be recovered by soldiers in Mayenne and will not reveal its real identity until then.
Louis Ricardou, one-legged machine gunner
“The machine-gunner Ricardou, who was killed in the crash, had a strong personality which leaves room for many anecdotes.” After losing his right leg in 1941 in Syria, he joined the Free French Air Forces in 1942.
The English categorically refused a disabled crew member. But Ricardou didn’t want to hear that. He proved to them that he could get on and off a bomber, all by himself. With the strength of his arms, he hoisted himself into the machine, took up control of the machine gunners. He aimed at the English and mimed the sounds of gunfire in their direction. The British understood that they would not stop him.
In 2000, Michel Rainfroy and Jean-Pierre Erout, at the time president of the amicale des Veterans of Falaise Country, had a stele erected at the Falaise aux Monts d’Eraines aerodrome in honor of the Boston crew.
Read also: The English from Banwell to Potigny: 20 years of a strong friendship between the two municipalities
Sergeant Pierre Pierre is now deceased. But Michel Rainfroy was able to meet François Dumont in England to return his jacket, the trigger for this entire investigation. “François Dumont subsequently sent me back his Royal Air Force jacket. It will surely end up in a museum ”.
Michel Rainfroy, always transported to the idea of discovering and solving new puzzles, is constantly looking for clues and stories.
I am on the trail of an American pilot who crashed in Damblainville. He left his jacket with the farmer who had helped him. He received a certificate of thanks from the US government, but I still have not found the identity of this pilot. Despite the dozens of reports that exist.
For the Boston and the history of its four crew members, Michel Rainfroy has collected an impressive amount of historically unique and rich documents: photos, testimonies… All of this allowed him to unveil the crash in the Monts d ‘ Eraines, as well as putting faces and life stories behind the English plane crew members.
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