Showing posts with label WWII Glider Accidents: Killed in the Line of Duty. Show all posts
Showing posts with label WWII Glider Accidents: Killed in the Line of Duty. Show all posts
Sunday, March 08, 2009
Glider Mechanic, Derwood Basham
About a year ago I received an email from Steven Owen regarding his great uncle, glider mechanic Derwood Basham who died in the same accident that took my uncle's life October 13, 1944 in Tiffield England. No doubt the blog I created for my uncle brought us together. I have sent Steven and his mother every piece of information I have about the glider accident and sent a DVD of our interviews with the local people who remember the tragic crash. The kindness of the people of Tiffield and the museum and cemetery staff has meant a lot to Steven and his mother, as it has to me.
I am going to post, with Steven's permission, some information received about Derwood. I will continue to follow what leads I can find about the role of the glider mechanics so I can later improve the telling of Derwood's contribution to the WWII glider missions. I must assume that Derwood was in the glider that fateful day because he had constructed the new gliders that were being towed that day. They were needed after the loss of so many gliders in the Holland mission. He was probably joining the 36th Squadron to continue the maintenance of gliders.
According to Steven Owen, his grandmother, Thelma Basham Brown, was very close to her brother and never recovered from his loss. Derwood was one of ten children. He was extremely close to his mother. On his last visit home he had great distress over returning to duty. "I feel possibly he had a premonition of what was to come. I don't know for sure," wrote Steven. Derwood's mother, Ollie Crowder Basham, was devastated by his death. He was engaged to be married after his discharge from military service. "I doubt she ever recovered from the loss; As a child she gave to me before her death Derwood's coins he collected while abroad and they mean a great deal to me today," says Steven.
Derwood was born January 19, 1919, in Roanoka,Virginia. He was stationed in Tennessee. Steven has not been able to locate more information about his service. Today he is buried at Sherwood Cemetery in a family plot in Salem Va. He was first buried in England and Steven thinks the family paid to have him brought back. Today he has two surviving sisters, one in Salem and one in Baltimore MD. Steven writes, "Most of his siblings lived to be over 90 so it is a pity he died so young. He started as an apprentice to my great grandfather in his own plumbing business until he entered the military. My great grandfather I'm told as well, gave up after the death. He sold his business and a farm and was never quite himself after losing his son."
All this sounds so much like the story of my Uncle Sylvan's family life. Some day, after I have written what I know and constructed from books what I don't know, about Sylvan Lucier's nearly three years as a glider pilot, I will share the bits of his personal life story.
I am going to post, with Steven's permission, some information received about Derwood. I will continue to follow what leads I can find about the role of the glider mechanics so I can later improve the telling of Derwood's contribution to the WWII glider missions. I must assume that Derwood was in the glider that fateful day because he had constructed the new gliders that were being towed that day. They were needed after the loss of so many gliders in the Holland mission. He was probably joining the 36th Squadron to continue the maintenance of gliders.
According to Steven Owen, his grandmother, Thelma Basham Brown, was very close to her brother and never recovered from his loss. Derwood was one of ten children. He was extremely close to his mother. On his last visit home he had great distress over returning to duty. "I feel possibly he had a premonition of what was to come. I don't know for sure," wrote Steven. Derwood's mother, Ollie Crowder Basham, was devastated by his death. He was engaged to be married after his discharge from military service. "I doubt she ever recovered from the loss; As a child she gave to me before her death Derwood's coins he collected while abroad and they mean a great deal to me today," says Steven.
Derwood was born January 19, 1919, in Roanoka,Virginia. He was stationed in Tennessee. Steven has not been able to locate more information about his service. Today he is buried at Sherwood Cemetery in a family plot in Salem Va. He was first buried in England and Steven thinks the family paid to have him brought back. Today he has two surviving sisters, one in Salem and one in Baltimore MD. Steven writes, "Most of his siblings lived to be over 90 so it is a pity he died so young. He started as an apprentice to my great grandfather in his own plumbing business until he entered the military. My great grandfather I'm told as well, gave up after the death. He sold his business and a farm and was never quite himself after losing his son."
All this sounds so much like the story of my Uncle Sylvan's family life. Some day, after I have written what I know and constructed from books what I don't know, about Sylvan Lucier's nearly three years as a glider pilot, I will share the bits of his personal life story.
Sunday, September 07, 2008
Sylvan Lucier Memorial Trip
SYLVAN LUCIER MEMORIAL TRIP
Sylvan Lucier, my deceased glider pilot uncle, was the reason for this amazing journey of ours in June of 2008, to the World War II commemorative sites in France, Holland and England.
When I designed a new graveside monument in Sylvan's home town of Fargo N.D. I put an etching of a Waco glider and under it the words “Africa, Sicily, Normandy, Holland”. It did not seem proper at the time to include England with the former war zones that my uncle endured. England must have been much like home to the aviators. It was made more clear to me on my trip how like family the English can be. My future posts to this blog will describe the war zones using information from interviews and squadron histories. But Sylvan also lived a somewhat normal life for eight months in a more comfortable place, England. And when he died in the glider accident, it was in a country where his death was viewed with great dismay by local people as well as by his troop carrier group.
On our trip, 64 years after the accident, my husband and I experienced the most amazing friendship and generosity from English people familiar with my uncle's story. Sylvan must also have had warm relationships with the British people when he lived there with the 316 Troop Carrier Group. I have read that there were parties for the children, food shared on family visits, dances at the officer’s club and eventually some weddings. This is well described in the book: Friendly Invasion, Memories of Operation Bolero, The America Occupation of Britain 1942-1945, by Henry Buckton. The major source of my information about the 316th Group in England is Mike Ingrisano's book, Valor Without Arms.
Instant friendship and assistance was also the case in Holland and France as we visited the historic sites. But in England I met some people who felt great sorrow over my uncle’s glider accident 64 years ago and who today still remember Sylvan’s awful death. The English villagers who witnessed the glider crash in1944 were more involved than his family! With all the English, they were aware of the U.S. sacrifices to guard their nation, but they also had to witness three shocking deaths, not on a battlefield but in the autumn meadows where they labored.
Today there are many British citizens, children of the war years who, after receiving the testimony of their elder countrymen, build the museums, visit the graves of American war dead, write the books, answer the emails, host the visiters, and search continually for more historic details. I am in debt to a number of English citizens for their many hours put into finding the site of the glider crash, gathering the accounts of witnesses, and shepherding us about the countryside.
*******************************************************
A GLIDER TRAGEDY IN STORY TELLING FORM
By Anne Nephew
Editing help from my daughter, Julia and our host in Tiffield, England, Rae Spencer.
As I looked over that beautiful field of yellow flowers, not yet mowed that June day, my thoughts were that it was a very peaceful place to die, if one must die. It could not have been any different on that thirteenth day of October, 1944. The site has been unknown to all but a few.
The village in the English midlands had only about 100 inhabitants at the time. There was no destruction from bombs there. However, a strong reminder of the war was the many, many planes overhead, flying daily between air-bases. A colorful note is that during the war a circus was camped at one end of the village and elephants walked through down Hight Street every day to the village green when they drank water from the village stream.
Facing the field where Sylvan Lucier, Derwood Basham and Irving Krohn died was a line of homes built during the Renaissance, including a church and a school. It was called “High Street” not because it was on a hill but because it was the main street and the only street to run through the village. A second row of houses, a tavern and a village green edged the other side of the street. At the time of the crash, many citizens were absent; mostly children and old people stayed in the village. Women in the “Land Army” worked the fields.
*****************************************************
On that fateful day, an elderly man whose son was in the British Air Force in Egypt was working in his backyard garden. It was nearly midday. He didn’t look up at the planes because they were so common, but he heard a terrible sound that day and he knew what it meant. He was one of the first, or perhaps the first to go to the scene. It was profoundly disturbing to this man to view the wrecked glider with its three occupants. As a father with a son also far away fighting the war, he could immediately identify with the parents of these deceased young men.
Later someone gave this elderly gentleman a lovely, graceful and intact wooden piece of the wrecked glider. It must have been some comfort to him, a talisman that reminded him of the sacrifices others had made for his country. He kept this smooth, elongated “stick” hanging on the wall over his living room fireplace to remind him and his family of that sad day. He passed on the story of the terrible glider accident to his son who returned home safe from the war. The family decided that the stick should hang in that spot for the family to remember the event of that October day. The gentleman told his son, “That stick is a piece of history. Don’t ever take it away!” And so the piece of honed wood remained above the fireplace. It was a remembrance of those three American men who could not return home to farm, to attend school, and to start a family.
Long after the gentleman's death, and a year after that of his son, two visiters from America came to visit the postcard cottage of the granddaughter of the elderly gentleman. Flowers in profusion greeted them on the pathway. She offered them some cookies picked up on her way home from work. She had returned recently from a trip to a dude ranch in Texas and was delighted to show the visiters her pictures. She loved to travel and the United States was such an interesting place to her. The Americans were charmed! One of the visitors was the niece of one of the men who died in that field.
Before long she brought out her grandfather’s glider stick from its place on the wall. She handled it like a religious object and spoke lovingly of its story. How could she follow her father and grandfather’s wishes to keep it forever since she had no children herself? It occurred to her, even before the visitors' arrival, that the stick should belong to the family of one of the glider pilots, where it would also be cherished. But first she would remove the string wrapped around one end in order to suspend it on the wall, so she could keep it to remind her of the many years she had looked at it while her grandfather and father recounted the events of that day. One of the visitors gently untied that knot made so long ago. Her guests accepted the glider stick with gratitude and a feeling of reverence, not just because of the origin of the stick, but because of the amazing love surrounding that stick for 64 years.
The stick had been between the two pilots in the front of the glider. It supported the leather case for a slide rule which was used to figure the load balance. The glider pilot, uncle to one of the visitors, had no doubt touched the stick many times in its proper place, near his thigh, just under the glider’s panel of four instruments. A glider is very lightweight and must be loaded with great care! In the crash the nose of the glider was badly damaged. The tail section was high in the hedge that bisected the field, with completely wrecked elevators. Yet this delicate stick of wood was spared!
It is not known who found the graceful glider stick and gave it to the gentleman. Its apparent frailty must have elicited sympathy and amazement. Someone knew that the older gentleman who rushed to the scene that day would cherish it.
Over the years no one in the family or the village knew the important function the stick had in the glider. A glider was mostly a steel tubing and cloth covering. However, seats, a floor, wing ribs and spar, and below the pilot's plexiglas windows, a “chin”, were made of wood. And threaded between between the pilot and co-pilot seats, were some slender sticks designed by an unknown engineer. From there came the delicate piece that survived the impact that instantly killed three young men.
In the grand design of things people have always kept souvenirs of places they have seen and people they have loved. An object kept in memory of a horrible event, such as a glider crash behind your garden, may give solace. But if it is placed over your fireplace, the center of the daily family gathering, it may be because you don’t want to forget, or have others forget, that great sacrifices were made for your safety and your freedom from tyranny.
****************************************************
In the same village, on the very farm where the glider crashed, lives another gentleman today who was only a small boy during the war, living in London. He was only aged seven, but his mother would send him to the near-by subway station each evening. He went on his own carrying a suitcase and he would go down the long stairways to find a place deep underground on a platform in the station where he would join everyone from the local area as they huddled together and slept to shelter from the incessant bombing. In his suitcase was a blanket and he would open the suitcase and lie inside it wrapped in his blanket. One night he was huddled on the floor in his suitcase. A huge bomb made a direct hit and the blast was terrible! Several hundred of the people on the platform were killed but he was saved by the protection of his suitcase. The protective hand of God that saved him that night bestowed more trials, trials and traumas that a child should never have, the legacy of the horrors of that night.
The visitors had a mission that day, to find the site of the fatal crash. Someone in the village, it could have been a farmer's son returned at war’s end, would remove the hedge where the glider crashed. It turned two small fields into a larger than average field that produced crops to feed the cattle grazing beyond the gate.
The survivor of the London bombing understood the visitors’ purpose in visiting his back field. In this flower-filled field, away from road or even footpath, nothing remained from that awful event to mar the serenity. The sky gave its blessing of sun and small clouds. It could have been a garden in heaven. Or so the visitors thought.
***************************************************
The autumn day of the crash, 1944, a teenage boy was working in a field near the village where he could see various other workers. At fifteen a boy could not be a child, nor could he be a man and go to war. He knew that soon the workers would all be breaking for the midday meal, cooked by grandmothers for the Land Army of women, the boys and any soldiers on leave, who were bringing in the harvest.
Airplanes fascinated this boy. He anticipated being able to help his country if needed in a few years and maybe it would be as a member of the Royal Air Force. When the flight of planes towing double gliders took his attention from his work, he had looked up and was instantly aware that something was terribly wrong with one group. One glider was directly under the other glider instead of in the V formation. The three aircrafts were much lower than usual and soon there were only two connected. The released glider did not have the altitude, the time or apparently the ability to land properly. The consequence was apparent and the boy knew exactly where he would find it.
Now, 64 years later, the man who had grown from the 15 year old who saw the gliders in trouble, was most eager to meet the American visiters. After the war was over he was able to serve his country, but not in the Royal Air Force. Later he lived elsewhere, away from the distressing accident site. But he responded to an appeal for information about the glider crash.
He wanted to describe the glider that he saw in serious trouble before it was released. He wanted to walk once more to the field he walked to years ago, a young boy who would leave his childhood there forever. He wanted to describe what the glider looked like in repose. He knew they had crashed at exactly 12:20. He knew from a watch that one of the crew was wearing which stopped at exactly that time. He could relate that the pilots were still strapped in and one body was on the ground. When asked if he wanted to describe any more details, he declined. He said it was too shocking to him then and still makes him unhappy to remember it. He said, “I do know that they all died immediately.”
**************************************
Everything he said was comforting to the visiters. Because of his experience, this gentlemen was closer to the glider pilot uncle who died than the visiters from America. It was his tragedy more than theirs! By his presence with them at the field of the crash, a connection was made beyond the present. The three young men who died there belonged to something larger than family or country. They were part of a story of a people who took thousands of America’s sons and cared for them and still have the deepest regard for them. The visiters would also feel this at the American chapel behind the high altar of St. Paul’s cathedral, at the beautiful Cambridge Cemetery commemorating thousands of Americans killed in action and in the line of duty, and at the Assault Guider Trust which educates all British citizens but particularly the schoolchildren that visit to see actual gliders displayed, and learn about the role of gliders and their pilots in the war. While a WWII memorial trip to Europe is a rare experience for Americans, it is part of the national identity of Europeans.
The two American visitors were born early in the war and both had been spared having parents in the military. For them the war had been a childhood game played with Army surplus items, following the content of comic books and Reader’s Digest stories. The woman was two years old when her uncle died, flying his glider on an ordinary freight trip from one air-base to another. He was one of twenty glider pilots, with co-pilots seated on their right, perhaps a mechanic aboard each glider, bringing new gliders to their base to replace those lost in Holland a few weeks earlier. After surviving numerous missions behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied Africa, Sicily, Normandy and Holland, these three men ironically lost their lives in a routine transfer trip. By tragically crashing in an idyllic English field, they left behind sad memories for the people they helped, a single delicate souvenir, and witnesses who have told their stories.
The deaths of the three young men brought the war home to those English people and their sacrifice has not been forgotten:
F/O Sylvan R. Lucier, F/O Irving W. Krohn, Mechanic Derwood M. Basham.
Few descendants of glider pilots who were lost in the war will ever know exactly where their family member died, but this field in the English countryside will remain a hidden shrine to all those men who loved to fly and gave their lives to free Europe. We can be certain it will always be remembered and deeply respected.
Sylvan Lucier, my deceased glider pilot uncle, was the reason for this amazing journey of ours in June of 2008, to the World War II commemorative sites in France, Holland and England.
When I designed a new graveside monument in Sylvan's home town of Fargo N.D. I put an etching of a Waco glider and under it the words “Africa, Sicily, Normandy, Holland”. It did not seem proper at the time to include England with the former war zones that my uncle endured. England must have been much like home to the aviators. It was made more clear to me on my trip how like family the English can be. My future posts to this blog will describe the war zones using information from interviews and squadron histories. But Sylvan also lived a somewhat normal life for eight months in a more comfortable place, England. And when he died in the glider accident, it was in a country where his death was viewed with great dismay by local people as well as by his troop carrier group.
On our trip, 64 years after the accident, my husband and I experienced the most amazing friendship and generosity from English people familiar with my uncle's story. Sylvan must also have had warm relationships with the British people when he lived there with the 316 Troop Carrier Group. I have read that there were parties for the children, food shared on family visits, dances at the officer’s club and eventually some weddings. This is well described in the book: Friendly Invasion, Memories of Operation Bolero, The America Occupation of Britain 1942-1945, by Henry Buckton. The major source of my information about the 316th Group in England is Mike Ingrisano's book, Valor Without Arms.
Instant friendship and assistance was also the case in Holland and France as we visited the historic sites. But in England I met some people who felt great sorrow over my uncle’s glider accident 64 years ago and who today still remember Sylvan’s awful death. The English villagers who witnessed the glider crash in1944 were more involved than his family! With all the English, they were aware of the U.S. sacrifices to guard their nation, but they also had to witness three shocking deaths, not on a battlefield but in the autumn meadows where they labored.
Today there are many British citizens, children of the war years who, after receiving the testimony of their elder countrymen, build the museums, visit the graves of American war dead, write the books, answer the emails, host the visiters, and search continually for more historic details. I am in debt to a number of English citizens for their many hours put into finding the site of the glider crash, gathering the accounts of witnesses, and shepherding us about the countryside.
*******************************************************
A GLIDER TRAGEDY IN STORY TELLING FORM
By Anne Nephew
Editing help from my daughter, Julia and our host in Tiffield, England, Rae Spencer.
As I looked over that beautiful field of yellow flowers, not yet mowed that June day, my thoughts were that it was a very peaceful place to die, if one must die. It could not have been any different on that thirteenth day of October, 1944. The site has been unknown to all but a few.
The village in the English midlands had only about 100 inhabitants at the time. There was no destruction from bombs there. However, a strong reminder of the war was the many, many planes overhead, flying daily between air-bases. A colorful note is that during the war a circus was camped at one end of the village and elephants walked through down Hight Street every day to the village green when they drank water from the village stream.
Facing the field where Sylvan Lucier, Derwood Basham and Irving Krohn died was a line of homes built during the Renaissance, including a church and a school. It was called “High Street” not because it was on a hill but because it was the main street and the only street to run through the village. A second row of houses, a tavern and a village green edged the other side of the street. At the time of the crash, many citizens were absent; mostly children and old people stayed in the village. Women in the “Land Army” worked the fields.
*****************************************************
On that fateful day, an elderly man whose son was in the British Air Force in Egypt was working in his backyard garden. It was nearly midday. He didn’t look up at the planes because they were so common, but he heard a terrible sound that day and he knew what it meant. He was one of the first, or perhaps the first to go to the scene. It was profoundly disturbing to this man to view the wrecked glider with its three occupants. As a father with a son also far away fighting the war, he could immediately identify with the parents of these deceased young men.
Later someone gave this elderly gentleman a lovely, graceful and intact wooden piece of the wrecked glider. It must have been some comfort to him, a talisman that reminded him of the sacrifices others had made for his country. He kept this smooth, elongated “stick” hanging on the wall over his living room fireplace to remind him and his family of that sad day. He passed on the story of the terrible glider accident to his son who returned home safe from the war. The family decided that the stick should hang in that spot for the family to remember the event of that October day. The gentleman told his son, “That stick is a piece of history. Don’t ever take it away!” And so the piece of honed wood remained above the fireplace. It was a remembrance of those three American men who could not return home to farm, to attend school, and to start a family.
Long after the gentleman's death, and a year after that of his son, two visiters from America came to visit the postcard cottage of the granddaughter of the elderly gentleman. Flowers in profusion greeted them on the pathway. She offered them some cookies picked up on her way home from work. She had returned recently from a trip to a dude ranch in Texas and was delighted to show the visiters her pictures. She loved to travel and the United States was such an interesting place to her. The Americans were charmed! One of the visitors was the niece of one of the men who died in that field.
Before long she brought out her grandfather’s glider stick from its place on the wall. She handled it like a religious object and spoke lovingly of its story. How could she follow her father and grandfather’s wishes to keep it forever since she had no children herself? It occurred to her, even before the visitors' arrival, that the stick should belong to the family of one of the glider pilots, where it would also be cherished. But first she would remove the string wrapped around one end in order to suspend it on the wall, so she could keep it to remind her of the many years she had looked at it while her grandfather and father recounted the events of that day. One of the visitors gently untied that knot made so long ago. Her guests accepted the glider stick with gratitude and a feeling of reverence, not just because of the origin of the stick, but because of the amazing love surrounding that stick for 64 years.
The stick had been between the two pilots in the front of the glider. It supported the leather case for a slide rule which was used to figure the load balance. The glider pilot, uncle to one of the visitors, had no doubt touched the stick many times in its proper place, near his thigh, just under the glider’s panel of four instruments. A glider is very lightweight and must be loaded with great care! In the crash the nose of the glider was badly damaged. The tail section was high in the hedge that bisected the field, with completely wrecked elevators. Yet this delicate stick of wood was spared!
It is not known who found the graceful glider stick and gave it to the gentleman. Its apparent frailty must have elicited sympathy and amazement. Someone knew that the older gentleman who rushed to the scene that day would cherish it.
Over the years no one in the family or the village knew the important function the stick had in the glider. A glider was mostly a steel tubing and cloth covering. However, seats, a floor, wing ribs and spar, and below the pilot's plexiglas windows, a “chin”, were made of wood. And threaded between between the pilot and co-pilot seats, were some slender sticks designed by an unknown engineer. From there came the delicate piece that survived the impact that instantly killed three young men.
In the grand design of things people have always kept souvenirs of places they have seen and people they have loved. An object kept in memory of a horrible event, such as a glider crash behind your garden, may give solace. But if it is placed over your fireplace, the center of the daily family gathering, it may be because you don’t want to forget, or have others forget, that great sacrifices were made for your safety and your freedom from tyranny.
****************************************************
In the same village, on the very farm where the glider crashed, lives another gentleman today who was only a small boy during the war, living in London. He was only aged seven, but his mother would send him to the near-by subway station each evening. He went on his own carrying a suitcase and he would go down the long stairways to find a place deep underground on a platform in the station where he would join everyone from the local area as they huddled together and slept to shelter from the incessant bombing. In his suitcase was a blanket and he would open the suitcase and lie inside it wrapped in his blanket. One night he was huddled on the floor in his suitcase. A huge bomb made a direct hit and the blast was terrible! Several hundred of the people on the platform were killed but he was saved by the protection of his suitcase. The protective hand of God that saved him that night bestowed more trials, trials and traumas that a child should never have, the legacy of the horrors of that night.
The visitors had a mission that day, to find the site of the fatal crash. Someone in the village, it could have been a farmer's son returned at war’s end, would remove the hedge where the glider crashed. It turned two small fields into a larger than average field that produced crops to feed the cattle grazing beyond the gate.
The survivor of the London bombing understood the visitors’ purpose in visiting his back field. In this flower-filled field, away from road or even footpath, nothing remained from that awful event to mar the serenity. The sky gave its blessing of sun and small clouds. It could have been a garden in heaven. Or so the visitors thought.
***************************************************
The autumn day of the crash, 1944, a teenage boy was working in a field near the village where he could see various other workers. At fifteen a boy could not be a child, nor could he be a man and go to war. He knew that soon the workers would all be breaking for the midday meal, cooked by grandmothers for the Land Army of women, the boys and any soldiers on leave, who were bringing in the harvest.
Airplanes fascinated this boy. He anticipated being able to help his country if needed in a few years and maybe it would be as a member of the Royal Air Force. When the flight of planes towing double gliders took his attention from his work, he had looked up and was instantly aware that something was terribly wrong with one group. One glider was directly under the other glider instead of in the V formation. The three aircrafts were much lower than usual and soon there were only two connected. The released glider did not have the altitude, the time or apparently the ability to land properly. The consequence was apparent and the boy knew exactly where he would find it.
Now, 64 years later, the man who had grown from the 15 year old who saw the gliders in trouble, was most eager to meet the American visiters. After the war was over he was able to serve his country, but not in the Royal Air Force. Later he lived elsewhere, away from the distressing accident site. But he responded to an appeal for information about the glider crash.
He wanted to describe the glider that he saw in serious trouble before it was released. He wanted to walk once more to the field he walked to years ago, a young boy who would leave his childhood there forever. He wanted to describe what the glider looked like in repose. He knew they had crashed at exactly 12:20. He knew from a watch that one of the crew was wearing which stopped at exactly that time. He could relate that the pilots were still strapped in and one body was on the ground. When asked if he wanted to describe any more details, he declined. He said it was too shocking to him then and still makes him unhappy to remember it. He said, “I do know that they all died immediately.”
**************************************
Everything he said was comforting to the visiters. Because of his experience, this gentlemen was closer to the glider pilot uncle who died than the visiters from America. It was his tragedy more than theirs! By his presence with them at the field of the crash, a connection was made beyond the present. The three young men who died there belonged to something larger than family or country. They were part of a story of a people who took thousands of America’s sons and cared for them and still have the deepest regard for them. The visiters would also feel this at the American chapel behind the high altar of St. Paul’s cathedral, at the beautiful Cambridge Cemetery commemorating thousands of Americans killed in action and in the line of duty, and at the Assault Guider Trust which educates all British citizens but particularly the schoolchildren that visit to see actual gliders displayed, and learn about the role of gliders and their pilots in the war. While a WWII memorial trip to Europe is a rare experience for Americans, it is part of the national identity of Europeans.
The two American visitors were born early in the war and both had been spared having parents in the military. For them the war had been a childhood game played with Army surplus items, following the content of comic books and Reader’s Digest stories. The woman was two years old when her uncle died, flying his glider on an ordinary freight trip from one air-base to another. He was one of twenty glider pilots, with co-pilots seated on their right, perhaps a mechanic aboard each glider, bringing new gliders to their base to replace those lost in Holland a few weeks earlier. After surviving numerous missions behind enemy lines in Nazi-occupied Africa, Sicily, Normandy and Holland, these three men ironically lost their lives in a routine transfer trip. By tragically crashing in an idyllic English field, they left behind sad memories for the people they helped, a single delicate souvenir, and witnesses who have told their stories.
The deaths of the three young men brought the war home to those English people and their sacrifice has not been forgotten:
F/O Sylvan R. Lucier, F/O Irving W. Krohn, Mechanic Derwood M. Basham.
Few descendants of glider pilots who were lost in the war will ever know exactly where their family member died, but this field in the English countryside will remain a hidden shrine to all those men who loved to fly and gave their lives to free Europe. We can be certain it will always be remembered and deeply respected.
Sunday, June 01, 2008
Three Brothers Write After Sylvan's Death
November 9, 1944 Darling Mother, To nite my heart is crying, and my eyes are red with tears. To nite I got your letter-”May his soul, and all the souls faithfully departed through the mercy of God, Rest in Peace”__ Mom, it is hard to believe, but now we are fighting to try and preserve, what took us so long to build up. I have seen and been with them, when they were called upon! Have helped them, cared for them on the field of battle, now it is so much more real ___ Mother, this Sunday, I am going to have a mass said for my brother, and my Communion will be offered up for the repose of his soul. I feel to nite, as if Sylvan were here, looking over my shoulder, trying to tell me some thing.__ Maybe you know it already, but I have been on the rotation list for several weeks, and now I'll be home. My time in the company and also my evacuation put me on top so I will be home. Sylvan wrote me a nice long letter dated October 10. He told me about his last experience, so I wrote him right back. But he will never get it! (This would have been his role in the Liberation of Holland, September 18.) Mother and Dad, I know that God had a place for your son. He was always faithful, and never doubtful! He loved his religion, and in a way, he offered his life for it. I have seen Catholic men dying in the field, with a priest over them, and they all “went”, with a prayer on their lips, the same as my brother went.__ My prayers will be offered up for you and Dad, to ask God to shower His blessings down upon all of you. Yes, I'm crying, because I am so helpless. But Mom dear, I'll be O.K. I am going home soon, and I know I'll be able to help your broken heart. Your loving Son, Dolly (Delphis)
Delphis Wayne Lucier
Staff Sargeant, served in the Southwest Pacific for three years. He was in Guadalcanal & Bougainville with the 164 North Dakota Infantry, Hq. Co. He received the Combat Infantryman Badge for Combat duty as a radioman on Bougainville and with intelligence on Guadalcanal. He also received the Presidential Unit Citation, Good Conduct, American Defense, and Asiatic-Pacific Ribbons.
Wednesday Nov. 1st
Dear Mom & Dad; I had just came into camp from the Bivouac Area when I called Mary and she told me about Sylvan. It is the hardest thing to believe or should I say to realize that I have ever heard. To think that Sylvan is gone and that we will never see or hear him again. Our thoughts and sympathies are with you and we hope and pray that God will give you the strength to bear our loss. Please write us the details as soon as you hear. We are all well here – I have one more week in the field. I have to go back out again to nite and this news is pretty hard to take back with me. We are enclosing an offering for a Mass for Sylvan. I will close for now as there is not much more I can say. So Long for now Bernard, Mary & Bunny
1st Lt. Bernard Frances Lucier, Medical Corp-USA, Abilene Texas.
Dearest Mom and Dad The news came as such a shock to me so I know how you and Dad must grieve the loss of such a good Son. We can be thankful that we know he was right with his God and his soul is in heaven. I do hope that God will give to you help to bear up under this terrible strain and remember he died for God and Country and all the things that go to make up our way of living. If I were only home to be with you and help. I can't say more as words are meaningless. Please Mom, carry on in your wonderful way and I know everything will work out. Take care of Dad All my love to the greatest Mother and Father as man ever had. Lan (Lawrence) Lucier
Lawrence Joseph Lucier,
1st Sqt. Medical Corp in the Pacific, New Guinea, Australia, Leyte, Tokyo.
Thomas Edward Lucier
Pvt. 1st Class, 3rd Infantry division in Germany, 1944 – 1946. He was a journalist for Frontline- the 3rd Division Newspaper. The younger brother, born in 1926, Tom was in High School when Sylvan died in 1944. He enlisted before turning 18. Tom lives with wife Anne in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
Delphis Wayne Lucier
Staff Sargeant, served in the Southwest Pacific for three years. He was in Guadalcanal & Bougainville with the 164 North Dakota Infantry, Hq. Co. He received the Combat Infantryman Badge for Combat duty as a radioman on Bougainville and with intelligence on Guadalcanal. He also received the Presidential Unit Citation, Good Conduct, American Defense, and Asiatic-Pacific Ribbons.
Wednesday Nov. 1st
Dear Mom & Dad; I had just came into camp from the Bivouac Area when I called Mary and she told me about Sylvan. It is the hardest thing to believe or should I say to realize that I have ever heard. To think that Sylvan is gone and that we will never see or hear him again. Our thoughts and sympathies are with you and we hope and pray that God will give you the strength to bear our loss. Please write us the details as soon as you hear. We are all well here – I have one more week in the field. I have to go back out again to nite and this news is pretty hard to take back with me. We are enclosing an offering for a Mass for Sylvan. I will close for now as there is not much more I can say. So Long for now Bernard, Mary & Bunny
1st Lt. Bernard Frances Lucier, Medical Corp-USA, Abilene Texas.
Dearest Mom and Dad The news came as such a shock to me so I know how you and Dad must grieve the loss of such a good Son. We can be thankful that we know he was right with his God and his soul is in heaven. I do hope that God will give to you help to bear up under this terrible strain and remember he died for God and Country and all the things that go to make up our way of living. If I were only home to be with you and help. I can't say more as words are meaningless. Please Mom, carry on in your wonderful way and I know everything will work out. Take care of Dad All my love to the greatest Mother and Father as man ever had. Lan (Lawrence) Lucier
Lawrence Joseph Lucier,
1st Sqt. Medical Corp in the Pacific, New Guinea, Australia, Leyte, Tokyo.
Thomas Edward Lucier
Pvt. 1st Class, 3rd Infantry division in Germany, 1944 – 1946. He was a journalist for Frontline- the 3rd Division Newspaper. The younger brother, born in 1926, Tom was in High School when Sylvan died in 1944. He enlisted before turning 18. Tom lives with wife Anne in Norristown, Pennsylvania.
The Telegram From Washington
Flight Officer, Sylvan Lucier was in the middle of a large family. He enlisted in January 1942. Three brothers were already in the service. Eva and Del had a lot to worry about during the war years. The mail delivery must have been an important part of each day. One piece of mail that was dreaded was the telegram. And one day it came.
Eva Lucier, my grandmother, kept the numerous cards her son Sylvan sent her, as well as information about his pilot and glider training in the states. Among her most cherished letters were those from her sons in the service, sent when their brother in arms, Sylvan, died. The letters sent from "Dolly", Bernard, and "Lanny" are respectfully transcribed here in my hope that they will lend understanding to my generation who grew up with the residual effects of war, benefited by the sacrifices of our elders.
Saturday, May 17, 2008
Fatal Glider Accident, Tiffield England
SYLVAN R. LUCIER, KILLED IN LINE OF DUTY
ONE OF 351 GLIDER PILOTS WHO DID NOT RETURN HOME FROM THE WAR
According to information in a Glider Pilot Roll of Honor contained in the web site www.pointvista.com, there were as many as 6,000 American Combat Glider Pilots. Of these, 211 died in combat, approximately 636 were wounded, and another 140 died in the line of duty, usually in glider training accidents. The combined casualty rate came to 16.4 % of the total number of pilots. Examining just those killed or injured in combat, it amounts to about 20%. This was considered very high by any standard.
AN EARLY TRAINING ACCIDENT
The accident that took Sylvan's life was not his first. The development of war time glider usage went on for some time in the U.S. and the number of stateside accidents as young men learned the techniques is not often chronicled. Overseas time between missions was also spent sharpening a pilot's skills. Landing one's load of men or equipment in whatever terrain required, under fire, in daylight or darkness, took a lot of practice. Charles L. Day writes the book about the manufacturer 's role in the development of the CG-4A glider: Silent Ones, WWII Invasion Glider Test and Experiment. It is published by the author.
In February 2008, while working at Maxwell Air Base Research Center, my husband found an index of glider accidents and putting in my uncle's name, found that a training accident was recorded in January, 1943, at the Army Air Force's Glider School at Dalhart, Texas. The pilots involved were, Sylvan R. Lucier and co-pilot, Ben Grobman. They were in the 880th Glider Training Squadron at Dalhart, Texas and were also together in the 49th Squadron in Africa. (Pictures of Sylvan, Ben and other glider pilot friends in the 880th were posted earlier on this site. )
Synopsis of the January 7, 1943, accident:
Glider: CG-4A
A.F. No: 42-61849
Pilot Charged: Sylvan R. Lucier, 338th BH & AB Squadron, of the 880
On January 7, Sylvan Lucier, at that time a Staff Sargent, was on a night time glider training mission with his friend and co-pilot Ben Grobman. He undershot the lighted landing area and made an unsuccessful landing. . The “Report of Aircraft Accident” says Lucier had eight hours experience flying this model and that within the last three months he had put in nearly 32 hours flying including almost eight hours in the dark of night. The landing gear broke on landing, causing damage to other parts of the aircraft; the left skid, the nose section, the jury strut and the left wing. The statement of responsibility says: The pilot stated that he undershot the lighted landing area and landed in a soft spot on the field causing left landing gear to give way. The aircraft accident officer finds that the accident was due to 100% pilot error by undershooting the designated landing area and making an unsuccessful landing.
KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY, WHILE FLYING DOUBLE TOW
In February, 2006, while searching the internet, I found an aviation archeology site in the United Kingdom. The staff gave me the names of individuals in Arizona who had reports of American glider/airplane crashes. For a small fee I was quickly sent the “Report of Aircraft Accident” for my uncle's glider accident which cost his life and that of his co-pilot, Iving Krohn, and a mechanic, Durwood Basham. Since then the details of that report have filled my mind and fueled my research.
Tiffield , a village of about 100 in 1944, is about 65 miles by road from Greenham Common Air Base from where the 20 gliders were being towed by 10 aircraft that day of October 13, 1944. The 316 Troop Carrier Group, to which Sylvan belonged, was based at Cottesmore, Rutland which is about 50 miles further North East from the crash scene. Greenham, Tiffield and Cottesmore are almost on a straight line with each other.
Sylvan R. Lucier, was flying double tow from Greenham Common to Cottesmore. His glider hit a field one half mile from Tiffield, Northants. All three occupants were killed in the CG-4A glider crash.
Burl B. Miner, a 2nd Lieutenant, was the pilot of the glider on the long tow. He too had a co-pilot and glider mechanic on board. His statement is as follows:
We were flying double tow at an altitude of approximately 1600. Flight Officer Lucier, S.R. was pilot of the Glider on the short rope and I was piloting the glider on the long rope. At approximately 1200 hours 3 minutes south of North Hampton we came very close together. The glider on the short rope started down rather suddenly, and in going down, his right elevator struck our left wing. The glider stayed on tow for approximately 30 seconds directly beneath us then he cut, and Lt. Ernst, (2nd Lt. William S. Ernst, Michigan) started looking for him. The tug ship made an immediate turn to the left, circled the area, and no one saw the glider, except Lt. Ernst who said he thought he saw it cracked up on the ground.
Edward S. Ash, 1st Lt. was the pilot of the Tow Plane. His statement regarding he accident:
The tow ship was at 1600 feet with the base of broken clouds at approximately 2500. The visibility wa four to six miles and there was moderate turbulence. The tow ship airspeed was 115 MPH as the pilot had just noticed the speed as he felt the plane lurch forward. The pilot immediately had the crew chief look out the dome to see how many gliders were on the tow. He reported that there was but one left so the pilot made a 360 degree turn so as to locate and report on the other glider. Although the tow ship made two 360 degree turns, with one glider in tow, the personnel could not locate other glider so the pilot proceeded home base after marking the approximate spot that the glider cut loose. The pilot of the tow ship figured at the time that the personnel of the remaining glider would know where the other glider landed. After landing the pilot reported the loss of the glider to Squadron Operations and Squadron Engineering. The time the glider was lost was 1200 hours.
Sylvan Lucier and his Co-pilot, Irving W. Krohn, were both experienced pilots. The report showed that Lucier had nearly 225 hours flying this type of glider (CG-4A, Hadrian) and Irving Krohn had 230. Sylvan had flown 13 ½ hours in that model in the last 90 days. That would have included flying without a co-pilot across the channel on September 18, to land under gun fire in Holland.
The mission that day was ferrying gliders from Greenham Common where they were assembled to Cottesmore where the Group had need of them, (Station 486 to 489) since losing so many in Holland. The accident and its cause is described in the report:
Crashed into field at a steep angle, evidentially out of control. After impact the glider went over on its back and the fuselage twisted so that the tail assembly was right side up. The glider struck slightly right wing low.
The glider piloted by F/O Lucier was on short rope, left side of a double tow and struck the wing of the other glider and tore about two square feet from the center of the right elevator. The glider cut loose from the tow craft.
All the above information is repeated in the description filed by the investigating board of Capt. Richard W. Etter, Major William E. Childers, and Major Bertie W. David. The only new information was that there was only one eye witness, a civilian, who stated that the glider fell to the ground at a steep angle out of control.
Responsibility for the accident and recommendations for action to prevent repetition were made:
The party or parties responsible for making up the long tow rope were grossly negligent as the long rope was found to be 44 feet short of the required length thus causing the gliders to overlap in flight. Both glider pilots used poor judgement when they failed to cut loose and land after realizing how dangerously close they were flying. Crew of crashed glider neglected to take parachutes that were available in tug aircraft thus nullifying any opportunity they may have had to bail out.
It is the belief of the investigating board that, if the causes listed in the above paragraph were corrected accidents of this nature would be eliminated.
Recommendations:
1. Glider pilots have been instructed to wear parachutes at all times except when carrying Airborne troops.
2. A thorough inspection is now being made of tow ropes to insure they are the specified length.
ONE OF 351 GLIDER PILOTS WHO DID NOT RETURN HOME FROM THE WAR
According to information in a Glider Pilot Roll of Honor contained in the web site www.pointvista.com, there were as many as 6,000 American Combat Glider Pilots. Of these, 211 died in combat, approximately 636 were wounded, and another 140 died in the line of duty, usually in glider training accidents. The combined casualty rate came to 16.4 % of the total number of pilots. Examining just those killed or injured in combat, it amounts to about 20%. This was considered very high by any standard.
AN EARLY TRAINING ACCIDENT
The accident that took Sylvan's life was not his first. The development of war time glider usage went on for some time in the U.S. and the number of stateside accidents as young men learned the techniques is not often chronicled. Overseas time between missions was also spent sharpening a pilot's skills. Landing one's load of men or equipment in whatever terrain required, under fire, in daylight or darkness, took a lot of practice. Charles L. Day writes the book about the manufacturer 's role in the development of the CG-4A glider: Silent Ones, WWII Invasion Glider Test and Experiment. It is published by the author.
In February 2008, while working at Maxwell Air Base Research Center, my husband found an index of glider accidents and putting in my uncle's name, found that a training accident was recorded in January, 1943, at the Army Air Force's Glider School at Dalhart, Texas. The pilots involved were, Sylvan R. Lucier and co-pilot, Ben Grobman. They were in the 880th Glider Training Squadron at Dalhart, Texas and were also together in the 49th Squadron in Africa. (Pictures of Sylvan, Ben and other glider pilot friends in the 880th were posted earlier on this site. )
Synopsis of the January 7, 1943, accident:
Glider: CG-4A
A.F. No: 42-61849
Pilot Charged: Sylvan R. Lucier, 338th BH & AB Squadron, of the 880
On January 7, Sylvan Lucier, at that time a Staff Sargent, was on a night time glider training mission with his friend and co-pilot Ben Grobman. He undershot the lighted landing area and made an unsuccessful landing. . The “Report of Aircraft Accident” says Lucier had eight hours experience flying this model and that within the last three months he had put in nearly 32 hours flying including almost eight hours in the dark of night. The landing gear broke on landing, causing damage to other parts of the aircraft; the left skid, the nose section, the jury strut and the left wing. The statement of responsibility says: The pilot stated that he undershot the lighted landing area and landed in a soft spot on the field causing left landing gear to give way. The aircraft accident officer finds that the accident was due to 100% pilot error by undershooting the designated landing area and making an unsuccessful landing.
KILLED IN THE LINE OF DUTY, WHILE FLYING DOUBLE TOW
In February, 2006, while searching the internet, I found an aviation archeology site in the United Kingdom. The staff gave me the names of individuals in Arizona who had reports of American glider/airplane crashes. For a small fee I was quickly sent the “Report of Aircraft Accident” for my uncle's glider accident which cost his life and that of his co-pilot, Iving Krohn, and a mechanic, Durwood Basham. Since then the details of that report have filled my mind and fueled my research.
Tiffield , a village of about 100 in 1944, is about 65 miles by road from Greenham Common Air Base from where the 20 gliders were being towed by 10 aircraft that day of October 13, 1944. The 316 Troop Carrier Group, to which Sylvan belonged, was based at Cottesmore, Rutland which is about 50 miles further North East from the crash scene. Greenham, Tiffield and Cottesmore are almost on a straight line with each other.
Sylvan R. Lucier, was flying double tow from Greenham Common to Cottesmore. His glider hit a field one half mile from Tiffield, Northants. All three occupants were killed in the CG-4A glider crash.
Burl B. Miner, a 2nd Lieutenant, was the pilot of the glider on the long tow. He too had a co-pilot and glider mechanic on board. His statement is as follows:
We were flying double tow at an altitude of approximately 1600. Flight Officer Lucier, S.R. was pilot of the Glider on the short rope and I was piloting the glider on the long rope. At approximately 1200 hours 3 minutes south of North Hampton we came very close together. The glider on the short rope started down rather suddenly, and in going down, his right elevator struck our left wing. The glider stayed on tow for approximately 30 seconds directly beneath us then he cut, and Lt. Ernst, (2nd Lt. William S. Ernst, Michigan) started looking for him. The tug ship made an immediate turn to the left, circled the area, and no one saw the glider, except Lt. Ernst who said he thought he saw it cracked up on the ground.
Edward S. Ash, 1st Lt. was the pilot of the Tow Plane. His statement regarding he accident:
The tow ship was at 1600 feet with the base of broken clouds at approximately 2500. The visibility wa four to six miles and there was moderate turbulence. The tow ship airspeed was 115 MPH as the pilot had just noticed the speed as he felt the plane lurch forward. The pilot immediately had the crew chief look out the dome to see how many gliders were on the tow. He reported that there was but one left so the pilot made a 360 degree turn so as to locate and report on the other glider. Although the tow ship made two 360 degree turns, with one glider in tow, the personnel could not locate other glider so the pilot proceeded home base after marking the approximate spot that the glider cut loose. The pilot of the tow ship figured at the time that the personnel of the remaining glider would know where the other glider landed. After landing the pilot reported the loss of the glider to Squadron Operations and Squadron Engineering. The time the glider was lost was 1200 hours.
Sylvan Lucier and his Co-pilot, Irving W. Krohn, were both experienced pilots. The report showed that Lucier had nearly 225 hours flying this type of glider (CG-4A, Hadrian) and Irving Krohn had 230. Sylvan had flown 13 ½ hours in that model in the last 90 days. That would have included flying without a co-pilot across the channel on September 18, to land under gun fire in Holland.
The mission that day was ferrying gliders from Greenham Common where they were assembled to Cottesmore where the Group had need of them, (Station 486 to 489) since losing so many in Holland. The accident and its cause is described in the report:
Crashed into field at a steep angle, evidentially out of control. After impact the glider went over on its back and the fuselage twisted so that the tail assembly was right side up. The glider struck slightly right wing low.
The glider piloted by F/O Lucier was on short rope, left side of a double tow and struck the wing of the other glider and tore about two square feet from the center of the right elevator. The glider cut loose from the tow craft.
All the above information is repeated in the description filed by the investigating board of Capt. Richard W. Etter, Major William E. Childers, and Major Bertie W. David. The only new information was that there was only one eye witness, a civilian, who stated that the glider fell to the ground at a steep angle out of control.
Responsibility for the accident and recommendations for action to prevent repetition were made:
The party or parties responsible for making up the long tow rope were grossly negligent as the long rope was found to be 44 feet short of the required length thus causing the gliders to overlap in flight. Both glider pilots used poor judgement when they failed to cut loose and land after realizing how dangerously close they were flying. Crew of crashed glider neglected to take parachutes that were available in tug aircraft thus nullifying any opportunity they may have had to bail out.
It is the belief of the investigating board that, if the causes listed in the above paragraph were corrected accidents of this nature would be eliminated.
Recommendations:
1. Glider pilots have been instructed to wear parachutes at all times except when carrying Airborne troops.
2. A thorough inspection is now being made of tow ropes to insure they are the specified length.
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