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[Home] [Airfields of 103 Sqn] [Ouzouer le Doyen]

Herbouville la Bredache / Ouzouer le Doyen – Loir-et-Cher – France

Herbouville la Bredache was little more than a hamlet approx 2 miles north west of Ouzouer le Doyen surrounded by flat rolling farm land in all directions. There is another hamlet nearer Ouzouer le Doyen called Herbouville la Beauciere about a mile north west of Ouzouer le Doyen. The airfield was situated about 120 miles west of Rheges and 10 miles south of Chateaudun. It has proved impossible to identify the location of the airfield other than it was situated somewhere around those three villages along one of the country roads

103 Squadron moved to this new airfield on the 3 June 1940.

Herbouville, Ozouer-le-Doyen and Ozouer-le-Petit were the billeting area for the new base. Facilities were poor and scattered which did not help. The officers mess was set up in a disused school room. The airfield was dusty, unsown and incomplete and showed up like a mudflat in an area of extensive green cultivation. There were no trees or any sort of camouflage available. Sharing the airfield were 88 Squadron also with Battles. Most of the aircrews were billeted at  Ozouer-le-Doyen with the ground crews at Ozouer-le-Petit with the rest at Herbouville. Water was a problem and water bowsers had to be used but the piping from the pumps did not reach the water in the deep wells and so a labourious chain and bucket system had to be used to fill milk churns and then manhandle them to fill up the bowsers. The water was then chlorinated.

On the 4 June Sgt Brams and P/O Roberts flying a reconnaissance spotted German troops at a crossroads and attacked with bombs and machine guns.

Due to the bad state of the airfield it was decided to operate at night from an advanced landing ground at Echemines

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Echemines - Aube

Echemines is situated approx 120 miles east of Herbouville and 12 miles south west of Rheges and was used as a forward base for night operations by 103 Squadron for a few days while the Squadron were based at Herbouville. It seems probable that when the Squadron ground party withdrew from Rheges they took their flare path system, which worked off a Chance light generator mounted on a trailer and left it at Echemines as they passed through to enable them to have a forward base for night operations. The system was capable of being operated by a handful of men and consisted of an electrically controlled series of glim lamps wired through a rheostat and working off the generator. It was all very simple, worked very well and could be turned down or extinguished in seconds if enemy aircraft were in the vicinity.

F/O Vipan, who had sustained an eye injury or infection, went to Echemines to take charge of night operations and arrived on the 6 June. 6 Battles from Herbouville arrived that night.

Vipan

F/O Arthur Vipan

At that time 73 Squadron were based at Echemines. New Zealander Edgar Kain aka Cobber Kain the early WW2 fighter ace was serving with the Squadron. On 6 June, suffering nervous exhaustion and fatigue, Kain and another long-serving pilot of 73 Squadron received orders to return to England as soon as replacement pilots arrived. Four new pilots were posted to 73 Squadron the next day and Kain was free to return. In front of a group of his squadron comrades who gathered at the airfield to see him off he took off in his Hurricane to fly to Le Mans to collect his kit. Before he left he began to perform some low-level aerobatics. On the third of a series of flick rolls he misjudged his altitude and hit the ground heavily. He was thrown from the Hurricane's cockpit and died when he struck the ground some distance away from his crashed aircraft.

Kain

F/O Edgar Kain DFC

Kain was originally buried in Troyes Cemetery on 8 June but after the war, his remains were reinterred at the CWGC Choloy War Cemetery.

….......

On the 6 June German aircraft were heard in the vicinity of Ouzouer and 53 bombs were dropped in the area 23 of these fell on the airfield damaging two Battles beyond repair

On the 7 June 1940 Bf 109 fighters attacked Sgt Brams, who had taken off from Echemines at dawn on the way to the target. His gunner, P/O R Roberts returned fire but the Battle was badly damaged although they were able to complete their attack at low level. Sgt Brams force landed next to a road and he and his gunner were able to return to base. P/O Roberts claimed a Bf 109 destroyed. P/O Barratt was also attacked by 9 Bf 109s on a similar operation but evaded his attackers at low level.

Another notable incident took place on the 8 June 1940. Six Battles attacked enemy columns in the Poix area in daylight and during this operation P/O Thorougood observed 50 plus Ju 87 Stuka dive bombers attacking a village. He dived his aircraft right through the enemy formation and opened fire with his front gun claiming one Ju 87 destroyed. His gunner, P/O Webber on his first operation, claimed to have shot down a Bf 109 that came to the aid of the dive-bombers. P/O Thorougood was forced to crash-land his damaged aircraft near Paris. P/O Webber, who was seriously wounded three times in the attack, was immediately evacuated to England.

Sgt Beardsley and his crew, Sgt Avery and LAC Lewis were also shot down and taken prisoner. This was the third time in less than a month that Sgt Beardsley and his gunner, LAC Lewis, had been shot down. On the two previous occasions they had managed to return to the Squadron. LAC Lewis had recently been awarded a DFM.

 On the night of the 9/10 June S/L Lee and crew took off for a night operation during which the engine failed. The crew abandoned the aircraft and S/L Lee broke his right leg and was taken to Hospital at le Mans (Sarthe), France.

103-Squadron-Lee-H-G

S/L Harold G Lee AFC

On the 10 June 1940 three Battles made a morning attack on bridges and columns in the area of Vernon. P/O Thomas and his gunner Sgt Bligh were attacked by a French fighter and killed. The Battle flown by Sgt W R Crich was severely damaged by ground fire but he pressed home his attack at low level and managed to return to base where his aircraft was declared damaged beyond repair. He was immediately recommended for a DFM, which was later confirmed. On the same operation F/O D D A Kelly in the third Battle was mistakenly attacked by a friendly fighter on the outward journey but he was able to return to base in spite of damage to his aircraft. ]

Around 1515 hours on the 12 June 12 AASF Battles from 88 and 103 Squadrons attacked Le Manoir railway bridge, found to be under repair. It was hit and the working party was scattered.

The Squadron were ordered to withdraw on the 14 June 1940. At 06:30 the Squadron air party consisting of 16 Battles and 2 Magisters communications aircraft flew to Souge, Loir-et-Cher about 30 miles south east of Le Mans

From this time the Squadron's air and ground parties became separated and were not to make contact again whilst in France. The ground party endured a long and tortuous withdrawal to Nantes and then on to Brest to be evacuated to the UK on the SS Vienna several days later.

Compiled by David Fell with photos from my archive. Thanks to Ben Howson for his input  about Echemines which was particularly helpful

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