P/O Claude “Joe” Hart RAFVR & crew - 576 Sqn - RAF Elsham Wolds - 1944.
Failed to Return - 12/13th July 1944 - Avro Lancaster III - ND859 - Op Revigny
Claude Hart was born in Grantham, Lincolnshire on December 1922. He joined Grantham based Aveling Barford as an apprentice fitter, leaving to join the RAF in 1942. He began his training with the Royal Canadian Air Force in Goderich, Ontario in November 1942, flying Tiger Moths, moving onto Claresholme, Alberta, where he flew Ansons until 1943.
On his return to England, he spent time at various RAF stations including Fraserburgh, Lindholme and Helmswell. He was posted to Elsham Wolds on 27th May 1944 to join 576 Squadron, as a Pilot Officer on Lancaster aircraft. He and his crew completed 14 successful missions in ND589 (also known as Love Twice or Love Squared) before he was killed in action on the night of 12/13th July 1944 during a bombing raid on Revigny, France. The mission was one of three raids to Revigny in July 1944, forty-one Lancasters were lost in what appears to have been some degree of chaos and confusion.
Revigny was situated on the French railway line that ran to Strasbourg, this line was crossed, close to Revigny by a major North-South line. This meant that the area was strategically important to the Germans who used the lines for transportation of freight. The RAF raids were aimed at the Revigny railway junction and marshalling yards, however, weather conditions and German defence meant that the operation was carried out at great cost.
The raid was agreed at the Bomber Command Meeting 38 on July 8th 1944. A raid to Nantes was ‘scrubbed’ and the target changed to the marshalling yards at Revigny, Bomber Harris assuring Supreme HQ of a successful outcome.
Poor weather meant that the raid was cancelled four times before it finally went ahead on the fateful day Wednesday 12th July. In addition to 107 Lancasters that 1 Group was to provide for the Revigny raid, a further 114 Lancasters were assigned for a raid on the marshalling yards at Tours. The 1 Group raid was combined with a 5 Group attack on the Culmont and Chalindrey marshalling yards (approx 60 miles south of Revigny).
Revigny was a night raid. Successful British diversion tactics drew German fighters North and it was almost 1am before the British bombers came under attack from Germans Bf110s. In response to the shift of British bombing targets from Germany to the ‘transportation targets’ in France, the Germans had already relocated their night-fighter units accordingly. This included an experienced unit based at St Dizier, a mere 15 miles from the Revigny target. Within a short time night fighters had been dispatched from St Dizier and other German fighters who had been pulled North turned back. 1 Group Lancasters were now close to Revigny and 5 Group to Chalmont, however, not only were enemy fighters closing in, so also was the weather. Poor visibility and the failure of the H2S set of the Master Bomber, meant that following some 15 minutes of target searching, when his VHF radio also failed, it marked onset of disaster.
The main force crews were circling ahead at an assembly point illuminated for friend and foe alike by flares dropped by the Special Duties Flight and waiting for the command to commence bombing. Some of the crews heard a command to turn back and go home from the Deputy Master Bomber. The command was obeyed by some 50 of the crews, however, many of the crews either did not hear the command or were unconvinced by its Deputy MB source and went ahead and carried out their attack from all directions with very limited success. A second command to abort the mission was sent out at 2am. A combination of crashes and planes shot down at the start of their homeward journey brought the total losses to 9 Lancasters and 51 men.
Pilot Officer Hart and his crew of ND859 were the final and tenth loss of this fateful night, later found to be recorded on German captured documents as crashing at exactly 2am. It appears his plane had strayed south and wandered into the path of planes on their return from the Chalmont raid. ND859 was thought to have struck another Lancaster, LM638, at some stage but this appears to be unconfirmed. It now seems that ND859 was a night fighter victim and may have collided with LM638 during the combat. The crew of LM638 baled out and all survived. Members of this crew certainly reported a collision with another Lancaster in the same area at that time.
Peter Keeler describes the final moments thus;
‘As I recall it everything went relatively well until we got near the target where a big cloud formation sat over the whole target area down to about 2000ft. The whole bunch of Lancs were circling around loosing height over the target to try to get below the cloud. No word from the Master Bomber. During this descent we witnessed a collision of two Lancs which blew up over the target. We got under the clouds but still no word from the Master Bomber, a lot of angry chatter from different crews, then we heard the word to break off the attack which we did with our bombs on board still. We then flew directly over St Dizierand and I could see the JU88s taking off on the runway which was all lit up. Not long after this I saw one Lanc being shot down on our port side and astern. I was just talking to Joe about this when I saw a tracer coming our way and I shouted to Joe to corkscrew. I fired but we got hit up front and the starboard wing and intercom went U.S. I suppose the petrol tanks were badly on fire. At this point I went up to the mid upper turret to see if Cliff Glenny knew what happened. He had a job to get out of his turret, I said what about the blokes up front and he said they were done for we have to jump out the back’
Pilot Officer Hart and the four crewmen in the front of the plane were killed as the plane crashed in a field, close to a wood, about a mile from Giey-Sur-Aujon. Sgts Glenny and Keeler survived and for a short time evaded capture. A local school teacher, Max Duville, in a brave deed that cost him his life, gave the Germans false information about the crash to throw them off the scent of the survivors. The Germans returned the following day and shot Duville for his ‘betrayal’.
The dead airmen were buried by the villagers in the village cemetery where their grave is maintained by The Commonwealth War Graves Commission. The two gunners, Sgt Glenny and Sgt Keeler were captured and imprisoned until the end of the war. Clifford Glenny died in 1999 in Durham, Canada. Peter Keeler is now enjoying retirement in Australia, following twenty five years he also spent in Canada.
The remains of one of the Lancaster’s propellers stand in front of a memorial erected at the site of the crash (about a mile outside the village) with the following inscription:
Homage aux aviateurs de la RAF tombes ici le
13-7-1944.
A la memorie de Max Duville, Instituteur, tue par les Allemands le 14-7-1944.
The crew on this final operation were;
Sgt WH Greig Flight Engineer
Sgt C L Jones Air Bomber
Sgt J F McHugh Navigator
Sgt E Mitchell Wireless Operator
Sgt CJ Glenny RCAF Mid Upper Gunner
Sgt PH Keeler Rear Air Gunner
Initially in August 1944 P/O Hart was reported to have been alive and well via the then, secret sources of the French Underground. It was almost a year later when it became apparent that the names of all seven airmen had been passed on to the F.F.I. as having survived. When Sgt.Keeler was later captured, he gave a list of the full crew to the Germans, having been led to believe by contacts with F.F.I. that all had survived. Keeler had baled out and landed some distance from the plane and in reality had no knowledge of who had survived as the extract from his letter illustrates.
The following is an extract from a letter sent by Sgt Keeler to P/O Hart’s mother on June 4th 1945;
.......‘I am sorry I cannot give you any real news of Claude, as unfortunately in the first part of the attack the intercom was put out of action and so I know nothing about the five boys in the front of the plane. The only person I saw was Glenny who jumped out after me, but I know Glenny was told to jump by one of the five in the front of the aircraft. When I jumped out the wing and 2 engines were on fire. As my parachute opened it knocked me out so I never saw where the plane crashed, but I worked out where it should have crashed and the Underground French told me that there were about eleven lads down safely in the district.’............
All the crew of LM638 survived which accounts for the report of eleven survivors, and explains perhaps, why all the airmen had initially been recorded as survivors. The death and subsequent burial of the five killed perhaps having been carried out with speed and in secrecy to aid the escape of the survivors slipping through the war time communication net.
Initially P/O Hart’s family were advised on August 28th 1944, that he was alive and well. It was July 1945, over a year later, before they received notification in two Air Ministry letters explaining the course of events in detail and that he had in fact died in the preceding year and had been buried in France. Sgt Keeler later obtained a letter from a Frenchman who had assisted him, that confirmed the information from the Air Ministry’s Paris Section that the remains of five men had been buried in the parish cemetery of Giey-Sur-Aujon.
P/O Claude Hart RAFVR – Pilot – 576 Sqn – Giey-Sur-Ajuon Churchyard, France
Sgt Walter Henry Mills Grieg RAFVR – Flight Engineer – 22 – 576 Sqn - Son of Walter H. M. Greig and Mary E. Greig, of Langholm, Dumfriesshire - Giey-Sur-Ajuon Churchyard, France.
Sgt Clifford Leighton Jones RAFVR – Air Bomber – 21 – 576 Sqn - Son of David E. Jones and Deborah Jones, of Mossley Hill, Liverpool - Giey-Sur-Ajuon Churchyard, France.
Sgt Edward Mitchell RAFVR – Wireless Operator – 21 – 576 Sqn - Son of Thomas and Ellen Mitchell, of Widnes, Lancashire - Giey-Sur-Ajuon Churchyard, France.
Sgt John Francis McHugh RAFVR – Navigator – 576 Sqn - Giey-Sur-Ajuon Churchyard, France.
Sgt Clifford J Glenny RCAF – Air Gunner – 576 Sqn – POW - Camp L3 - POW No 15185
Sgt Peter H Keeler RAAF – Air Gunner – 576 Sqn – POW - Camp L7 - POW No 745
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From November 1943 until March 1944 the total number of Lancaster and Halifax crews lost exceeded 1,100. The Revigny raids added a further 41 Lancasters to this total. Pilot Officer Hart and his crew in Lancaster III ND 859 - Love Twice- became one of these statistics.
‘The Revigny raids certainly played a small part in the successful removal from France, of the German Army, and hence in its ultimate defeat, but it is impossible to say by how much the war was shortened as a result. In reality, they can have made little difference.
Revigny was just another place, another time for dying.’
Oliver Clutton-Brock
Massacre over the Marne.1994
Jane Jones 2001.
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12 July 44 – Revigny – France – Railway Yards – Night. 19 crews detailed. Outward 6/10ths cloud increasing to 10/10ths at south coast. Same to target which was 4/10ths. 10/10ths cloud home bound to base. Cloud very low on return and all crews diverted.
Marking carried out by Special Duties Flight. Assembly point markers were 8 minutes late and illuminating flares dropped in the target area. No red spot fires were seen and crews were eventually ordered to return to base with their bombs. Some crews attempted visual bombing.
Little flak but P/O Mann's aircraft severely damaged and he had to land away from base. Several aircraft were shot down in the target area and on the route but the cause was not evident. P/O Hart and crew failed to return.
3 cross country flights and 3 bombing details were carried out.
( 378 aircraft attacked railway yards at Culmont, Revigny and Tours. Attack aborted because of cloud cover over target )
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Above - Hart crew memorial at Giey-Sur-Aujon. Also commemorated on this Memorial is a local teacher, Max Duville, who was murdered by the Germans in the aftermath of this incident. A valiant French patriot who died for freedom from German tyranny.
Above - The Hart crew grave at Giey-Sur-Aujon
Item compiled by David Fell. Thanks to Jane Jones for the article and crew photos and Benoit Howson for the memorial and grave photos.
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