WARRANT OFFICER PERCIVAL GEORGE BROWN SERVICE NUMBER 611158
My Grandfather was posted to 458 Squadron during the early part of the Squadron's history, during the European bombing campaign in 1941.
My Grandfather was Sgt (later W/O) Percival George Brown, an Air Gunner on board 458 Squadron's first loss on 20th October 1941, when Wellington IV Z1218 FU-D failed to return. I have been researching this loss for some years, and I thought I would share what I have found, so that the newsletter readers may know a little more about the early history of the Squadron.
FU-D’s target was Antwerp docks, along with the majority of 458’s aircraft that night. At around 22:30 local time, the aircraft crashed into a meadow in the town of Mont-Sur-Marchienne, just outside of Charleroi. Pilot Officer DK Fawkes and Sgts PJM Hamilton (AUS), PG Crittenden (AUS), AY Condie and T Jackson and all died when the aircraft crashed. According to the casualty file at the National Archives in London, the crew was ordered to bale out, but seemingly only Sgt PG Brown was able to get out.
Mont-sur-Marchienne is some 95 km south of their target, Antwerp, suggesting the crew may have got lost during the sortie. Eye-witnesses saw the aircraft circling above the town, partially on fire. In a post-war questionnaire, Sgt PG Brown wrote that Sgt AY Condie, the wireless operator, was wounded by flak before they were ordered to jump.
Sgt PG Brown landed by parachute in the nearby town of Marcinelle. According to the Missing Research and Enquiry Unit (MREU) report, Sgt PG Brown was picked up by the resistance before being denounced by a local well-known collaborator. Sgt PG Brown was arrested on the 21st October and interrogated at Brussels before being sent to Dulag Luft for processing. Sgt PG Brown spent the remainder of the war in various Prisoner of War camps around Europe, culminating in the forced long march from Fallingbostel with the famous Sgt ‘Dixie’ Deans towards Lübeck. Sgt PG Brown was promoted to Warrant Officer around 1943.
For a while, 458 Sqn assumed that FU-D had at least made it to Rotterdam, the secondary target if Antwerp was inaccessible. Wg Cdr Mulholland reported that an aircraft was observed by another 458 Sqn aircraft to be engaged in intense Flak over Rotterdam. The observing aircraft had a similar take-off time to FU-D so this engaged aircraft was assumed to be FU-D. Unfortunately the truth was that FU-D was approximately 170 km south of Rotterdam, very likely as a result of being lost. Ultimately, the damage sustained from flak caused the aircraft to crash.
The co-pilot, Sgt PG Crittenden, is recognised as the first Australian to die in an RAAF Squadron serving under bomber command. The pilot Sgt PJM Hamilton was also Australian, but was serving in the RAF.
My Grandfather W/O PG Brown was liberated on the 4th May 1945 and repatriated to the UK not long after. He reunited with his Wife, my Grandmother, and they had two children after the war. Unfortunately my Grandfather died in 1978, some years before I was born.
I have checked the photo albums on the website, but I think that FU-D was lost too early into the Squadron’s formation for a photo to have been taken of the crew. Some years ago I met up with the nephew of Sgt PG Crittenden, and we laid a wreath at the graves of the crew in Charleroi.
I thought I would share this short account of a long forgotten part of 458’s history. Unfortunately, the crew of FU-D was lost so early that it never got to be part of history that 458 Sqn made for itself when it served fantastically in North Africa and Italy. However, by sharing this story, I hope your readers can remember the crew, especially those lost the night of the 20th October 1941.
Written by James Fitzmaurice, Grandson of WO P.G. Brown.