Remembering the crew of R5695-EMC and JACK SLATER

 BORN APRIL 1921

DIED NOVEMBER 22, 1942 ON A BOMBING MISSION TO GERMANY

HYDE, CHESHIRE, ENGLAND

21 YEARS OLD

Little information is known about Jack Slater. His parents were William Slater and Elizabeth Radcliffe. He had an older brother, Harry, and a sister, Joyce.

In a group service photo, Jack stands in the third row back and on the extreme right with his hands behind his back. He stands slightly apart from the other airmen. Jack Slater, an air gunner, perished young and without the opportunity to leave his mark on the world he helped save from Nazi terror. In his twenty-one years, Jack’s deeds and dedication to duty impacted the world in ways he would never have known.

Jack, like so many other young men and woman without descendants and large families, may be overlooked in the annals of time and the genealogical records in paper archives. It is fitting that now, eighty years after his sacrifice, and in the years to come, Jack be remembered by the family of man and citizens of free nations for his extreme sacrifice.

Remembering the crew of R5695EM-C and WILLIAM JOHN VANDERVOORT

 BORN APRIL 17, 1916

DIED NOVEMBER 22, 1942 ON A BOMBING MISSION TO GERMANY

VANCOUVER, BRITISH COLUMBIA, CANADA

26 YEARS OLD

William J. Vandervoort, was born on April 17, 1916, the youngest child of Emma and Ernest Vandervoort, in Vancouver, British Columbia. William and his siblings, Harold, Walter, and Margaret were raised at 2596 Cornwall Street, Vancouver where William attended nearby Kitsilano Secondary School from 1928 to 1934. He is memorialized in a plaque at the school. In 1935, after his secondary education, William was employed by Davidson & Company, where he was a floor trader on the Vancouver stock exchange. He played football with the Meralomas and the Knights of Columbus. On his application to the RCAF, he listed “Canadian Football, baseball, tennis, golf extensively – all others occasionally.” He also listed hunting, hiking, and skiing as his hobbies. In family photos, he appears handsome, athletic, and very fashionable.

William enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force on August 2,1940 and was promoted to Flight Sargent on July 1st, 1942. Later that month he was assigned to Squadron 207. He wrote home after the October 17th, 1942 Le Creusot Raid when, as bomb aimer, he was positioned in the nose of the aircraft. His father retold his son’s encounter to the local newspaper:

“Van” Vandervoort of Vancouver Breweries tells a good one about his son. “Van” was a pretty nifty pheasant shooter in his day but apparently his son has him beaten. The boy was in the “nose of a kite” (Lancaster) going over France and suddenly he was stunned by something hitting him on the chest. “I thought sure I was dead. It turned out to be a pheasant. We were doing more than 200 miles an hour at the time. It was splattered all over my compartment, the biggest piece being a leg. Boy, such a mess!”

Among his possessions listed were “skating boots with skates,” a New Testament, a diary, 2 packs of playing cards, 1 silk tie, 1 watch with broken glass, 2 pullovers and 30 socks.

Remembering the crew of R5695EM-C and EUGENE EDWARD CHOUINIERE

 BORN APRIL 11, 1923

DIED NOVEMBER 22, 1942 ON A BOMBING MISSION TO GERMANY

HALFMOON, SARATOGA COUNTY, NEW YORK and COHOES, ALBANY COUNTY, NEW YORK

19 YEARS OLD

Eugene E. Chouiniere was from a large Franco-American family in upstate New York. Eugene’s parents, Alfred Chouiniere and Rose Bonneau, married in Cohoes, New York in February 1895 and farmed in rural Waterford where Eugene was born on April 11th, 1923. He was the youngest of 13 children. When his father died, Eugene was 5 years old and 15 when his mother died. His older siblings, especially his oldest sister Rose, took responsibility for his welfare. In 1940, Eugene was living on Lansing Lane in Cohoes with Rose, her husband, and their two daughters, Elizabeth and Lea. Lea always remembered spending time with the companion of her teen years who was also her uncle. They hunted in the fields and fished in streams all summer long.

When Eugene attempted to join the US armed forces the recruiter told him to first finish high school and then reapply. Greatly disappointed, Eugene waited until a few days after his 18th birthday and “jumped on the train to Montreal” and enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force. The RCAF interviewer noted he was “rather young, immature and lacking in experience.” He was also “sincere, willing and determined to fly and fight” and “should improve with training.”

After his training in Canada and before he was sent to England, Eugene took leave to visit his siblings back in upstate New York. Handsome in his RCAF uniform, Eugene was showered with his family’s attention - many photographs were taken. This would be the last time the Chouiniere family saw their little brother. In England, after more training, Eugene became an air gunner flying missions in RAF Squadron 207 based at the Langar Airfield near Nottingham, England. After the July 31st, 1942, raid on Düsseldorf, Germany, Eugene was interviewed by several war correspondents. The story was published in The San Francisco Examiner on August 2nd with the headline “DÜSSELDORF RAID THRILLS U.S. FLYER”. Eugene was quoted: “It was one of the best shows I have ever seen. When we left there was one tremendous fire keeping high and visible from the Dutch coast.” Another correspondent described Eugene as “freckle-faced with steel- rimmed glasses and a mild manner.” He was really a small-town boy who took to the mission with dedication and purpose. Eugene completed 13 missions in 1942 while in the RAF Bomber Command.

Remembering the Crew of Lancaster R5695EM-C and WINDSOR FRANCIS RICHARD WEBB

BORN MARCH 26, 1924

DIED NOVEMBER 22, 1942 ON A BOMBING MISSION TO GERMANY

PETERBOROUGH, CAMBRIDGESHIRE, ENGLAND

18 YEARS OLD

                           

Windsor was born in Peterborough on 26^th of March 1924, the son of Leslie William Webb and Florence Lily neé Harrison, who married in 1921 in Peterborough. The Webb family had a long tradition of working on the railways, his grandfather being a station master in Cambridgeshire and his uncle, Cecil Francis Webb born 1899, a goods clerk. However, his father, born 1898, initially went into banking and later became involved in the management of his wife’s family advertising business. Based on family photos and the private schooling provided for Windsor, the family appears to have been well off for the 1930s and 1940s. His father served as a Special Constable in the police force during WWI, which may well have influenced Windsor’s choice of career in joining the Berkshire police force on leaving school. Any significant military connection came from his uncle, Cecil Francis Webb, who joined the Norfolk Regiment of the British army in 1914 when he was underage and served on the western front for the entire conflict. After WW1, in 1920, he joined the Black & Tans and fought in the Irish war of independence. He refused to discuss any details of either conflict for the rest of his life. In WW2 Cecil was too old to serve in the army and served as a Special Constable in the police force.

Windsor was educated privately by Katherine and Constance Back at their school in Lincoln Road, Peterborough before being admitted to The King’s School in 1933. At King’s, Windsor was in the Lion Patrol of the Scouts. On Speech Day in 1936 he received a School prize for Manual Work and Drawing. He left King’s in March 1937. After continuing his education at Stamford School, he joined the Berkshire Constabulary. At that time, the minimum age for admittance as a Police officer was nineteen. Windsor was younger and probably worked as a civilian clerk.

There are memorials to Windsor at The King’s School, Stamford School, and Berkshire Constabulary, as well as at Peterborough Cathedral.

Windsor’s cousin, Norman William Webb (born 1929), recalls the occasional visit to see Windsor and remembers that Windsor played the drums and had a drum kit in his bedroom. Norman was too young to serve in WW2 but did his National Service for 2 years as an RAF flight mechanic, commencing in 1947, initially working on Rolls Royce merlin engines that powered the Lancasters and Spitfires and later early jet engines.

Norman recalls the immense grief and sadness in the family at Windsor’s unexplained loss. Looking for some form of closure, the family discussed a theory that perhaps the Lancaster had been damaged and shot down by friendly fire when returning home, mistaken for a German bomber.

Windsor’s younger sister, Pamela, born in 1931, married William Pugh in 1951 and they had 3 children. Windsor had 2 aunts - Aunt Florence Nellie on the paternal side and Aunt Dorothy Harrison on his maternal.

Windsor joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in February 1942, service number 1320645 and trained as an air gunner. He was assigned to 207 Squadron in August 1942.

The Memorial Service marking the 80th Anniversary of the Loss of R5695EM-C at Langar Airfield, Nottingham

Standing on the airstrip at Langar Airfield on a bright afternoon was culmination of a twelve year quest that began when I met Lea.  Since that meeting and especially in the past 2 years,  Vandervoort, Parkyn, Chouiniere, Allan, Webb, Gallimore, Slater and Guichard family members, came together through snail mail letters, emails, a Facebook group, and blog posts to share stories and photos of the crew.

Then during the week of November 20th, we came together in person for the first time to remember the crew. Several American and English family members scheduled a 3 day tour with Classic Battlefield Tours to immerse ourselves in the history of RAF Bomber Command and Lancaster aircrafts.  We visited Runnymede Air Force Memorial, the International Bomber Command Centre and Memorial in Lincoln.  We stayed at The Petwood Hotel where RAF Dambusters located their operations center in WW2.

The location, the history, the aircraft and story sharing were all memorable and brought us the focus for the memorial on November 25th.  The service had many parts...

The indoor service in the control tower included a presentation of the Langar Airfield's history by Nigel Wood, a poem written and recited by Bill Webb that captured our thoughts and hearts, Psalm 23 reading, an address by Rev. Jonathan Stewart of 207 Squadron, and an  recitation of Oration by Pericles:

"But each one, man by man, has won imperishable praise, each has gained a glorious grave - not that sepulchre of each wherein they lie, but the living tomb of everlasting remembrance wherein their glory is enshrined, remembrance that will live on the lips, that will blossom in the deeds of their countryman the world over. For the whole world is the sepulchre of heroes; monuments may rise and tablets be set up to them in their own land, but on far -off shores there is an abiding memorial that no pen, no chisel has traced; it is graven not in stone or brass, but on the living hearts of humanity.  Take these men for your example.  Like them, remember that prosperity can only be for the free, that freedom is the sure possession of those alone who have the courage to defend it."  

Noted at the International Bomber Command Centre

Then we proceeded to walk to the Squadron 207 memorial along the rim of the airfield and where we  lovingly laid wreaths and poppy sticks to our crew.

After returning to the main building, Rev. Stewart presented each of the families with the bomber clasp.

Five Avro Lancasters and crews took off from Langar Airfield 80 years ago.  Three returned in the evening, two did not.  'C' for Charlie and its crew was 'lost without a trace' but on this day, we found them - Al, Jack, Jim, John, Windsor, Eugene, James and William and held them in our hearts.

It was twilight by then. 

Ali Webb and Kare Khoo from Webb Street Studios generously filmed and edited the memorial service at Langar.  Their  video is on Vimeo here.

Promise to Lea

It was just a macadam runway.  It was a gray foreground with a big clear blue sky and it stretched into the distant fields of Nottinghamshire. It wasn't in the best of shape but still serviceable for Skydive Langar and its parachuting enthusiasts. 

This wasn't just any airfield. It was Langar and eighty years ago, it serviced RAF Squadron 207 on its missions to bomb Germany and Nazi occupied territories. 

So on November 25th, 2022, I stood on that runway.  It was exactly eighty years to the hour and place where R5695EM-C took to the sky, never to return.  The eight crew members were lost without a trace and their graves unknown.  

I was keeping a promise to Lea.

In 2010, more than 12 years ago, I was given a mission by Lea Langlais who was residing in a Latham nursing home (in upstate New York) and who I was distantly related to.  Lea didn't want to speak to me about the topic I was seeking to hear about - growing up in Cohoes, New York speaking Quebecois French at home.  Instead, Lea spoke to me about her Uncle Eugene and how her family never learned what happened to him when he was on his last mission to bomb Haselunne, Germany.  She told me I needed to find out what happened to him and the crew.  She showed me photos.  She didn't have much time left.  I was working a full time job in a Bronx medical practice with little extra time for research. Yet... Lea was adamant.

Lea in 2010 - She would be 100 years old in September 2023

Unfortunately, Lea is no longer among us.  I cannot tell Lea, how, after visiting her, I blogged about Eugene Chouiniere and the crew, how I posted her photos of the crew, how a retired USMC pilot related to the pilot contacted me after reading my blog in 2012.  I cannot tell her how, during the height of the CoVID lockdown,  an independent historian in England emailed me after finding my blog to tell me they had information that might lead to the whereabouts of the aircraft. I cannot explain to Lea how it all led to a chain of events and to a memorial at Langar Air Field.

'Sorry, Lea.  I wished all the pieces of the puzzle came together before you passed in 2012'.

Lea's headstone in St. Joseph's French Canadian Cemetery,
Waterford, NY

Had Lea lived,  I could tell her what I now know.  I would tell her Eugene Edward Chouiniere, rests with his comrades on the bottom of the North Sea off Bergen ann Zee, Netherlands. I could tell Lea that Eugene was the mid upper air gunner and the aircraft and crew was incapacitated by the Luftwaffe in an air fight near the coastline. All eight crew members were never recovered.  Even today, they rest in their watery metal tomb in the North Sea.

I could tell Lea how her uncle is remembered at the Air Force Memorial at Runnymede and at the Air Bomber Command Center in Lincoln.

Entrance to the Air Force Memorial, Runnymede

At the entrance to the memorial

At the center of the Air Force Memorial

E E Chouiniere is the 17th name from top

And at the International Bomber Command Centre...

The Memorial Sculpture

Lincoln Cathedral - a landmark for the aviators

CHOUINIERE E E

And I could tell Lea more...

The week was an immersion on the aviation history of Air Bomber Command and WW2. We visited Battle of Britain Memorial Flight Centre, in Lincolnshire to understand the Lancaster aircraft and the duties of the crew.  The Lancaster looked like an armored tank with wings but unfortunately it was not as impregnable. Each air gunner was cold and vulnerable. This airworthy Lancaster in the photo below was undergoing winter service.

Eugene, as the Lancaster's mid air gunner was positioned in the top bubble,  suspended in a canvas swing..

mid upper bubble

In addition to Lea's Uncle Eugene there were the seven other crew members:

William Vandervoort, Vancouver BC Canada, was the bomb aimer

Alfred Parkyn, Palisades NJ USA, was the pilot

James Gallimore, Manchester England, was the flight engineer

James Louis Guichard, Dearborn Michigan USA, was the navigator

James McGregor Allan, Toronto Canada, was the wireless operator

Jack Slater,  Hyde England, the tail gunner

Windsor Webb, Peterborough England, mid lower air gunner,

Bomb aimer's bubble in the nose
The pilot's area above and behind

And the tail gunner

Later in the week, we viewed the preserved Lancaster in the Imperial War Museum, Duxford.

With more to follow soon.