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.

80 years later, I am going to Langar Airfield

In July 2010 I met Lea Langlais for the very first time.  I wanted to record her story about growing up Franco-American in Cohoes, NY in the 1920s and 1930s.  Lea didn't want to talk about that on that day.  She wanted to tell me about her uncle, Eugene Edward Chouiniere who was a mere six months older than her.  She wanted me to find out what happen to Eugene and the other crew who disappeared without a trace. "Can you find out if there is any new information?" she asked me.  Since that day Lea's story about Eugene has haunted me.  Her family never learned what happened on November 25, 1942 when the aircraft, R5695EM-C, never returned to Langar Airfield in England.  

The last letter in Eugene's file from the RCAF to his family was dated 5 January 1952:

The letter informs Rosalie Chouiniere St.Hilaire that although her brother, Eugene, "has no known war grave", he will be remembered at Runnymeade and his name will appear there.  It was small consolation to the Chouiniere family and all the others who never learned where the earthly remains of the crew rest.

In the years since that meeting, I have researched and found family of the crew who also perished along with Eugene. When I write, call, email, or send a Facebook message to living family of the crew to tell them I am researching their lives and family, the response has been consistent.  They tell me that their father or mother, grandfather or grandmother always remembered their son, brother, or uncle who was a missing crew member, in the days and months before their own passing because they hoped for closure.  The families always wanted to learn about their son, brother or uncle who went missing without a trace.

Lea had a photo album she shared with me.  I quickly snapped the photos of the 5 airmen she kept in her album.  The images were of the 3 Americans- Al Parkyn, Jim Guichard, Eugene - and the 2 Canadians William Vandervoort and James McGregor Allen.  At that time I didn't understand the complete crew also included Windsor Webb, Jack Slater and Jim Gallimore - the English members.  I went home and blogged about Lea and Eugene Chouiniere - Lost Without A Trace.   In the months afterwards, I was contacted through the blog by two living family members of the Chouiniere and Parkyn family.  I kept their contact information but the story moved to the background of my busy life at the time.  Then in November 2020, I was contacted by The Field Detectives and Goadby-Marwood.  They were researching another aircraft in 207 squadron that crashed returning on the same mission in the same night. Thanks to these history lovers and independent archaeologists, the story of R5695EM-C was rekindled and the Parkyn and Chouiniere connections were reestablished.   Michael Parkyn, USMC Ret., has not allowed the flame of remembrance to be extinguished.  His research in UK and USA and his perseverance come to fruition.  He has consistently followed the story of his cousin/pilot Alfred Joseph Parkyn, the crew, the aircraft, and the mission, Michael has filled the void of 80 years by planning the memorial service to be held next week at Langar.  B. W. , from the family of crew member Windsor Francis Richard Webb, stepped up and generously contributed time and effort to ensure the service will dignify the crew of Avro Lancaster R5695EM-C.     

See you at Langar on November 25th, 2022 exactly 80 years after R5695EM-C was lost without a trace.  Thanks to Michael P. and B.W., the crew is no longer lost to us. We keep their memory.

Update on 'Lost Without A Trace' The crew of Avro Lancaster R5695EM-C on the night of November 25th, 1942

In 2010 I met Lea Langlais of Cohoes, NY who lovingly told me about her uncle and childhood playmate, Eugene Edward Chouiniere, who died while serving in the Royal Canadian Air Force during WW2.  Afterwards, I wrote about him and Lea's steadfast devotion to keeping his memory alive.   Lea died in 2012 but the memory of young Chouiniere and the other crew members of the Avro Lancaster R5695EM-C lives on.  Lea had photographs of five crew members which lead me to believe the aircraft had a crew of five.  I will never know why Lea had photos of the 3 Americans and 2 Canadians crew members but not the 3 English crew.  However, in the past year thanks to a dedicated group of people in England known as the "The Field Detectives" from the Goadby Marwood History Group, I have come to understand more about the aircraft and airmen of R5695EM-C.  The eight airmen were:

An effort is underway to find as many family members of the crew across North America and the UK as possible.  If you are a family member or a friend reading this post, please contact FrancoAmericanGravy@gmail.com or check our Facebook group, Families of Avro Lancaster R5695EM-C, and request to join the group.  A nephew of Alfred Parkyn, the pilot of R5695EM-C, and the team of 'The Field Detectives' are working tirelessly to organize a memorial service to mark the 80th anniversary of this tragic event.  It is an honor to bring families together to remember these men and the sacrifice they made during WW2.  In the following posts and coming weeks, I hope to share a little bit about each crew member with you, dear reader.  Meanwhile, family member and retired Unites States Marine Corp pilot, Michael Parkyn, is writing a history of the crew and aircraft that he hopes will be available in the anniversary year. 

James McGregor Allen,          1918-1942, 24 years old, Canada

Eugene Edward Chouiniere,   1923-1942, 19 years old, USA

John James Gallimore,            1916-1942, 26 years old, England

James Louis Guichard,            1904-1942, 38 years old, USA

Alfred Joseph Parkyn,             1915-1942, 27 years old, USA

Jack Slater,                              1921-1942, 21 years old, England

William John Vandervoort,     1916-1942, 26 years old, Canada

Windsor Francis R. Webb,      1924-1942, 18 years old, England

As I establish contact with the families of these men, it has greatly moved me to learn how parents and siblings struggled throughout their entire lives never knowing where their son, their brother and, for the wife of John James Gallimore, her husband, met death.  Their consolation was the knowledge these men gave their lives protecting England, the people living in England and in the parts of Europe overpowered by the Nazi war machine.  The crew of R5695EM-C, along with thousands of other airmen and women never recovered, are memorialized at The Air Forces Memorial Runnymede, in Surrey, England and in the Airmen Memorial Database here.