Martin Maryland Mk.II crash site

Colourised by Laiz Kuczynski

 

 

     This photograph was taken by George Rodger, No. 1 Section Army Film & Photographic Unit, of a soldier who is most likely his driver. Many times you may have seen this labeled as a photo of a British Grave and the wreckage of a British plane. At first look that is what it seems to be, but as you dig deeper into the photo another story emerges.

 

 

     What we actually have here is the grave of a 2nd Lieutenant of the South African Air Force in front of the wreckage of his Martin Maryland Mk.II. A translation of the German inscription does read "Here lies an unknown English Lieutenant who fell in aerial combat on 16.6.1941". We cannot fault the Germans who buried the crew of this aircraft as the markings of South African and British Aircraft are very similar. In the photo below we can see that there are actually three graves present.

 

 

     If we look at RAF Bomber Command Losses for  the day of 14 June 1941, as well as German records, only one loss matches this scene. 24 Squadron South African Air Force Martin Maryland Mk.II (No. 1609). Out of the crew of four, three were killed in action and one was captured by the Germans. The aircraft was shot down by Oberleutnant Ludwig Franzisket of 3./Jagdgeschwader 27 south east of Ain el Gazala at 5:06, just one minute after he shot down a Hurricane (No. V7818) from 1 Squadron South African Air Force which was escorting the Martin.

 

The crew of the lost Martin Maryland

 

Lieutenant E.C. Newborn - POW

 

2nd Lieutenant Charles Cornack Gordon (service No. 47930) - KIA

Air Sergeant Paul Wilhelm De Beer Bothma (service No. 102315) - KIA

Air Sergeant Reginald Ernest  Oatley Giles (service No. 102350) - KIA

 

The above men are now buried at Knightsbridge War Cemetery, Acroma, Libya

 

 

 

The Bf 109 E-4 (trop) of Oberleutnant Franzisket