Remembrance at Christmas

As Christmas draws near I find myself thinking about a terrible night on the 17th Dec 1943 when The RAF lost 100 planes due to the fog.  These casualties included two Special Duties Lysanders which crashed on returning to Tangmere.

One of these planes was diverted to Ford aerodrome where it crashed killing all 3 on board. These were: the pilot Stephen Hankey and two agents: Albert Berthaud (nom de guerre Kohan) and Jaques Tayar (nom de guerre Cazenanave).  Both men were highly decorated officers and both left a grieving widow and children.

The other plane crashed attempting to land at Tangmere. The pilot, a young man all the way from Trinidad, James McBride, was killed but miraculously his two passengers survived and showed great courage and dignity that night. They were taken to Bignor Manor and looked after with gentle kindness by Barbara Bertram.  They must have been horribly shocked and yet will have known they would quite probably be faced with the prospect of returning to France by the same means. 

That New Year Charles ‘Pick’ Pickard the celebrated Bomber Command pilot (star of the propaganda film ‘Target for Tonight’) and Special Duties pilot, gave a party at the Waldorf Hotel in London.   The mood was understandably sombre.  One of the guests was ‘Col. Rémy’, a leading figure of the French Resistance and a personal friend of the Pickards, who was deeply moved when at midnight instead of the usual rousing and rowdy welcoming of the New Year the orchestra struck up the ‘Marseillaise’ and the other guests stood and sang it with great feeling.