UNKNOWN AIRMAN

Evening Post, Volume CXXXVIII, Issue 55, 2 September 1944, Page 9

UNKNOWN AIRMAN

REMARKABLE TRIBUTE

(Special P.A. Correspondent.)

a,, + • lv. LONDON, August 31. An astonishing,tribute was paid to whn^SSTO N!^ Zealand airman who crashed in the sea off Roscoff, in JSt £ y> °?i July 19 ' and was buried near the village, states Peter Dufneld defied ? Ver ing Stand<*d." The people defied the Germans in order to pay him a tribute .R.N.Z.A.F. headquartSs has at present no information concerning a New Zealander killed in that locality on that date, but inquiries are oeing made. . "On July 19," say s Mr. Dufneld, "a bomber circled over Roscoff. Its nng w eSi, Were ion fire and Sreat plumes 2* black.smoke rushed from it. It bor| British markings, and the people S™i naU ?aw 11, crash the sea just off their rocky coast. They saw the Germans bring three airmen, two ahve and-one dead, from the plane { Pey learned that the Germans'were to bury the dead airman-a New Zean& er,~ a m} le from their town. The Catholic rector, Abbe Louis Bossennec intervened, and asked the Germans for Sf 10" to bury the airman in his churchyard. His request was refused A German military procession carried the body to the appointed burial place It was joined by a vast procession of French people. The entire two thoupeople of Roscoff formed a line behind the Nazis, and two thousand more came from nearby villages. More boi? v t hlindre^ - children carried ■_;:-"The. Germans, faced with so large and so devout a crowd* were in a Panic They spoke to the rector, and said he was to break up the procession, ■^d-that fee burial would take place as he desired next morning. The procession broke up on the rector's orders out the Germans double-crossed the people of Roscoff. Curfew time was 9 p.m. At 11 o'clock, when no civilian could stir beyond his house, they took tkebody of the airman and buried it. ~ The rector made his decision. On the following day he rang the church bells and everyone turned out. He formed the people into a procession, bade them bring flowers, and held a burial service of his own. The furious Germans summoned the rector. They questioned him, berated him, and. threatened him, but allowed him to go."

in the early days of the war, and had much to do with the evacuation from Dunkirk. Next he trained the Guards Division when that division turned over to being armoured. So he was in a sense finely prepared for El Alamein. •'■-.;_; USES NO NOTES. An example of his personal abounding energy was his refusal to be idle during a 40 minutes' aircraft flight this week. On the journey he wrote two memoranda and a letter to his wife. He begins work about" 7 a.m., but seldom plans the day ahead. He likes to keep it fluid. He dislikes paper-work and won't have long documents presented to I him._ He makes people keep them short. He has learnt much from Montgomery, both of strategy and tactics and otherwise. For example, he has Montgomery's ability to describe the battle on a sheet and a half of "notepaper, usmg no lengthy words, and can make a forthcoming battle sound simple and straightforward. Yet he realises and accepts that no battle goes quite as you expect. He is philosopher enough to expect that if the day of battle starts well, then by lunch time a thunderstorm or the blowing of a crucial bridge may darken tne outlook, but that similarity, the day starting ill may before nightfall begin to be triumphant. His great liking is to be out and about visiting his troops from a group of jpriyates to his corps commanders, and getting as far" forward as is reasonable. He has a gift for knowing the idiosyncrasies of his commanders, and who is a trifle' tired or a trifle new, or, for example, what characteristics are of West of England troops or of Dominion troops, who he likes and believes he understands. When the problem confronts him he thinks deeply, but once he has made up his mind it takes a lot to shift ,him or make him change. When briefing his commanders or war correspondents he uses no notes. Leese was born in Shropshire fortynine years ago and at heart is a countryman fond of country sports—especially fishing. He loves to spend hours looking at paintings. He u« married but has no children.