Sandra, I visited the National Archives at Kew on Thursday and photographed the station ORB (early Sept 1944) and the squadron ORB (May to Sept 1944). I’ve cleaned up the images (the squadron ORB’s on microfilm) and put them on a couple of discs which I’ve posted to Kevin. Thanks to Kevin for explaining how to find my way around the archives.

Rob,

Great thanks again for your efforts!

I look forward to receiving the copy that Kevin sent me recently.
The pieces of the puzzle join slowly, and it is thanks to you all!

Beyond borders and languages, I find this fantastic …

Hello everybody,

Hello Kevin,

It’s very interesting, because my grandfather told me that Dominique’s body had been repatriated some time after his death but he did not know why. .. This is an interesting track, thank you very much. I will contact them just after this message here and will keep you informed of the result.

The term “Ministère des Pensions” was totally unknown by me.

Tomorrow I will see my grandfather, who should bring me the documents he was able to collect concerning his brother Dominique: I will post as soon as possible on the forum.

Thank you again, Kevin,

and see you very soon,

Regards,
Sandra.

Tona,

Your post made me warm to the heart.

It is wonderful to see that some people on the forum have felt involved in the history of my great-uncle. When you write It has given me renewed vigor to finish tracing my late fathers service in the Polish Air Force. , it reminds me how much all the encouragements and the valuable investment of Kevin, have also given me this strength to move forward.

Thus, it is your father? If I understand correctly, he was a prisoner in a camp in Poland? What courage this man had to take to live this story and find strength in him to find freedom. If you have the opportunity, tell me a little about his history …

Thank also to you and good evening to you all,

Regards,

Sandra.

Kevin,

Thank you first of all to keep me informed as to the documents ORB … a little patience and a huge THANK YOU to your friend from the forum!

I’m sending you the PDF file as soon as I have written this. Indeed, it is very interesting, but there are still 43 pages! That is why I have not translated to the forum … But if you can do it, you will be interested without a doubt, it’s very well written, you will see.

Regarding the Air Historical Branch, this is a very good idea: as you wrote, it’s always good to try, that’s how I work too!

The copy of the plan for the basis of Elvington is very interesting too.

Thank you again for all your efforts.

Wishing you all an excellent end of day,

Cheers,

Sandra.

Hello everybody, hello Kevin,

Indeed you found my name and my story on some sites, I’m a fairly persistent, I would say!
Here’s another one:
http://aviation-ancienne.forumactif.com/1941-1945-combats-dans-le-ciel-d-europe-f69/recherches-sur-biaggi-groupe-guyenne-royal-air-force -43-45-t5626.htm . The users of this forum also helped me and informed. Moreover, they are nice!

Today, I received the email back from one of my messages, sent to the editor of Aero-Journal, France. It is from the editor, and his message attached two PDF files: the off-set number 1 and the off-set number 6. Very interesting … I took a look at the first one and there are, among other things, the details of the Groupes Lourds’s operations. Here is the passage describing the accident that cost Dominique BIAGGI’s life:

It’s still a mission of days in the same area:
nests of German resistance in Octeville, three
km north of Le Havre.
Sixteen Halifax Guyenne drop 87 tons of bombs,
and fourteen aircraft Tunisia, 77 tons. They are part
of the 171 aircraft that are attacking this target. The mission
is performed without problems.
At the time NA585/H7-M raised its wheels on the
Elvington track, the explosion: a bomb which was not released dropped to the shock of landing. The crew perished or burned killed except the Lieutenant-Colonel
Venot who was seriously burned. It is the commander
Puget who took command of Guyenne in
replacement of Lieutenant-Colonel Venot .
We already know the history but I wanted to write you thiese lines.

Here is an extract from the introduction by the person cited above:

The crews of the bombers are trapped, they
have no possibility of action, if not well
illusory maneuvers that they sometimes avoid
trajectory of shells for recontrer that of another,
fatal. They are alone with their destiny.
And up there, over the Ruhr, trapped in
beam headlamps, hunted by hunting at night,
framed by the bursting of flak shells, their
fate had to appear more than once uncertain.
Perhaps the history of these two groups
french bombing is not “exciting”, but
should one day tell you.
Because, beyond the confines of releases Bomber
Command, there were men – and these, it must
they are not forgotten.

Kevin, do you have any new documents that your friend from the forum could perhaps recover on Saturday in London?

Regarding your questions … I know that when the body of my great-uncle was repatriated to France, of course there was a ceremony in homage to the fighter. Ceremony reported with intense emotion by my grandfather, you can imagine. Since then, his grave stays in the Cemetery of Saint-Pierre, in Marseille, near our family. At my knowledge, the French government has no equivalent of the web pages of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission … But I will try to find out by myself. This website looks very well done, and it makes a beautiful tribute to all those victims of war …

It is a waiting period, as you wrote, Kevin, and it happens in research like mine, I guess. I will post when I know more.

Regards,

Sandra.

Kevin,

A few lines to quickly update you on this history of tombs.
I had my grandfather on the phone tonight, and he remembers that the English soldier had died in Saint-Pierre, but was buried in Mazargues in the nineth arrondissement of Marseille. What do you think about that? I asked him how it was when a family, whether French or English, took care of a tomb of a soldier overseas, and he said that this was some sort of volunteer families . What a beautiful thing … He has in his possession a photo sent by the English family at this time, a photo of the tomb of my great uncle before being rapatriated: as soon as I have it, I will scan and post on the forum.

Something else. I was talking tonight with a friend come eat with us, and we discussed this. He raised a question that might interest us. At this time, there were the Free French, who could be persuaded to go to Algeria, Morocco or Tunisia to organise and train to combat armed forces to fight the Nazi enemy, and the other soldiers from Pétain, already in place and not always in agreement with the first ones. So the question arises: which was part Dominique? I will soon have the definitive answer from the back of my letters, outlined in my previous message. All this is very interesting, and thanks to Kevin, we are moving at a good pace, bringing together, as you said, the pieces slowly …

Good night to all,

Regards,

Sandra.

First part…

Hello Kevin and all of you,

It now appears to be a quest not only historical but above all human, and it is exciting to talk with you about the conditions of the Occupation, and for me to learn so much.

Indeed, Kevin, you certainly understood the remaining doubt on this date in 1942 in London, stated on the website of the Free French Forces. I also left a message on this forum and I recently made the details expected in a future response from them, and I look forward to.
I also look forward to the return of my letters from the Service Historique de l’Armée, the BCAAM in Pau, the Department of Defense, the Archives of the Croix Rouge in Geneva, and more recently, the Archives of the Army of the Air, where I met a contact on a French forum. Many bottles thrown into the sea… All this may seem tedious, this research attempted on my side and yours, but I remain convinced that the truth is somewhere, and that the light is ready to appear. Kevin is certainly agree with me …

This sentence from Kevin, It is sobering for us here in Britain to think that as part of the Liberation of France that hundreds of the citizens of the city of Marseilles died during RAF bombing raids, and that Marseille was garrisoned by 11.000 or more German troops . Shows how much you have understood the heart of the problem.

My grandfather, for which I undertook it first, grew in these conditions, and Marseilles and its inhabitants have been strongly marked by the Nazi occupation. As often told me, he said he was unable to leave Marseille too long, too attached to the same painful but also attaching past … Moreover, Marseille is a cosmopolitan city with many nationalities from the peoples from the Mediterranean. And pain of war has been a kind of cement to the union of these cultures.

The history of the tomb of Dominica BIAGGI hit me when I heard the first time. And it is wonderful to see that this has also affected you… Indeed you had a very good idea about Harrogate. I assume that you contacted the local newspaper, is not it? Indeed, we must try everything … who knows? My grandfather once told me about the tomb of the English fighter in Marseille, but I can not remember the exact details of places … It seems to me that he remembered. I am almost sure that the tomb was in St. Pierre Cemetery, but when you mentioned Mazargues I had a big doubt. I will ask him tonight and post the answer as soon as possible. Kevin, how is it that you knew Mazargues in the nineth arrondissement? You have a track?

What a great quote that Kevin’s on Kemal Ataturk!

Dear Kevin, dear all,

I actually misunderstood. It is great that your friend from the forum can get this information, if time of course! It is certain that, as in France, the administrative services generally charge for their research, it seems that systematic … finally it is a pity. Your sentence I am realizing just how little I know and understand about the occupation of France and the ordeals that people endured. made me think a lot since yesterday … Indeed, the occupation and its consequences can only be understood by those who lived it. This is normal. Like me, I can only imagine the pain of a tragic death like that of Dominique, the steps to repatriate the body, the bombing of his hometown, those who collaborated with the Nazis, resistants … this is a heavy past still difficult to raise by the people concerned.

My grandfather often talked to me the day when their apartment was destroyed by an explosion nearby, and fortunately they have not suffered injury. Or the life of my great-uncle Emile BIAGGI in the labor camp near Dachau, a state of mind of a human being in such conditions of life, or rather survival. So much pain … It is also in this context that I began my research when I discovered that Dominique BIAGGI was part of the Royal Air Force, I first told my husband : “I did not know that the French and other nationalities had fought with the English, in the air, hand in hand”. I thought there was a French side, prisoners, soldiers, resistance fighters, collaborators, and the other Allies, while foolishly. But when I knew that the armed forces of all these countries were able to unite to organize heavy bombing attacks, I was stunned. A short story, as told by my grandfather after the death of Dominique BIAGGI, his body was based in your country. A family has been involved in the maintenance of his tomb, until it is repatriated to France! Similarly, parents of my grandfather had done the same with the tomb of an Englishman, who died near Marseille. I did not know this detail here.

There are so many poignant things to know about these times of war, lessons learned, the lessons of brotherhood. There is a different story back in my head. During those years, my grandmother, little girl, was given to a family near Toulouse in south-western France. There, she met a girl a little older, with which she had linked a beautiful friendship. Her parents sheltered Jews in their homes, and an English aviator, to protect them from the Nazis. What courage, as well as the courage of your people for sending fighters and support the nations occupied by the common enemy. Back in Marseille, later the war ended, and they lost contact. Life has run its course. Years later, around the 1990’s, she received a telephone call from the Mairie de Marseille: Martha, the friend, was searching her! They met, and since are inseparable … She was at my wedding, was there for the baptism of my daughter … So many years later, again! I am convinced, it is never too late! It is never too late to honor a family member died in combat, to know the truth, to help close the scars left by life.