An Apology
This is just a short post to apologise for not having updated this blog for so long and for those who have left comments – they have been passed onto the society. This long silence is due to the joys of marriage and house moving hitting the webmaster simultaneously.
More articles will be forthcoming, we have lots to share. Thanks to those who have read and enjoyed this, we’ll have more soon.
Finally, the society’s current website has been down since mid-2011 but we will have it running with the current programme and news as soon as possible.
Lost Over Hamburg
Sixty-seven years ago, the German port city of Hamburg was “reaping the whirlwind” as hundreds of Bomber Command aircraft launched a week-long series of bombing missions designed to neutralise the city. This operation, codenamed Gomorrah, created a horrific series of firestorms, as a freak heatwave combined with the bombings to incinerate the populace and the city. Thousands died, both civilians and aircrew, in one of the darker episodes of the bomber offensive.
The ruins of Hamburg following the July 1943 raids
One of those casualties was a Llanishen man, Donald Edward Croft, who had lived on Fidlas Road in the village. He was a Sergeant/Air Gunner in 97 Squadron, Royal Air Force, which at the time of Operation Gomorrah was based at RAF Bourn in Cambridgeshire. Sergeant Croft was the rear gunner on the Lancaster IIIs flown by his aircrew – one of the much-maligned “tail-end charlies”. In his freezing rear turret Sergeant Croft manned four .303-inch Browning machine-guns, the heaviest defensive armament on the Lancaster.
A Lancaster of 97 Squadron being "bombed up" at RAF Bourn, 1943
The aircrew that flew with Sergeant Croft were a varied bunch. The pilot was a Canadian – 27-year old Pilot Officer Clifford Shnier from Winnipeg, while two of the other crewmembers were Rhodesian. They had flown on several missions together before the Hamburg raids, including a long-range attack on the city of Turin in northern Italy, which was reported as successful. In total, before they took off on the fateful night of 29th/30th July 1943, they had flown seven raids for little over month.
On the 29th July Operation Gomorrah was coming to a close. 97 Squadron had been in the heart of the action and was to be called upon again. Sergeant Croft and his crew had rested up the previous night before rejoining the squadron. At around 10pm, they boarded Lancaster EE172, which was loaded with six target indicator flares (97 Squadron formed part of Bomber Command’s elite Pathfinder force) one 4,000lb bomb and three 1,000lb bombs. It took off at 10:45pm, and was never seen again. At some point during the mission, either before or after they had attacked the city, Lancaster EE172 was attacked by a German night-fighter and crashed near Wohnste, about 10 kilometres south-west of Hamburg. All the crew perished in the crash, including Sergeant Croft. He was 21. They now rest at Becklingen War Cemetery in Germany, which overlooks Luneburg Heath where the Western Allies finally signed the peace with Germany.
A Lancaster silhouetted above Hamburg, 1943
In Memoriam –
Crew of Lancaster EE172, KIA nr. Hamburg, 30/7/1943
PILOT:
Clifford Shnier, Pilot Officer, Royal Canadian Air Force
Winnipeg, Canada
Age 27
FLIGHT ENGINEER
Alfred Norman Gibbons, Sergeant, Royal Air Force
Bilston, Staffordshire
Age 23
NAVIGATOR:
Geoffrey John Homersham, Flying Officer/Navigator, Royal Air Force
Age and Home unknown – Rhodesian
BOMB AIMER
Paul de Villiers, Flying Officer, Royal Air Force
Age and Home unknown – Rhodesian
WIRELESS OPERATOR
Peter Charles Evans, Sergeant, Royal Air Force
Coventry
Age 22
MID-UPPER GUNNER
Benjamin Gabriel Knoesen, Pilot Officer/Air Gunner, Royal Air Force
Age and Home unknown – possibly Rhodesian.
REAR GUNNER
Donald Edward Croft, Sergeant, Royal Air Force
Llanishen, Cardiff
Age 21
-JK
Captain Harris and Mametz Wood
A little over 94 years ago, men of the 38th (Welsh) Division were locked in a desperate struggle amidst the ruined trees of Mametz Wood. Six days after the battle of the Somme had launched thousands of British troops into the meatgrinder, the Welsh Division had been brought out of reserve to push into Mametz Wood and clear the Germans still holding the area. Their first assault, on 7 July 1916, had failed with heavy casualties.
This was the division’s first test in battle. Most of its constituent formations had arrived in France earlier in 1916 and had spent the long spring training for the next “big push.” One of the units that made up the 38th Division was the 16th (Cardiff City) Battalion of the Welsh Regiment. It had been raised in late 1914 following Lloyd George’s call to form a “Welsh Army Corps”. A young Captain from Llanishen, Frank Gaskell, recently of 2nd Battalion the Welsh Regiment, was placed in command, and the year 1915 was spent training and recruiting men for this new battalion. In late November the 16th Welsh paraded through Cardiff on their way to the troop ships to France. It was the last time many of the men would see the city.
The battalion had, with most of the 38th Division, spent the early part of 1916 training, mainly around the village of Merville in France. It was during this time that the now-Lieutenant Colonel Gaskell was killed by a sniper while patrolling the battalion’s lines. Among the men who attended his funeral at the church in Merville on the 18th May was the adjutant, Captain Lyn Arthur Philip Harris, another Llanishen man, who lived on the same road in the village as Gaskell.
Merville Churchyard today, now a CWGC cemetery.
Captain Harris was with the battalion during the attacks on Mametz Wood on 7th July. On the 10th, the 38th Division was ordered to try again. At 4:00pm, following a covering barrage, the division advanced well into the wood before being held up by well-positioned German trenches. The attack halted for the night, during which time the division’s 115th Brigade, which included the 16th Welsh, was brought forward from reserve to relieve the battered front-line battalions.
A group of Welsh officers in conference prior to the 11th July attacks - the man on the left looks very like Captain LAP Harris, 16th Welsh
The 115th Brigade took fire while advancing to it’s starting positions, and then had to wait until 3:00 for the fresh attack. 15 minutes prior to the start of the attack, British artillery provided a preliminary barrage. Unfortunately, several shells fell short on the assault troops, and the Germans quickly responded with heavy counter-battery fire on the Brigade’s position in the wood. It was during this exchange of artillery fire that Captain Harris was mortally wounded. Carried back from the front-line to an aid station, he handed his wedding ring to the 16th Welsh’s commanding officer to give to his wife. They had been married for just six months – he had probably spent very little time with her. Captain Harris died of his wounds later that day. He was just 23. He is buried in Dantzig Alley Cemetery on the Somme, along with many men who fell in that brutal battle.
-JK
A Real Hero
For the next couple of weeks we will be indundated with news from the World Cup in South Africa. Men who’s only quality seems to be the ability to kick a rubber ball into a string net will be hailed as heroes, their deeds heralded around the world. This is something that irks a non-football fan like me. Footballers are not heroes, they’re just good atheletes, if that’s your sort of thing.
For this month’s post on the War Memorial Project I want to highlight a real hero. He is on a war memorial in a British church, and he isn’t even British. Edouard Nihoul was born in 1895 in Waremme in eastern Belgian, a short hop away from the area which, a little under fifty years later, would be the scene of some of the fiercest fighting during the Battle of the Bulge. He arrived in Cardiff with his parents following the German invasion of Belgium in August 1914 and moved to the quiet village of Llanishen. However, young Edouard evidently did not intend to remain a passive refugee. That November, having gone to London, he enlisted in the Belgian Army and began training to go to war.
Two years later, in June 1916, Edouard was an Adjutant in the 7th Regiment of the Line, 2nd Belgian Division. This Division was operating near Oostvleteren in Flanders, and was the scene of heavy fighting. On the 30th June, the 7th Regiment’s position came under heavy German bombardment. Edouard spotted a comarde lying grievously wounded, and rushed to his aid. As he struggled to help him, both men were caught in the bombardment and killed.
Initially, Edouard was buried in Oostvleteren, but once the war was over and Belgium was liberated, his body was reinterred in his hometown. Unlike the footballers who will recieve all the attention over the next few weeks, young Edouard was a true hero. Paid a pittance for a job he did not want, he went to fight despite the fact that he could have remained safely in Britain, and died trying to help a comrade and liberate his country. Never forget him, nor those like him.
-JK
*Photo from Great War Primary Document Archive: Photos of the Great War
Introduction
At the beginning of the year Llanishen Local History Society started work on a project designed to uncover the service histories of the men from the village who fought and fell in the Two World Wars, as well as the brief “American invasion” of the village prior to D-Day. This had come about because a member had found a war grave in St Isan’s church in the village of which they were unaware. Although this was a Second World War casualty, we’ve begun by focusing on the Great War casualties that are commemorated on the two memorial plaques within the church – the bronze one inside the church itself is shown in the photo below:
This plaque records the names of 20 men, the majority of them officers. Over the coming months, we will be posting details of these men on or around the time they were killed in action, as well as any further discoveries we make. Interestingly, the plaque in the church hall has another two names not recorded on this memorial. We also believe there are men who were killed in WW1 who were not recorded at all!
Within the church there are also memorials to individuals and groups of men who fell in both World Wars, and in the churchyard outside there are several war graves, some of them being CWGC headstones. The casualty shown in the photograph below, Pilot Officer Thomas Spencer Lewis of 79 Squadron Royal Air Force, was one of the village’s first casualties. P/Off Lewis was killed in action while on patrol in his Hawker Hurricane over the South Coast of England on 2nd January 1940. When his coffin arrived at the village station, it was escorted down to the church for the funeral by RAF personnel and an RAF band.
We hope we can honour these men, and those who returned from the wars, by recording their stories for future generations of Llanishen residents.
On this blog we will be posting our discoveries and information about the men themselves. If anyone is interested in learning more about the project or has anything that would be of interest, please leave us a comment.
-JK
Llanishen's Fallen 
