Remembering WWII 80th Anniversary of Naval Losses
Bidford Flying and Gliding Club members worked together to make 23rd October special at The National Memorial Arboretum, Arlewas. Colin Hickling is a caravan club member at Bidford and was Chairman of the Charybdis Association. This year he worked on arrangements for a service to be held at The National Memorial Arboretum at 12:00. There was also a service held in Guernsey on the Saturday 23rd September.
502 sailors lost their lives that day. Of the survivors, only 2 are now living, John Eskdale and Roger Roberts, both on their nineties. Many of the survivors had to wait for hours in the freezing water to be rescued, and for Roger and John those memories are still as fresh as ever as they were interviewed by ITN. "To bring people together to realise what the men did what they did in the war and it's unbelievable that you could live through a thing like that," Roger said. He continued: "In the water up to your neck, treading water for hours. And it was literally frozen in the water, cold water.”
John added: ""Gulping oil," Roger continued "Freezing water and you just couldn't do nothing, just treading water and wait for somebody to come and pick you up." John then said: "Ships come and go, but this one's not been forgotten."
John Eskdale and Roger Roberts at the Memorial Arboretum on 23td October 2023
Two other members of the club offered to fly a WWII aircraft that served in France and is owned by one of the club’s members, Lee Balthazor. To ensure that the flypast of the Piper L4J Cub was spot on in terms of timing, Lee asked Colin Hussell, another Bidford power aircraft pilot, to assist as navigator. The challenge was to arrive and fly over the memorial at 12:30 exactly.
There was a poignancy about the aircraft that Lee owned for this flypast. The Piper L4L Cub left for France on 29th March 1945. It one was used for liaison work, and bears its original insignia and marking (L1) for the 173rd Liaison Squadron, Ninth Air Force. It was used to ferry pilots and parts around. It finished with the US Air Force on 13 June 1947.
Lee purchased the Piper in 1995 and started a ground up restoration in 2011, which he completed in 2017. The few non L4 features are a modern radio, seats and safety features: 4 point seat harness and disc brakes. This link ITV’s coverage includes an interview with Colin Hickling and the sinking veteran, Roger Roberts, who has just learnt to swim at the age of 97 after being immersed on the oily, cold waters around Guernsey during the sinking. The other survivor, John Eskdale, was also at the memorial and can be seen in this clip.
As a tribute to the two survivors, Lee made 2 passes of the service, the first at 1,000 feet and the second at 500 feet included a “wing wiggle’, which aviators use to communicate to people, in this case a tribute to the two men still alive.
The service was shown on ITN Central News, which includes a brief view of Lee’s aircraft passing the service ITN Central News
Coverage of the memorial in Guernsey was also shown on ITV and BBC. This clip includes the BBC’s account or the 502 men, who died on 23rd October 80 years ago. Some of the attendees at the Memorial Arboretum were able to take some photos of the event.
