Bernard Farndale

18 November 1912 to 30 August 1944

The Loftus 2 Line

 

 

 

 

 

 

FAR00783

 

 

RAF Sergeant who was killed in action over Denmark, 30 Aug 1944 

  

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General Sir Martin Farndale KCB

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Headlines of Bernard Farndale’s life are in brown.

Dates are in red.

Hyperlinks to other pages are in dark blue.

References and citations are in turquoise.

Context and local history are in purple.

Geographical context is in green.

 

 

Bernard’s story is now told in his webpage in the Farndale Story. This page provides a chronological record, with research notes.

 

Liverton

 

1912

Bernard Farndale, son of Arthur Edwin and Mary Ann  (nee Burns)  Farndale (FAR00532), was born at Liverton on 18 November 1912 (1939 Register, BR, Letter) His birth was registered in Middlesborough District in 1912 (GRO Vol 9D Page 1069).

Middlesbrough

 

1921

 

1921 Census - Middlesborough

 

Arthur Edwin Farndale, 46, railway clerk with the North Eastern Railway Company at Middlesbrough

Mary Annie Farndale, 50

George William Farndale, 24, single, a shipping clerk with George Alder Limited at Middlesbrough

Arthur Edwin Burns Farndale, 19, single, a shipping clerk with George Alder Limited at Middlesbrough

Alfred Farndale, an engine cleaner with the North Eastern Railway Company at Middlesbrough

Dorothy Farndale, 11

Bernard Farndale, 9

Albert Farndale, 6

 

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Bernard and his family (kindly sent to me by his granddaughter, Nicola)

 

If this was taken in about 1917, this might be George William Farndale, Dorothy Farndale and Arthur Edwin Farndale in the back row and Alfred Farndale, Albert Farndale and Bernard Farndale in the front row.

 

1933

Bernard Farndale married Glenys Muriel Picton Swales (Chemist’s assistant, 1913 to 2002) in 1932 at Merthyr Tydfil.

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Merthyr Tydfil

 

1934

Brian Picton Farndale (FAR00931) was born on 28 March 1934.

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Young Brian, with his parents, Bernard and Glenys

A group of people standing in a yard

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Bernard in the middle, taken at the family house at Ingels Dean, Robin Hood’s Bay

Bristol

 

1939

1939 Register – 19 Charis Avenue, Bristol

Bernard Farndale, born 18 November 1912, spot assembler aircraft

Muriel GP Farndale (later remarried Jenkins), born 10 July 1913.

1944

 

Over Denmark

1824896 Sergeant Bernard Farndale, 115th Squadron RAF, went missing believed killed in action over Denmark, on 30 August 1944.

On the night before 30 August 1944 nearly 600 RAF bombers flew over Denmark on bombing raids to Königsberg and Stettin. Particularly the planes for Stettin were attacked by German night fighters, when they were passing the northern part of Jutland and the Kattegat. LAN ME718 was hit and flew for a moment through the air before it crashed like a burning torch at Oue (about 400 m west of Rinddalsvej in Denmark). All of the bomb load exploded on impact. All of the crew were killed.

ME718 was attacked by a German night fighter and caught fire. At approx. 00:10 hours it crashed near Ove northeast of Hobro killing all onboard. The bomb load exploded when the Lancaster hit the ground spreading wreckage and human remains over a wide area. The Germans did not want to collect the human parts and left them in the field.

The locals were appalled by this behaviour and collected the remains in wickerwork baskets. The Wehrmacht ordered the Danes to hand the baskets over, and these were thrown in the crater at the crash site and covered. When the Germans had left the area, the locals together with members of the Civil Air Defence opened the crater and placed the remains in a coffin which was driven to Ove church.

On 4/9 1944 the flyers were laid to rest in Ove cemetery unknown to the Wehrmacht, Vicar A. Bundgård officiating at the graveside ceremony.

The crew was: Pilot F/Lt Edward Chatterton RCAF, Flt. Engr. Sgt Bernard Farndale, Air bomber Anthony Michael Kovacich RCAF, Navigator P/O William George Sankey, W/Op Sgt Leslie Taylor, Air Gnr. P/O John Couzens Reeb, Air Gnr. Sgt Donald Bullock.

The German Wehrmacht took no steps to bury the mortal remains of the 7 airmen in a decent manner. This caused heart felt disagreements between the Danish bomb expert, other Danes and the Germans. Later a coffin was procured. It was secretly brought to the chapel of rest by the civil defence. On 4 November, 1944 the vicar A. Bundgård carried out the funeral. The coffin was decorated with flowers, but there were only a few mourners. Apparently the German Wehrmacht knew nothing of this funeral. (Source: FAF)

As the German did not want to pick up the many parts of bodies of the airmen, Danes picked them up into baskets. The Wehrmacht ordered the Danes to hand over the baskets which then were buried at the crash site. Danes later disinterred the bodies when the Germans had left the area, procured a coffin and took it to the chapel of rest at Oue Churchyard. (Source: Hjemmeværnets Historiske Samling i Himmerland about this plane and its crew.)

One of those killed was Sergeant (Flight Engineer) Bernard Farndale, 25, was the son of Arthur Edwin and Mary Annie Farndale, of Robin Hood's Bay, Yorkshire, United Kingdom. (Source: CWGC)

"I know that my redeemer liveth"

He is remembered on The Walls of Names at the International Bomber Command Centre, Ph 2, P 162.

See monument to the 7 airmen from LAN ME718 in Oue Churchyard. See parts of the plane found 2008:

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The biggest parts of the plane were taken away very soon, but John Sørensen and Torben Juhl, Oue in 2008 found these and other parts at the crash site.

Lancaster I ME718 - Oue at Hadsund 

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Airman Surname         Init       Rank            Service            Sqdn   P_link            Plane  Operation            Crash_site      Crash_d Buried_d         C_link  At_Next

a072001.htm  Bullock D         Sgt            RAF     115      p368.htm            LAN ME718    Bomb G            Oue at Hadsund            d300844          b040944            c072.htm         Ove or Oue

a072002.htm  Chatterton       E            F/Lt      RCAF  115            p368.htm         LAN ME718            Bomb G           Oue at Hadsund         d300844            b040944          c072.htm            Ove or Oue

a072003.htm  Farndale         B            Sgt      RAF     115            p368.htm         LAN ME718            Bomb G           Oue at Hadsund         d300844            b040944          c072.htm            Ove or Oue

a072004.htm  Kovacich         A M            F/O      RCAF  115            p368.htm         LAN ME718            Bomb G           Oue at Hadsund         d300844            b040944          c072.htm            Ove or Oue

a072005.htm  Reeb   J C       P/O            RCAF  115      p368.htm            LAN ME718    Bomb G            Oue at Hadsund            d300844          b040944            c072.htm         Ove or Oue

a072006.htm  Sankey            W G            P/O      RAF     115            p368.htm         LAN ME718            Bomb G           Oue at Hadsund         d300844            b040944          c072.htm            Ove or Oue

a072007.htm  Taylor  L          Sgt            RAF     115      p368.htm            LAN ME718    Bomb G            Oue at Hadsund            d300844          b040944            c072.htm         Ove or Oue

The Lancaster took off from RAF Witchford at 2114 hrs on 29 August 1944.

DC/Letter - https://wartimememoriesproject.com/ww2/view.php?uid=236240

Sgt Bernard Farndale. Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve 115 Squadron. From: Robin Hood’s Bay, Yorkshire. Died 30 August 1944. Sergeant (Flight Engineer) Bernard Farndale was the son of Arthur Edwin and Mary Annie Farndale of Robin Hood’s Bay, Yorkshire. He was aged 25 when he died and is buried at Ove Churchyard in Denmark.

No. 115 Squadron RAF is a Royal Air Force squadron operating the Grob Tutor, training QFIs for the RAF's Elementary Flying Training (EFT) squadrons and the University Air Squadrons, as well as undertaking evaluation and standardisation duties.

115 Squadron was formed during World War I. It was then equipped with Handley Page O/400 heavy bombers. During World War II the squadron served as a bomber squadron and after the war it flew in a similar role till 1958, when it was engaged as a radio calibration unit. The squadron disbanded for the last time as an operational unit in 1993, but reformed in 2008 at RAF Cranwell as 115(R) Squadron, part of 22 Group, operating the Grob Tutor before moving to their present base

In the Second World War the squadron took part in scores of raids and also played an active part in Gardening (minelaying) for victory. In April 1940, while flying Wellingtons (and while on temporary loan to RAF Coastal Command) it gained the distinction of making the RAF's first bombing raid of the war on a mainland target-the enemy-held Norwegian airfield of Stavanger Airport, Sola. Sixteen months later, in August 1941, it undertook the initial Service trials of Gee, the first of the great radar navigational and bombing aids. As a result of its subsequent report on these trials Gee was put into large-scale production for RAF Bomber Command.

The memoirs of Sydney Percival Smith, a Royal Canadian Air Force Wellington pilot, contain detailed personal descriptions of 115 Squadron missions in late 1942 from its base in RAF East Wretham. These were directed at targets in Germany (including Bremen, Stuttgart, Frankfurt and Munich) and Italy (Turin), as well as mine laying in French ports (LeHavre, Brest, St. Nazaire, and Lorient) and the Bay of Biscay.[7]

Hercules engined Lancaster IIs replaced the Wellingtons in March 1943 and these were replaced by Merlin engined Lancaster Is and IIIs in March 1944. Around this time the squadron relocated from RAF Little Snoring to RAF Witchford. The squadron was retained as part of the post-war RAF and received Lincolns in September 1949. The squadron was linked to No. 218 Squadron RAF from 1 February 1949 until 1 March 1950, when the squadron was disbanded at RAF Mildenhall. By the end of the war, it had the distinction of being the squadron with the most operational service, most losses by any one single unit and the most tonnage of explosives dropped.

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Aircraft operated in August 1944 - Avro Lancaster

Operation 30 August 1944 From The Strategic Air Offensive against Germany from Harly Munkholm:

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586 LAN to Stettin/K-bg. 38 lost: 12 planes in www.airmen.dk, 8 in Sweden, 4 in target areas, 10 at sea, 4 without trace. Google Map 30 AUG 1944.

From the 12 planes with 85 airmen 54 were buried in Denmark, 6 in Sweden, 13 have no known grave, 9 became POWs and 3 evaded to Sweden.

The 3 airmen were Wasik from LAN PA163 crashed into the Lovns Bredning and Wilson and Loneon from LAN PB436 crashed near Trend.

He was buried at Oue Cemetery, Oue, Denmark 1824896 Sgt B Farndale:

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Oue, 7 airmen from LAN ME718 who rest in Oue Churchyard - monument unveiled 27 July, 1947.

Called here in the hour of destiny, here rest in foreign ground (7 names) Erected by friends.