The Gaboureaux's Mosquito

By: pr16 - 3rd August 2015 at 19:13 - Edited 2nd October 2019 at 11:40

A commemoration service was held on Saturday June 13th, 2015 in the commune of Saint-Vulbas (France), for an English aircraft and crew that came down in the area on August 6th, 1944.
The ceremony was a special occasion, especially as this WW2 drama emerged by chance from archives forgotten over the years and decades that followed.
After much research into the circumstances and interviews with witnesses, preparations began for the commemoration of that tragic day, to remember the story of two men. Families came from Great Britain and the United States to attend the ceremony.

On August 6th, 1944, just two months after the Normandy landings, F/Lt John Stanley TOWSEY (pilot) and F/O Richard John KINGHAM (radio-navigator) were preparing a photo reconnaisance mission over France, as they had already done 4 times previously.
August 6th was a Sunday. Had it not been a mission of war, it might have been considered a lovely morning for flying. The sun was shining, the air was cool and visibility good. Great conditions for a reconnaissance mission, but also a deadly trap for a lone plane.
In the Rhone Valley, for several weeks, the Allies had bombarded railway depots, tracks and bridges. Generally, all rail facilities, industrial areas, submarine bases, port facilities and communication routes of strategic use to the occupying forces were targeted. The landings in Provence were under preparation.

On that Sunday August 6th, Allied aerial activity was very intense in the south of France; 30 or so bombing missions took place between 10 a.m. and 7 p.m. During that window, over 1,100 bombers flew missions in the Rhone Valley.
A little before 9 a.m., John Stanley TOWSEY and Richard John KINGHAM took off from RAF Benson (to the north west of London) aboard a De Havilland Mosquito Twin Prop PR XVI, No. NS 504.
Their mission for the day was a reconnaissance flight over three routes in the centre of France: Orléans-Sens, Lyon-Tours and Orléans-Lyon, before returning to base at Benson.
At the same time, in the Foggia region in the south east of Italy, other planes (P51 Mustang fighters) took off to join and cover the B24 Liberator bombers taking off on their bombing missions from the Lyon area.

The first part of the mission went very well, but upon arrival in the Lyon area, the Mosquito, spotted by a very young pilot who took it for a German twin prop, was attacked and shot down in error. A witness remembers seeing a plane coming down in flames, whilst others saw it being pursued at low altitude.
Flight Officer Richard John KINGHAM, 35, and Flight Lieutenant John Stanley TOWSEY, 29, died in the crash. They lost their lives, with nobody there to come to their aid, on French soil, near our own homes at around 11.40 at the end of that sunny morning.

Having been informed of the disappearance of the aircraft the following day, the families had to wait for several months for confirmation of the crew members’ deaths. They had to wait still longer to learn where they were buried and only very recently did they come to understand the circumstances of their disappearance.

Every war has its heroes, those we talk about and those whose memory we honour. And then all the others, the anonymous heroes. Men and women who went beyond the call of duty; Flight Lieutenant John Stanley Towsey and Flight Officer Richard John Kingham were of that breed. On their photo reconnaisance mission, led alone over occupied terroritories in an unarmed aircraft, they could rely only on themselves and their aircraft’s performance.
They were members of the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve.

The two now lie in the national cemetary at la Doua, in Villeurbanne, alongside 37 other allied airmen who were shot down, like them, around Lyon.

The Mosquito itself, even though it had only come off the production line later May / early June 1944, also had a story to tell. A month earlier, on July 9th and 12th, 1944, it was on board that aircraft (NS 504) that another crew found and photographed the German battleship, Tirpitz, in a fjord in the north of Norway. It was there that the German high command had concealed it for fear that it would be sunk, as was its sister ship, the battleship Bismarck, on May 27th, 1941. As a result of that mission, the Tirpitz was bombed and sunk on November 12th, 1944.

The airmen who fell to their deaths near our homes were often talked about by the older members of our community, and then time passed by and we tended to forget.

Of the 16 planes that came down in our county (Ain), this was probably the last to be commemorated.

Just a few hundred metres from where the Mosquito came down, a stone has been erected lest we forget the sacrifice of those two men, but also to sustain their memory.

John Stanley TOWSEY

He was awarded his pilot’s wings in 1940 and trained as a fighter pilot. But due to a temporary eyesight problem, he became an instructor. After 3 years training hundreds of learner pilots, and having flown 1000 accident-free hours, he qualified for high-altitude flight and joined a photo-reconnaissance unit.

Richard John KINGHAM

Before the war, he was a member of the Aldershot Fire Brigade (a memorial plaque in his honour was unveiled on May 23rd 1950 at Grosvenor Road Fire Station).
He enlisted and was mobilised on August 25th, 1941.
He was a volunteer for the “crew service” of RAF Coastal Command in 1942 and qualified as a radio operator on August 31st 1942 and navigator on May 8th 1943.
His first tour of duty as pilot John Stanley Jack TOWSEY’s navigator began on May 5th 1944

De Havilland Mosquito PR XVI "NS 504"

Construction specification: type PR XVI – Merlin 72/73 or 76/77 engine
Place of construction: Hatfield (18 miles north-west of London)
Contract n°: 555/C. 23(A)
Contract order date: 17/03/1943
Delivery date: 24/03/1944
Delivered to 544th squadron at Benson: late May / early June 1944 (the NS 502 was delivered on May 23rd 1944)
Shot down on August 6th, 1944 between Les Gaboureaux and Blyes.

"NS 504" did not enjoy a very long service life – just 2 months – but several crews flew her. Pilot John Stanley Jack TOWSEY, and his navigator, Richard John KINGHAM were the last to fly a mission on board NS 504. After the crash, the Mosquito, made primarily of plywood, burned for several hours. The remains were dragged to the side of the lane and removed several months later…