Flying Officer Geoff Adrian Mombrun RAFVR

Source: https://raf38group.org/geoffrey/

Born 3^rd December 1923 in London

Died 26^th April 1945 in Aarhus, Denmark

Geoffrey Adrian MOMBRUN
F/O 152348, 570 Squadron, RAF VR

Geoff from boyhood always wanted to be a Pilot, and as a lad joined the Air Defence Cadet Corps, which later became 120 (Hendon) Sqn ATC (Air Training Corps) of which he was a founder member.

In April 1941, as soon as he was of age, Geoff enlisted in the RAF and commenced training with the Empire Training Scheme in Moncton, Canada, to become a Pilot.

In 1943 after much training Geoff got his wings, and returned to England to continue his training at 42 OTU (Operational Training Unit) located in Ashbourne, Derbyshire. It was here that he trained to fly the ‘Heavies’.

In April 1944 he joined 570 Squadron at Harwell, where at first he flew Albemarle’s and finally in July 1944 when 570 Sqn converted to Stirlings, he piloted the Stirling Mk 4 until the end of his career.

Geoff flew on eleven missions during 1944, including Operation Mallard in June 44 and on Operation Market where he was shot down by flak on September 18th in Stirling LJ594 E7-J. They had only just cleared the Dutch island of Overflakkee, when they were hit by flak and lost height, smoke pouring from the starboard inner. They managed to bring the badly smoking aircraft safely to a ‘wheels up’ landing in a field between the villages of Bosschenhoofd and Zegge, after ordering the rest of the crew to bail out, which three did manage to (do).

Here, he and the remaining crew hid in a wood until members of the Dutch Resistance found them, and took them into hiding in and around Breda until the town was liberated on October 30th 1944, and he was helped back to England.

He continued various exercises and operations after rejoining 570 Sqn in November 1944.

570 Sqn had lost nine of its Stirlings during September, with twenty two dead and sixteen POWs; it was at this time forced to ‘pause and lick its wounds’.

38 Group in total had lost 43 Stirlings and about a third of its strength during Operation Market .

In March 1945 Geoff flew in LJ620 on ‘Operation Varsity’ (the crossing of the Rhine). Again, as he had done several times previously, he towed a glider which was successfully released onto the nearby Landing Zone.

On April 22nd of that year, Geoff flew on a SOE (Special Operations Executive) mission to Denmark in Stirling LJ645 E7-M. The aircraft was badly damaged by flak over the Jutland coastline, and crash landed in a field north of Aarhus, killing three of his crew and injuring the remaining crew, including himself, who managed to get out of the aircraft before it exploded in flames.

All three survivors were taken prisoners by the Germans within a few hours of the crash. Geoff’s injuries were so bad that the Germans took him straight to their hospital, where he was given intensive treatment for his burns, which unfortunately were so severe that he lost his fight for life three days later on the 26^th April 1945.

He and the three members of his crew (F/O. W Hunt-Navigator, F/Sgt. Ken Johnson-Air Gunner, and F/Sgt John Hamilton-Flight Engineer) who perished in the stricken Stirling now lie together in adjacent graves in Aarhus Vestre Cemetery in Denmark.

The survivors F/Sgt Frank Rawlings (W/Operator) and F/Sgt C Flannigan (Air Bomber) were made POWs for the remainder of the war, which fortunately for them was only a few weeks, before being returned to England to recover from their wounds and rest.

Source:

https://www.airmen.dk/pdfs/amw3.pdf

The last weapon flight. (Based on article in magazine ‘Frihedskampens Veteraner’. World Veterans Federation. No. 170. September 2002.

April 23rd 1945. The heavy loaded ‘Stirling’ LJ645 from No. 570 Squadron took off from Tempsford Airbase (*) at about 22:00 hours. F/O. Geoff A. Mombrun was again in action as a pilot. During the Arnhem-operation September 1944 in Holland his plane had crashed behind enemy lines, but he managed to avoid getting caught by enemy forces and got back to British occupied territory from where he returned to England. After a couple of months he was airborne again. Not as a bomber pilot but as captain on board a RAF/SOE plane flying special TABLEJAM missions to occupied countries delivering containers with ammunition, explosives and weapons to resistance groups on the continent, this time dropping places No. 172 and 179 in Jutland *). The cargo consisting 24 containers was for resistance groups in Denmark. In the middle of Jutland a group from Herning District already had heard the secret message about a delivery on the BBC radio earlier in the evening, and the 8 – 10 men would be out at their dropping place after darkness waiting for the RAF weapon plane.

In a church tower south of Herning a young man, Ole Moeller Jensen, was also in activity trying to get his ‘Eureka’ transmitter working. It was important for the incoming weapon plane to receive his signal, which would lead the plane to the dropping place. The situation was almost the same out at eastern Jutland in the area of Horsens, where the second drop should take place at No. 179. After crossing the North Sea flying extremely low the pilot, F/O. Mombrun, took his heavy plane in over the Jutland west coast south of Ringkoebing at a very low altitude. It was a dangerous mission, and he tried to avoid the German antiaircraft on the coast. Then a flight in about 500 feet across Jutland in darkness. The crew now hoped for, that German radar had not spotted their plane. In such case the German night fighters from Karup (Grove Jagdcenter) could be a bad confrontation with great danger. 2 Shortly after some thing missed – went wrong. They did not get the signal from the church tower at Lind, where young Jensen tried to do his best. The plane passed middle of Jutland, but the navigator did not find the dropping place. F/O. Mombrun went on hoping to find the place out at Horsens. Also there they missed. The plane passed shortly after the east coast of Jutland. It was bad luck now. Maybe it was worth with another try?

The ‘Stirling’ turned left and took course north along the coastline toward Aarhus. Maybe the intention was to cross Jutland from opposite direction and now again try to find those dropping places hidden in the dark? One can never find out, what really was going on and what the plane was. Anyway the aeroplane had to return in some direction westwards.

South of Aarhus the German antiaircraft batteries had spotted the lonely ‘Stirling’, and the three batteries opened fire, when the plane came into range. One of the heavy guns hit its target. Young P/O. Mombrun had to realise, that he was losing control over his plane. He continued flying north. The ‘Stirling’ had caught fire and it was burning heavily inside. They lost height. In the open landscape between Egaa and Skaerring north of Aarhus the plane crashed in a farm-field. In the dramatic crash three flyers were killed instantly.

There were three survivors, and they were taken to a German camp hospital in Aarhus city. Next morning the perished airmen in the crashed plane also were taken to this hospital. The funeral of those three flyers took place on April 30th at Aarhus Vestre Cemetery. In the hospital the three others were treated for their bad wounds from burning. F/O. Mombrun was badly wounded from burning, and it was not possible to save his life.

After his dead his body was on May 10th taken to the German section of above-mentioned cemetery by German forces and buried. A German priest committed the funeral. Later on the Cemetery authorities received information about the flyers funeral, and Danish authorities now became aware of this flyers identity and his hard destiny.

The two others became POW a few days. Later the four perished flyers from the plane were buried in a new arranged place called ‘Englaendergravene’ (The English Graves). The funeral was followed by a ceremony on June 8 th 1945. Here the two survivors, Frank Rawling and Charles Flannigan participated after been very helpful in the process of identifying their comrades.

(*) There is some confusion as to where the aircraft took off from; some accounts cite RAF Tempsford in Bedfordshire which later became famous as the airfield from which Lysander aircraft operated on SOE operations, whilst other accounts cite RAF Rivenhall in Essex; however 570 Sqn were never based at Tempsford (?) and were not based at Rivenhall until 7th October 1944, ie several months after LJ645s last flight.