Reginald John Owen

Flight Sergeant Reginald John Owen. 1923-1944

Flight Sergeant Reginald John Owen (Reggie)

The story of my mother’s uncle and his death.

A personal story about how my family has been affected by
Normandy and the Second world War.

By Rose Bolam age 11.

Sitting on my bed I listened to the story of how our family played a part in the second world war. Reggie, my granddad’s older brother was 18 when he was sent to war, as a Flight Navigator for thr RAF. He and his crew had just completed 3 very tough night raids, 2 months after the Normandy invasion, and were packing to go home when they were asked to go on an emergency night raid. Mike Manos, one of their usual crew had already left (this was probably the luckiest thing he has ever experienced). Joe Palandri was an experienced pilot and my great-uncle Reggie was the navigator. As the crew arrived in skies above Normandy with a plane full of bombs, the American Allies informed them that they did not need to drop the bombs as the ‘target’ had already been softened. As they were returning, Germans spotted their plane an shot at Reggie’s aitcraft. The wings suddenly caught fire and Art Meredith, the rear gunner managed to shoot down the aircraft before leaving the plane. All the crew were told to leave the aircraft immediately and my great-uncle had his parachute on and was standing behind Meredith who unfortunately got his parachute caught. Reggie helped him untangle it and then Meredith jumped. He later told my Great-Grandfather that he was absolutely sure that Reggie got out as the plane was in the air fo another 2 minutes before it crashed in a field in La Frenaye, Normandy.

Germans had seen the plane come down and knew that some of the crew had managed to parachute to safety and they immediately ran into a French farmhouse that was owned by a man called Monsieur La Veque. Meredith was actually hiding behind the door and even though the Germans searched the farmhouse they didn’t think to look in such an obvious spot. Later that night Monsieur Le Veque helped Meredith to escape with assistance from the French Resistance.

The next morning, Monsieur Le Veque’s 5 year old son, was really curious to see the plane that had crashed into his father’s field and as he was exploring the wreckage, one of the plane’s unexploded bombs exploded blowing him to pieces.

For a while Reggie was not presumed dead, only missing which tormented my granddad’s parents for years because they never knew if their son was killed or not. Eventually parts of his body, along with other body parts were recovered and put into ammunition boxes and buried in a cemetery in La Frenaye, Normandy. When I asked my grandad what he thought had happened, he told me that he believed Reggie and Mellish went back inside the plane to help Joe Palandri, the pilot fly the plane to the sea that was probably only 3 minutes away. Granddad thinks that one of the wings fell off which caused the plane to crash before it reached the sea. Killing all 3 of them.

Every Christmas my Granddad’s parents laid the table for Reggie and they had photos and flowers of Reggie in every room in their house. They believed that he would once again come home. Years went by and my Grandparents took my mum when she was a litle girl to visit Reggie’s grave every year, they also visited the grave of Monsieur Le Veque’s son.

We will never know the deadly truth about what happened. My Granddad admired Reggie and at his house he has displayed all Reggie’s medals and awards, kept photos of Reggie plus Reggie’s diaries and books.

So, whether Reggie is dead or alive he will always be remembered.