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ISSUE 029 FRIDAY, 22 JUNE, 2018
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From Downside to Belgium – a hero arrives Marguerite McKinnon HAMONT-ACHEL (pronounced Hamnt Ahkel) is more than 16,000 kilometres from Wagga but on Saturday the thoughts of many locals will be joined with those in Belgium as the township marks 75 years since a Wagga district local sacrificed his life to save their town. At the height of World War II on 22 June 1943, 21-year-old Flight Officer Robert Bruce Meiklejohn was the pilot of Stirling Bomber EF-366 which had been bombing over Germany before it was hit by gunfire from Nazi fighter planes over Belgium. Bullets sheared off the tail and knocked out the hydraulics, causing EF-366 to go into an instant dive. Instead of bailing out with his crew, Bruce stayed at the controls with his feet on the instrument panel in a desperate
attempt to pull the stick up to level the plane and direct it away from the town. On board were enough bombs to wipe it off the face of the Earth. Below, witnesses, including a preacher, saw the bomber nosediving like a burning cross. Just before impact the plane not only levelled out, its wings lifted to miss the town’s church spire before it crashed and exploded a short distance away. The force of the blast was so great it blew out the windows of buildings, but no residents died. What Bruce Meiklejohn probably didn’t know was that in November 1918 HamontAchel had suffered one of the worst train disasters in history when two German munition trains caught fire and exploded along with three German ambulance trains, resulting in the death of more than 1000 people and wiping out much of the town. In
light of this, the supreme sacrifice made by the 21-year-old Downside local was even more poignant. Had Bruce jumped when he had the chance, the town may not have recovered. This week, Bruce’s nephew, Stuart Meiklejohn, and singer-songwriter and Prime7 cameraman, Scott Cochrane, have flown to Belgium for the 75th anniversary. Scott wrote a song about this incredible event after a conversation with Stuart around a campfire in Downside, where both men live. “I’d seen the Honour Roll in the Downside Hall and asked Stuart about the story of his relative who made the supreme sacrifice. The story he told had a profound effect on me,” Scott said. Scott’s song, The Captain and 366, is a powerful ballad in a style reminiscent Y BY:
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of Bon Jovi. “I don’t know about that, but thank you all the same,” Scott said. At the 75th commemoration on Saturday, Scott will perform an acoustic version of the song with his guitar. “I’ve got to keep it together when I perform because the emotions will be running high on the day, and after more than a year since I wrote the song, I still get emotional about it,” Scott said. Endorsed by Wagga Wagga City Council, Stuart and Scott, who arrived in Netherlands on Tuesday, will deliver a wreath on behalf of the city and a message from Wagga’s Mayor Greg Conkey. “I’ve never been to Hamont-Achel but my father and other relatives have, and they were basically treated like royalty,” Stuart said. continued on page 2...
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EF-366 crew; Front row: Bruce Meiklejohn (third from right); wireless operator Les Ellingham RAF (far right). Back row: navigator Charles Redwood RNZAF (third from left); bomb aimer Frank Hugo RAF (fourth from left); flight engineer Bill Cole RAF (fourth from right); mid-upper gunner Jack Kilfoyle RAF (third from right). Photo courtesy AWM.
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