Commonwealth War Graves Chaumont

On the cemetery in Chaumont are four Commonwealth war graves. Three graves are from the First World War and one grave is from the Second World War. The grave from the Second World War is the grave of Sergeant (Obs.) Norman Gorfunkle of the No. 76 Squadron of the Royal Air Force. On 7 November 1942 at 19:02 departed from RAF Linton-on-Ouse, the Halifax DT515 with the mission: a bombing raid over the ports of Genoa in Italy to obstruct the supplies of German war materials to Rommel's offensive in northern Africa. The aircraft was hit by Flak above France and was then due to engine problems abandoned by the crew. The aircraft crashed and exploded in a forest near Chaumont. One crew member was almost immediately taken prisoner, the other six crew members escaped, but of these, three were arrested a day later in a house in the woods. One of them was seriously injured Gorfunkle Norman, he was taken to hospital where he died of his injuries. Of the remaining three crew members, one was arrested two days later and two managed to escape. Of them, one managed to escape through Switzerland with the help of the resistance and the other was taken prisoner in southern France, when he tried to flee to Spain.

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Source

• Text: TracesOfWar.nl
• Photos: Russell Gellman (1), G. Guénot, via Lionel Fontaine (2, 3)