The heroic actions of those who fought in the – far too many – wars of the 20th century are remembered every November. This personal tale from the son-in-law of Sgt Jack Davidson illustrates the bravery of the Halifax DT804 flight crew based at RAF Graveley in Cambridgeshire, six of whom died and only Sgt Davidson survived.
The Tragedy of Halifax DT804
Following an allied raid on the Ruhr Valley, the German radar station near Liège detected the homeward bound Halifax DT804 and relayed her position to the Luftwaffe night-fighter force which was patrolling that sector over Belgium. The crew’s misfortune was to cross paths with Lt. Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, the Luftwaffe’s most successful night-fighter ace, who was directed to intercept them. At 01:43, he mounted two swift and accurate attacks from the rear, setting the aircraft’s port wing on fire and sending the Halifax into a terminal dive.
The pilot, Flying Officer Hoos, gave the order to bale out, but the Wireless Operator, Sgt Jack Davidson, who sustained leg wounds during the attack, was unable to reach his parachute, which was normally secured in the cabinet behind his seat. His companions assisted him by putting his chute on him; dragging him forward alongside the navigator’s table; opening the forward escape hatch; and finally throwing him out. All the while the stricken aircraft was rapidly losing height and was now too low for the remainder of the aircrew to bale out. They perished instantly as it crashed onto farmland 4.5km from where Jack had been thrown out.
Two young boys (Louis and Maurice Velkeneers) heard the explosion of the crash and looked through their bedroom window at the inferno in the field, which was only 300 metres away from their home. Louis, then 17 years old, sneaked out of the house and stood by the fire in awe and watched as the glow of the flames illuminated his house. His younger brother, Maurice, 12 years old, joined him after breakfast in the field to see the devasted remains of DT804 and its crew. What the boys saw made a lasting impression and became the source of a legend which was told and retold for more than 80 years in the community of Zoutleeuw.
Meanwhile, Sgt Davidson had landed heavily in another farm field near Ossenweg breaking his arm in the process. The farm owner came to his rescue, but with the help of a local doctor, they determined that he needed serious attention which only the occupying forces could provide. Consequently, the Germans took him to a military hospital in Brussels where his wounds were treated and his broken arm set. A few weeks later, after his recovery, Jack was taken to Dulag Luft transit camp near Frankfurt for interrogation and processing into the POW system. After a month there he was despatched to Stalag Luft VI.
Remembrance Weekend
In 2025 the community of Zoutleuw, Belgium, where DT804 crashed on the night of 29-30 May 1943, formed a committee led by Bram Gourmand to research the events of that fateful night. Having completed their research, the committee organised a remembrance and monument dedication service over the weekend of 27-28 September 2025, at the crash site.
After months of research, the committee succeeded in tracing surviving relatives and friends of the crew, designed and gained approval for a memorial beside the nearby highway, and planned a weekend of events to commemorate and honour them.
The event was attended not only by relatives of F/O Hoos (Pilot), Sgt Kennedy (Navigator), and Sgt Davidson (Wireless Operator) but also by two elderly eyewitnesses of the crash, Louis and Maurice Velkeneers. On 27 September, presentations were given by Brian Stone (son-in-law of Sgt Davidson) and Bram Gourmand, detailing the role of the Pathfinder Force in general and the events of that fateful night in particular. The day concluded with visits to the crash site itself and to the nearby field where Sgt Davidson had parachuted to safety.
The six aircrew who were killed in the aircraft as it crashed were originally buried nearby in temporary graves by the German occupying forces, but after the war they were reinterred by the allies and reburied with full military honours in the Commonwealth War Graves Cemetery at Heverlee. The graves were visited by friends and relatives and a brief ceremony conducted there on 27 September 2025.
On the following day, 28 September, a remembrance service was held in the church at Ossenweg, close to where Sgt Davidson landed. This was followed by the unveiling of the new monument near the crash site. This was very well supported by Belgian government officials, senior Belgian air force personnel, the Zoutleeuw community, and the Belgian news media. The weekend closed with a poignant highlight – a flypast of three Pilatus P-3 aircraft in tribute.
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