Two North-East airmen honoured

Kyt · Dec 17, 2008

Brave and best (From The Northern Echo)

Two North-East airmen from neighbouring villages, shot down over Germany in the Second World War, are being honoured at the British War Cemetery in Berlin today.

A POIGNANT service in a Berlin cemetery this afternoon will honour the memory of two County Durham airmen from neighbouring villages, shot down during the Second World War.

More than 50 people from West Cornforth and Ferryhill will attend the memorial to Sergeant Bill Laverick, killed over Germany on December 29, 1943, and to Sergeant Herbert Howson from Ferryhill, who died exactly a month later.

They will lay wreaths, observe a two minutes’ silence, sing Abide With Me and O God Our Help in Ages Past.

There, too, will be Sgt Laverick’s nephew Flight Lieutenant Richard Fiskel, from Newton Aycliffe, who is commanding officer of the Air Training Corps at Hetton-le-Hole, near Sunderland.

On behalf of Sgt Laverick’s sister, who is 96, Flt Lt Fiskel will also scatter white flowers on the grave in the war cemetery in what was East Berlin.

“I tried to visit when I was with the RAF in Germany, but the wall was still there and the administrative barriers which they put up were also formidable,”

he says.

“It’s wonderful that those two men are being remembered in such a way after all this time. My uncle Bill always loved little white flowers.”

The service will be led by the Reverend Keith Lumsdon, parish priest of Ferryhill and West Cornforth, who has built links with Germany since 1992.

“We have to remember that whoever won and whoever lost, there were not just millions who died but millions more who lost loved ones,” he says.

Bill Laverick, a flight engineer who had been an apprentice fitter at Thrislington colliery near Ferryhill, was awarded the Distinguished Flying Medal just two months before 35 Squadron took off from RAF Graveley in Huntingdonshire on what was to be his last raid.

The citation spoke of his numerous bombing attacks and of his “outstanding technical skill” which largely had been responsible for damaged aircraft returning safely to base.

“He has continued to display the keenest desire to proceed in operations against the enemy and has built up a fine record of operational service,” it added.

His uncle, after whom he was named, had been killed on the Somme in 1916 at the Battle of Flers- Courcelette – an action in which Raymond Asquith, the son of the British prime minister, also died. Bill Laverick, an acting corporal, was awarded the Military Medal.

Remarkably, Richard Fiskel’s brother – William John Laverick Fiscal, named after the Second World War hero and also raised in West Cornforth – was himself awarded the MBE for his actions as a major in the Royal Signals following the incident in January 1989 when a plane headed for East Midlands airport crashed onto the motorway, killing 46 people.

Major Laverick lived just one junction from the crash. “The name William Laverick just seems to bring out the best and the brave,” says Richard.

Of the seven-man crew that night in December 1943, five – two DFCs and three DFMs – had already been decorated for gallantry. After the Halifax came under attack from a Messerschmidt, only the mid-upper gunner, who bailed out, survived.

He was captured by the SS, told that his comrades’ bodies had been found in the wreckage but lived to tell his own tale. “They were one of the best crews that anyone could wish to fly with,” he said.

Much of the information on Sgt Laverick has been discovered by Andy Denholm, vice-chairman of West Cornforth parish council, who set himself the task of researching all 131 names on the village war memorial – and of finding out about some whose names aren’t even recorded.

“We just got talking about it one night and it’s grown to be an obsession,”

he admits. “My wife keeps asking me if I’m married to her or to the computer. I don’t know if I’ll ever finish it because there’s always more information coming up.

“Among the most poignant things about that incident is that there were so many decorated men, clearly among the bravest of the brave.”

Mr Lumsdon, now a fluent German speaker, makes regular twinning visits.

He discovered the graves on a visit to the British war cemetery in Berlin where 3,594 men are buried – 80 per cent of them airmen.

This week’s trip will combine visits to Christmas markets in Germany. “It just seemed to me that we had to do something. It’s going to be a very moving occasion,” he says.

A collection plate given to West Cornforth Methodist chapel in Sgt Laverick’s memory is now used in the parish church. A brass vase from the now closed chapel has been given by the family to Newton Aycliffe ATC, where Flt Lt Fiskel’s son is a sergeant.

It’s used as a shooting trophy.

“I believe my Uncle Bill would have been very proud of the way the people of Germany have turned their country round and how they teach their children never to forget what took place,” he says.

“Uncle Bill died doing what he saw as his duty. I believe that we’re now going back to Germany as friends.”

■ Andy Denholm would welcome further information on anyone on the West Cornforth war memorial, or possibly missing from it. He can be contacted at wewillrememberthem@ hotmail.co.uk
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liverpool annie · Dec 17, 2008

The War Memorial ......

West Cornforth War Memorial Face 2 on Flickr - Photo Sharing!

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Two North-East airmen honoured

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