The War Diaries of
F/L Herbert Darrell Biggs, DFC
405 Squadron, RCAF
Bomber Command, 8th Group
Pathfinders
1946, revised 2002
Below are speaking notes for a presentation Fredrick Petrie gave to CAHS, 0900-0945, MAY 31, 2018 based on the diary
1. Good Morning to all aviation enthusiasts and chroniclers of Canada’s aviation history. It is my great pleasure today to present some excerpts from The War Diaries of F/L Herbert Darrell Biggs, DFC.
This diary was only compiled in 2002, 46 years after his wartime experiences
2. I only learned of this diary last year, as I continued my quest to learn more about the young uncle I had been named for – Pilot Officer James Fredrick Devitt, Flight Engineer and Pathfinder; this picture taken when he was still a Flight Sargent as he was only commissioned three weeks before his death.
3. A business trip with a meeting in Dusseldorf provided the opportunity to visit his grave in the Rheinberg war cemetery.
4. Uncle Fred served on the crew of Flying Officer Joseph Tite. They were shot down December 22, 1944. Along with Tite and Devitt, the bomb aimer Davy and upper gunner Rynski were killed. Miraculously however, the aircraft broke up before crashing and the Navigator, F/O Biggs, along with the wireless operator Haase and rear gunner Mathieu were thrown clear and survived as POWs.
5. While they were killed on their 35th, and last mission, their aircraft was obviously a lucky one having already survived 69 missions when this photo was taken. I believe this is Tite in the middle, Davy is the old guy at age 25 on the left, and this must be Biggs. My Uncle Fred is second from right, the others are not sorted between Rynski, Hasse and Mathieu.
Outside of the photo and Pathfinder citation letter, I had very little information about Uncle Fred as my parents had both passed away far too young, while I was still too young too care about history. I made many attempts over the years to discover if any of the survivors might still be alive.
By perseverance and luck, a story in itself, last July I made contact with Mary Biggs, one of three daughters, who shared his diary with me.
6. Meet Flight Lieutenant Herbert Darrell Biggs, DFC, a most handsome lad at the age of 21. Herb Biggs is just one example of the 55,000 young Canadians who took the war to Germany in the early 1940s when bombers were the only means to strike back at the Third Reich. Over 11,000 of them lost their lives. I do not have the statistics, but believe only U-boat sailor was a more hazardous occupation than RAF bomber. And all of these young aviators were volunteers who had to pass the most stringent selection and training processes to fly with an RCAF wing on their tunic.
This is Herb’s story. Let me read you his own words:
7. “After a recent perusal of my POW diary it is belatedly apparent to me and family that it leaves many possible questions unanswered and many loose threads hanging in limbo – it is akin to a house built without a foundation. I hope to now provide one by complementing the diary with remarks on, my mind set when finalizing it, pre-squadron training and squadron activities prior to our last fatal trip of December 22, 1944, plus some subsequent information gleaned from our air force records.
The diary was mainly written during my stay in hospital from August 15 to December, 1945. I apparently had been fighting and hiding my fear and revulsion of war and this coupled with the Pathfinder and POW experience, including injuries sustained, culminated in a nearly complete mental and physical breakdown. The details in the diary came from notated scraps of paper I had managed to keep while in custody and then carry home, supplemented by related memories. I believe in retrospect that I subconsciously and purposefully softened many of my harsher experiences in deference to my parents, especially my mother, who had agonized over the loss of my older brother Percy at age 21 (also an air force officer) in December 1942. This was followed by my missing in December 1944 and in each case without final advice of our fate until the following April, and in my brother’s case a fatal outcome.”
Even from the “softened” perspective 48 years after the fact, I, as I am sure you are as well, deeply moved by his reminiscence: being blown out of the sky by a German night-fighter, to sustain serious injuries in the too-low parachute jump at night, to endure Gestapo interrogation, POW camp, the forced marches ahead of the Russians, then complete physical and mental breakdown requiring another six months hospitalization.
Today we call this PTSD and have special programs. Herb Biggs actually did receive a few hundred dollars as compensation for his POW experiences. I cannot help to ask “What do we owe these people? And how can we ever repay them?” I guess the only answer is to revere them and honour their sacrifices for our freedom.
8. From joining up in August 1942, Herb’s training was all in southern Ontario, where he completed Navigation School and was commissioned in October 1943 with immediate posting overseas. I especially enjoyed reading how Herb, when everyone wanted pilot training, specifically asked to be a Navigator. As a proud wearer of Navigator wings myself “I gotta love this guy!”. I also noted this was only 3 months before my father received his Wings and Commission at Brandon, but lucky for me, he was posted as a staff pilot to the navigation school at Rivers.
9. The operational training in England was almost as long as the training to Wings in Canada. It seems the winter weather conditions in Northern Ireland were as terrifying as operations over Europe where icing was the treat versus flak.
10. Finally flying Wellington bombers, Herb describes the crewing up process and continuing on to the heavy bombers on the Halifax. Typical military, they were then assigned to a Lancaster squadron!
[A group of men in flight gear Description automatically generated] And this point I found most unusual, as Herb himself notes, they finished training at Warboys, a Pathfinder unit. Pathfinders were always experienced bomber crews with full tours or at least 20 missions under their belts. Tite’s crew must have been exceptional, particularly Herb’s navigation, to be assigned directly to pathfinder Squadron 405, the only Canadian Pathfinders. Or perhaps it was just the vagaries of military planning and there was an opening that day.
11. Their actual tour of operations was just under six months, from July 1st, 1944, shortly after D-Day, to December 22nd, bombing rail yards to disrupt Nazi movements. Technically, as they had completed their 35th mission and were on their way home, they did complete a full tour. But post-tour plans for a holiday in Edinburgh did not work out.
12. the vagary of a 45 minute time limit does not permit a full discourse of a six month tour of operations, nor even a mention of his six month POW experiences, the longer half of his diary. But I hope a few excerpts from his diary will give the flavour of what these guys would go through in a tour.
“On one of our trips to Stuttgart we were coned by searchlights (i.e. tracked and then suddenly zeroed in by a battery of lights with guns firing up the light cone automatically). I understood the usual evasive tactic is to climb out of the cone but instead Joe went into a full spiral steep dive. All my charts etc. flew off my table and I was on the floor retrieving them while urgently telling Joe to slow down as we’d be on target too soon. I then had no idea what was happening. We escaped with some minor damage.
One night on returning (I can’t recall the trip target) we had serious engine trouble and were forced to land in very heavy fog at an alternate airdrome. Prior to attempting the landing Joe advised the control tower that we were in trouble and ordered the wireless operator, Jerry, to fire a red flare on the landing approach. I was standing near my desk where the flares were and in the panic Jerry ran his hands up and down my legs while frantically searching for the flares. We finally located and fired a red flare and Joe managed to land even though the fog was almost ground zero. They had an ambulance and fire truck at the ready for us but thank God they were not needed. The station Commanding Officer personally commended Joe for the best landing he’d ever seen in such conditions”
13. “Highlights” is hardly an adequate word to describe all of these close calls:
“One night over the target a German fighter came straight at us from the front and at point blank range zoomed above us without firing a shot. We assumed he had no ammunition left. The bomb aimer lying in the nose was so mesmerized that he choked and could barely speak. I knew nothing of this at the time and Joe told me later he could have literally touched the fighter as it went over his cockpit.
Over Kiel one night the front part of the mid-upper gunners turret perspex was partly destroyed apparently by a piece of flak. He never reported it and carried on until our return to base, even though he must have been freezing as we flew at 16-18,000 feet. It was a display of terrific stoicism and dedication.”
14. And here is the official record of their final mission as recorded in the Squadron’s Operational Log Book:
Lancaster “D” PA 977 was listed as “Missing” on the crew’s 35th mission.
The mission had been laying Blind Sky Markers over the railyards at Bingen.
As the Pathfinder, they would have also most likely been the Master Bomber, the crew that stayed over target directing the rest of the raid, and re-marking as needed.
15. The end of the Tite crew’s luck came in the form of night-fighters, seemingly using a tactic I had never heard of and since have been told to be most unlikely by a German source.
[A close up of a white label Description automatically generated] “RAF report regarding the crash: Our rear gunner told me there were two fighters in our vicinity – one as a decoy used to locate our exact position. He came in first and was fired upon and almost immediately the killer plane came out of the dark sky above and ahead of us, raking the whole front area at point blank range and he believes that Joe (our pilot) likely then fell over the throttles putting us in a steep, uncontrolled dive. I note above report (i.e. the RAF report) of an early plane break up which tends to support his theory. In any event it has become clear that the three survivals were totally miraculous, especially as two of us (Gerry the wireless operator and myself) were blown out and the rear gunner found in the snow approximately 200 to 300 feet from the crash site. God knows how he got there if as reported the tail broke off. It was also miraculous, considering the fact that the beautiful memorial window installed in the Gransden Lodge Church attests to 801 aircrew killed. This is a high casualty count relative to the numbers of air crew involved and considering Pathfinders began in late 1943”
16. Here is the memorial in the 12th century ancient stone church in Gransden Lodge. It was deeply moving when I saw it in 2008 and on another visit in 2010. It certainly shows the reverence and honour bestowed on all their Canadian guests in the 1943 – 1945 period by the people of Gransden Lodge that hosted Canada’s 405 Squadron.
17. Last September I had the opportunity to meet F/L Herb Biggs at the senior residence in Almonte just west of Ottawa. Unfortunately, Herb had suffered a stroke in 2013 and was not able to share his recollections directly with me. I had an email exchange with his daughter Mary yesterday who advised that “Dad is doing well and is pretty much the same as when you met him. We are sorry as well that you didn't have a chance to meet him when he could have regaled you with war stories. He would have so enjoyed spending time with you”. I asked Mary to give him a hug from me, an admiring navigator.
18. But I am still left with my question of how could these young men have done what they did for us?
Herb says it best at the end of his diary”
“From day one and throughout my war days I honestly felt like Frodo in The Lord of the Rings, that the war was a struggle between light and an implacable darkness. This still gives me some solace for being involved. I feel no special pride, it is basically a no-win situation in which the personal choice comes to necessity (which I chose) versus succumbing to the darkness.”
Reading that still chokes me up, but with the Chair’s indulgence.