SPITFIRE IX EN 572 485SQDN RNZAF

CIRCUMSTANCES OF THE CRASH

On September 6, 1943, the Spitfires of 485 Squadron were tasked with protecting Martin B-26 Marauders sent to bomb the marshalling yard at Serqueux in Seine-Maritime. Suddenly, 20 Luftwaffe Fw 190 fighters flying high above the Allied formation dived down to attack. Squadron Leader Johnny Checketts shot down one of the opponents, but was then attacked by several German fighters. His Spitfire IX, EN572, was hit and caught fire. Though burned and wounded, Checketts was able to release his cockpit canopy and bail-out. As soon as he landed, he was helped by a local resident, Mr Desgardins, who took him on his bicycle to a hiding place in Corroy wood. The next day Checketts was handed over to members of the Bordeaux Loupiac escape network who, after a long journey strewn with pitfalls, helped him return to England. The last stage of Checketts’ home run was organised in Brittany by members of the Réseau d'Evasion Vannetais escape network. They arranged for him to stay at the Lavenant family’s farm – codenamed "L' Echelle de foin" – in the village of Saindo in Theix, before crossing the Channel back to Britain.

Born in Invercargill on February 20,1912, John Checketts studied at the Invercargill South School and Southland Technical College. Working as a motor mechanic, he was 28 years old when he began his RNZAF pilot training in October 1940. He gained his Pilot Officer wings in June 1941 and was sent to England. After converting to Spitfires, he joined 485 Squadron that November.

On February 12, 1942, the squadron took part in the famous but unsuccessful Channel Dash attack against the German warships Scharnhorst and Gneisenau, which left Brest harbour to seek shelter in a German port. On May 4, 1942, Checketts was shot down and had to bail-out into the Channel before being recovered by the Royal Navy. That June, he was promoted to Flight Lieutenant and posted to ‘Sailor’ Malan’s Central Gunnery School at RAF Sutton Bridge before joining 611 Squadron at Biggin Hill in January 1943. He was tasked with leading 611 Squadron’s ‘A’ Flight in April 1943 he shot down a Fw 190 on May 30 south-east of Trouville.

Promoted to Squadron Leader in July, he took command of 485 Squadron at Biggin Hill. He destroyed four enemy fighters that month, a Fw 190 on the 15th, two more on the 27th and a Bf 109G on the 31st. While leading his unit during an operation to St Pol on August 9, 1943, his section encountered eight Bf 109s, claiming six shot down. Checketts was credited with downing three of the fighters while also damaging one of the two that managed to escape. For this action, he was awarded an immediate DFC.

While providing high cover for a group of bombers attacking Amiens on August 19, 1943, the squadron was intercepted by a group of Fw 190 and Bf 109s. In the battle that followed he claimed on enemy aircraft as probably destroyed and another as damaged.

On September 6, 1943, Checketts himself was shot down in the circumstances explained at the beginning of this page.

Evacuated by the resistance, Checketts met a fellow 485 Squadron pilot, Sergeant Kearins, who had been shot down on July 15th. The two men joined a group of eleven others who crossed the Channel aboard a fishing boat on October 21, 1943.

Upon his return, Johnny Checketts was assigned to the Central Gunnery School Fighter Wing as an instructor. In April 1944, he took command of No. 1 Squadron equipped with Hawker Typhoons but after six weeks with this unit, he was promoted to Wing Commander and took charge of 142 Wing, flying Spitfires from Horne. He later moved with the Wing to Westhampnett, Merston and finally, on September 26, 1944, Manston. His last operational sortie took him over Arnhem in September 1944, where he claimed his last victory – a shared ‘kill’ – with one of his squadron leaders.

In 1945 he became Wing Commander - Tactics at Central Fighter Establishment. His decorations included the DFC awarded on August 13, 1943, the DSO (December 1943) the US Silver Star (August 1944), and the Polish Cross of Valour (April 1945). He was credited 14.5 victories,three probables and eleven damaged during his combat career. .

After the war, he returned to the RNZAF, and became Station Commander at Wigram, Fiji and Taieri before retiring in 1982. He died on April 21, 2006 aged 94.

While providing high cover for a group of bombers attacking Amiens on August 19, 1943, the squadron was intercepted by a group of Fw 190 and Bf 109s. In the battle that followed he claimed on enemy aircraft as probably destroyed and another as damaged.

On September 6, 1943, Checketts himself was shot down in the circumstances explained at the beginning of this page.

Evacuated by the resistance, Checketts met a fellow 485 Squadron pilot, Sergeant Kearins, who had been shot down on July 15th. The two men joined a group of eleven others who crossed the Channel aboard a fishing boat on October 21, 1943.

Upon his return, Johnny Checketts was assigned to the Central Gunnery School Fighter Wing as an instructor. In April 1944, he took command of No. 1 Squadron equipped with Hawker Typhoons but after six weeks with this unit, he was promoted to Wing Commander and took charge of 142 Wing, flying Spitfires from Horne. He later moved with the Wing to Westhampnett, Merston and finally, on September 26, 1944, Manston. His last operational sortie took him over Arnhem in September 1944, where he claimed his last victory – a shared ‘kill’ – with one of his squadron leaders.

In 1945 he became Wing Commander - Tactics at Central Fighter Establishment. His decorations included the DFC awarded on August 13, 1943, the DSO (December 1943) the US Silver Star (August 1944), and the Polish Cross of Valour (April 1945). He was credited 14.5 victories,three probables and eleven damaged during his combat career. .

After the war, he returned to the RNZAF, and became Station Commander at Wigram, Fiji and Taieri before retiring in 1982. He died on April 21, 2006 aged 94.

The first on-site investigation of the crash site took place in December 2013, but the field was already sown with wheat.

When a second search took place in November 2014, the plot was then covered in rapeseed. The search team found some small pieces of Aluminium, enough to confirm the general area of the crash zone, though the height of the crop prevented the precise impact spot from being determined.

- The third recognition took place on 13 September 2015. More convincing! Thanks to the farmer, Mr Boulnois, who helped Pierre Ben and Ghislain Lobel to remove the first 50 centimetres of earth where the detector was ringing... because the echo was weak;

A fourth intervention allowed us to be certain that we were well above the impact site to implement more important means. This deeper excavation was therefore necessary and carried out with a small excavator. We found structural parts, frames and fittings, which we soon identified as essential parts of the fuselage, including substantial parts of the main bulkhead and also a large piece of wing spar, about 1.90m long.

On 19 September 2015 Pierre Ben and his friends were on site to continue the excavation done the previous Saturday. Thanks to Etienne Boulnois, nephew of the farmer and friend of Pierre Ben, we were able to get a backhoe to dig.

On the first metre of depth: little was found apart from a few pieces of aluminium corroded by the fire, which made the researchers pessimistic about the state of the parts to be found.

However, their spirits were lifted as the second metre of earth was excavated. This time more aircraft parts – and, further down, the complete Merlin engine – were revealed. The engine still had its exhaust manifold present on one side, with the quadruple hub, intercooler and tank shield plate all being found in good condition. A multitude of fuselage parts, plus the bottom of the cockpit windscreen, tank straps, and engine mount, were found at a depth of 3.5 metres.

By clicking on the following image, you will be able to access the program which retraces the career of Johnny Checketts through testimonies of his friends and former 485 Squadron. This report which dates from 1990 is in English but we can see there this hero with human dimension in all its simplicity with a sensitivity with flower of skin. A palpable emotion....... a real hero. En cliquant sur l'image suivante, vous pourrez accéder à l' émission qui retrace la carrière de Johnny Checketts au travers de témoignages de ses amis et anciens du 485 Squadron. Ce reportage qui date de 1990 est en anglais mais on peut y voir ce héros à dimension humaine dans toute sa simplicité avec une sensibilité à fleur de peau. Une émotion palpable.......un véritable héros.

Hub and motor before cleaning, sanding, assembly, varnishing and ........ packaging

Article published in October 2015

73 YEARS LATER THE SPITFIRE ENGINE GOES TO JOHNNY CHECKETTS

A great adventure that of this "Spit" engine which, thanks to the good will of a handful of men joined, 73 years later the country of birth of its pilot.

The journey to organize the transport was not the easiest. Chris Checketts, Johnny's son, in collaboration with the Air Force Museum in Christchurch (NZ), took care of the administrative formalities in connection with the New Zealand authorities. He then contacted the carrier who would be in charge of the shipment. On the French side, Pierre Ben contacted the DRAAF in Amiens in order to know the norms that had to be respected for the packaging. Once the information was obtained, he started looking for a partner capable of supplying the wood in compliance with the ISPM 15 standard. Contact was therefore made with the Nobécourt sawmill in Brie (80) which offered the necessary material (wood heated in a kiln at a certain temperature to destroy bacteria and stamped ISPM15). The New Zealand authorities then asked the association to confirm the cleaning methods that the engine had undergone in order to finally validate the shipping authorization. At the beginning of November, Pierre Ben and his team took delivery of the wood to make the crate. The carrier picked up the precious cargo on November 23rd. The sea transport will last approximately 2 months. The arrival is expected around January 27, 2017 .... A new adventure for this Rolls Royce Merlin, almost as incredible as the one of Johnny Checketts' escape that we report below .........

Johnny Checketts’ Amazing Escape

In the late afternoon of September 6, 1943, the Spitfire of Squadron Leader Johnny Checketts (EN572) crashed into flames before the eyes of André Bonvarlet who was working with horses in his field at Aigneville.

He saw the pilot bail-out and open his parachute. He landed in the open plain near Tours-en-Vimeu, near the Feuquières road, leading to a place called Le Gros Borne. The open location offers no hiding place and, nearby, farm workers watched as they loaded a cart with hay. They saw a cyclist, 19-year-old Robert Desgardin, approaching the pilot.

Desgardin said they must act very quickly because German soldiers were stationed in the vicinity. Indeed, a Commandant had his headquarters at the Mabille Castle in Aigneville, and a garrison of soldiers was located at the nearby village of Acheux-en-Vimeu, just four kilometres from where the pilot had landed.

Robert Desgardin did not hesitate, with the wounded and burnt pilot sat precariously upon the luggage carrier of Desgardin’s bicycle, they set off downhill towards Tours en Vimeu, looking for a hiding place. Initially, to keep the pilot from German eyes, he took Checketts to Corroy Wood on the right of the road from Feuquières to Tours en Vimeu. Although the hiding place was a simple bush, it was unlikely to be discovered. The heroic cyclist then continued on alone to find his uncle, Edouard Deloziere, and told him what had happened.

While German troops searched for fugitive, the French escape-assistance system sprang into action. At nightfall, a man entered the wood and met the aviator. Together, they walked to a farm, where they collected bikes and cycled towards Vismes-au-Mont.

Upon arriving at the home of 26-year-old Marcel Lecointe and his wife Charlotte,

Checketts met Pilot Officer EA Haddock, a Typhoon pilot from 181 Squadron who had been shot down on July 15, 1943.

Checketts’ burns were treated by Doctor Delabarre who, on several occasions, cycled from Oisemont – about 12 kilometres away – to secretly attend his wounds. Also, a man known only under the pseudonym of "the architect" brought him civilian clothes to wear.

A couple of weeks later, Checketts left Vismes-au-Mont for Abbeville aboard a gasifier-powered pick-up truck. It was driven by the 20-year-old son of Édouard Delozière, accompanied by Marcel Lecointe. From the road to Hesdin, they took the fork leading to Boufflers, where Checketts was delivered to the front door of Gourlay Manor. Here he was helped by Madame Tellier, a peacetime solicitor and wartime member of the Organisation Civile et Militaire (OCM), a group of army officers and civil servants who secretly provided intelligence information to the Allies

Checketts stayed there for three days before the ground floor of the building was requisitioned by the Germans. Then he was taken by car to a French policeman’s home in Auxi-Le-Chateau. The driver spoke fluent English, French and German and turned to be a Typhoon pilot who had been shot down six months earlier! He said he had stayed in France to help the Resistance and worked for the Germans as a driver. *

Among the fugitives at the French policeman's home was Libby, a Norwegian pilot shot down five months earlier and Terry Kearins, downed on July 15.

* Thanks to Mr Philippe Goldstein, reader of our page who informed us of the identity of the driver :

This polyglot character is Harold R Merlin of 175 SQN shot down on 16/08/1943 who "worked" with Joseph Becker / Réseau Bordeaux Loupiac.

The next day, the same car, but with another driver took the three evaders to Amiens station where, chaperoned from a distance by a young woman they were not allowed to speak to, they took a train to Paris.

After arriving at Paris Gare du Nord, they were all supposed to take an underground line to the Gare de Lyon before boarding a train to Switzerland. However, during their journey, a counter-order was received, sending them Sens, south-east of Paris. There, for unknown reasons, Libby, the Norwegian, was separated from the group.

Checketts and Kearins continued their journey to Joigny, where they were met and welcomed by Gabrielle and Louise Meyer.

A few days later a man ‘from Paris’ informed them that they would not go to Switzerland, but straight back to England.

They were sent back to Paris where they re-joined Libby and all three fugitives caught the train to Vannes via Orleans, Tours and Nantes. They were met by 21-year-old Agnès de la Barre de Nanteuil, who took them to the Lavenant family farm near Vannes in Le Saindo en Theix. They stayed there for a week before taking a train to Quimper where another woman was waiting to meet them. She took them to the Renault garage run by the Nargeot family.

Thank you to Me Laurence Christu who provided us with this clarification about the night spent at his grandparents' house:

In Quimper they were taken to my grandparents' house (Armand and Fernande Nargeot) who were Renault garage owners (it was not a café as it is often indicated)... so they were taken to their home by a resistance fighter: Miss Richard; the night came, and when everyone was sleeping someone knocked on the door, it was the gestapo, my grandmother parlamented for a long time through the window while my mother hid them in the garden, when the danger was removed they returned home.

Once again they took a train: when they arrived in Quimper, a woman was waiting for them and took them to the Renault garage run by Mr. and Mrs. Nargeot.

Thanks to Me Laurence Christu who gave us this information about the night spent at her grandparents' house:

In Quimper they were taken to my grandparents' (Armand and Fernande Nargeot) who were Renault garage owners (it was not a café as is often indicated)...they were therefore taken to their home by a Resistance fighter: When night came and everyone was asleep, there was a knock on the door, it was the Gestapo. My grandmother spoke for a long time through the window while my mother hid them in the garden, and when the danger was over, they returned home.

J. Checketts and T. Kearins then went to Plomodiern where they stayed for a short time hidden with two American pilots in a cache in the chapel of Menez-Hom; they then went to Camaret (near Brest). Again for an unknown reason, Libby did not make the trip.

With other Allied airmen they were hidden in the bakery of M Batany. From there, alone or in pairs, they had to make sure they reached the canoe with which they would reach the "Suzanne-René", a fishing boat that was waiting for them. The operation was very risky because German patrols were closely watching the docks; moreover, the bad weather would not allow them to set sail until six days later, in the morning at 9:00 am. Finally, in the middle of the afternoon, 2 Typhoons appeared and escorted them to a naval base from where they would be transported to Penzance, Cornwall.

Mr. and Mrs. Lecointe, arrested, deported, died a few years after their return to France

Mr. Edouard Delozière, died in 1977

Mr. Jean Delozière, deceased in 2009

Mrs. Tellier, deceased in 1974

Mrs. Marie Meyer, deceased in 1945

Miss Agnès de Nanteuil, arrested by the Gestapo in March 1944, she was wounded a few weeks later in the train that was taking her to deportation and died in Paray le Monial.

Miss Marie Lavenant, fillee of the family, decorated with the military medal after the war, then with the Legion of Honor in 2004, died on July 20, 2016.

Mr. Robert Desgardin, deceased in 2016.

*Thanks to Mr. Jean-Luc Van Keirsbilck, son-in-law of Me Marie Van Belle (Marie Lavenant's wife's name) who brought important precisions to the writing of this article, in particular by indicating the real name of the boat which helped J. Checketts to return to England (this one is often wrongly called "Suzette")

With the crew of J.M Balcon, Joseph Morvan and Alain Marchand, the "Suzanne-René" under the nose of the Germans, transported 18 airmen to Newlyn: 14 Americans and 4 English (Louis Calvez "La Presqu'île de Crozon").

THE ENGINE IS NOW ON DISPLAY AT WIGRAM AIR MUSEUM, NEW ZEALAND

"Courtesy of the Air Force Museum of New Zealand'