I was not surprised to find that the wind that had blown directly in my face all the way down the Canal de Somme continued today.

Relive ‘Day 9 – English Channel to Tournehem-sur-la-Hem’

14:15HRS.  11TH MAY 1940

6 German Messerschmitt Fighters (ME109° attack the Blenheim carrying PANTON, CHRISTIE and BENCE. Christie received a piece of shrapnel to his head and BENCE a serious leg injury. The resulting crash is credited to Leutnant Horst BRAXATOR who claims the aircraft was shot down over Overyssche (Overijse, Belgium) at 17:55. BRAXATOR was the Geschwaders first combat fatality since the outbreak of the war.

PANTON reports that they crash-landed near a large house just to the west of Hasselt, Belgium. Despite continued attacks from the ME109’s and considerable personal injury in the form of burns, PANTON managed to extricate CHRISTIE and BENCE from the aircraft. He loaded them into a Renault car that he had liberated from the nearby house and set off in the direction of Brussels in search of a hospital.

20:30HRS  11 MAY 1940

During the trip back CHRISTIE and BENCE are drifting in and out of consciousness. At one point they have to stop t let a large convoy of German troops pass.  By late afternoon they come upon a Squadron of British Army Officers, receive first aid, provide some intelligence to the OIC and continue in the direction of Leuven where they are told there is a RAMC (Royal Army Medical Corps) Casualty Clearing Station.

Without stopping they eventually join a long convoy of refugees, all heading in the direction of Brussels. At 20:30hrs the convoy is attacked by a Junkers 88 of the Luftwaffe. Eventually at 20:40 they come upon some more British Troops who tag them onto the rear of a convoy of Ambulances heading in the direction of the hospital in Brussels.

22:00 11 MAY 1940.

They eventually arrive at a civilian hospital in Brussels and despite initially being turned away they manage to get attended to. CHRISTIE and BENCE are put in a ward and eventually joined by the PANTON who falls asleep.

18TH MAY 1940

Thinking he had only closed his eyes for a few seconds PANTON awoke to find he had been asleep for 7 days. The Germans were advancing and in the late evening, they were taken to a Hospital Train to Amiens. CHRISTIE was semi-conscious, still heavily concussed and not fully aware of where he was or what he was doing. BENCE, on the other hand, was heavily sedated. PANTON had managed to put his uniform back on, CHRISTIE and BENCE were on stretchers.

19TH MAY 1940

The progress of the train journey can be seen on the above Google Map.

Dawn – The train enters KORTRIJK in Belgium
Midday – Crosses the boarder into France.
Evening – Arrives in ST. OMAR

LATE MORNING 20TH MAY 1940

The train arrived near to  ÉTAPLES, the final stage of the journey as it approached Amiens. When they arrived PANTON saw an Ambulance and Crew of a Royal Army Medical Corps. He asked them to take him, CHRISTIE and BENCE to their base at BERCK PLAGE. They, of course, agreed but the commandant of the train refused to let them leave the train. Such was the tension in the situation, someone could have been shot if they had insisted.

As the train moved off PANTON saw CHRISTIE melting into the crowds. PANTON jumped from the train too, hiding in the station buildings and then making his way to the last remaining squadron base in France at CRÉCY.

PANTON never saw CHRISTIE again. he heard that he had been evacuated back to the UK and also that he was killed later in the war. In his book he describes CHRISTIE in the following words:

I liked him very much indeed. In all the long, sometimes testing hours we had spent together, he remained courteous, helpful and unruffled. There are not many like him.

BENCE had his leg amputated just below the thigh and was taken prisoner by the Germans. PANTON did meet up with BENCE again in 1982.