Frank Goddard

This story is shared by the Trust with kind permission from Pete Colley, Curator, Wickenby Museum. Additional information and photo is courtesy of Andrew Greathead, nephew of Frank Goddard.

Remembering Frank Goddard, Sgt, Navigator, aged 23, son of Mr. and Mrs. C. Goddard, of Birmingham.

Frank Goddard was born on 12 February 1921 in Tyseley, Birmingham, the son of Charles and Dora Goddard. They lived in Medina Road, Birmingham 11. He was the second of eight children, he had an elder sister Dorothy, four younger sisters, Eileen, Phyllis, Kathleen (my mother) and Joan and two younger brothers Alan and John. Kathleen and Joan are still alive.

He attended Greet Infant and Junior School and Formans Road Secondary School. He was an active sportsman, especially playing football. On leaving school he worked as a tool setter but I’m told that he always wanted to fly.

He volunteered to join the Royal air Force (RAF) and was enlisted on 20 January 1942. He did part of his training in Canada and was assigned, along with his crew mates, to 626 Squadron on 13 May 1944. I understand that the crew would have been assembled at 11 Base. After a few training sorties the crew flew their first operational mission on 2 June 1944.

A couple of anecdotes – Frank's brother, John, recalled that a couple of weeks before the crash, the whole crew unexpectedly turned up in Medina Road as they had a 48-hour pass. They had travelled to Birmingham by train. You may remember the old compartment carriages. These carriages had a mirror above each seat. On the way down they decided that they needed to take a present to Frank's mother, so they unscrewed a mirror, wrapped it up in newspaper and presented it as a gift. John also remembered that one of the crew had in his words “a shock of red hair”. I’m not sure who that was?

Frank was killed on his 11th mission - airborne 22:22 on 22 Jun 1944 from Wickenby to bomb the rail facilities in Reims. His aircraft crashed at Belloy (Oise), a village set in wooded countryside 6 km south east of Tricot.

My mother, Kathleen, despite the onset of dementia occasionally still recalls the day the telegram arrived to say that Frank and the crew were missing. She remembers her mother collapsing and a queue of neighbours coming to the house to offer support.

Along with other relatives I have visited the grave in a Belloy a few times. The villagers care for the grave and we have been made most welcome. There is a lady in Belloy, Luicie Brasset (née Vectun) who witnessed the crash. Her father was the mayor of the village in 1944. They were the first "on the scene" but were unable to take any action due to the large fire. However, the following day after inspecting the crash wreckage, the occupying soldiers left the village to allow the villagers to bury the crew and hold a service.

The road leading to the field where the Lancaster crashed was named by the village of Belloy as "Avenue of the Lancaster".