Short Stirling EF188 Memorial, Traon Brouen Farm, Plougonvelin

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On the night of 23/24 June 1944, Short Stirling EF188 OJ-M of 149 Squadron departed RAF Methwold at 23:14 on a Gardening (minelaying) operation in the waters around Brest. The aircraft was hit by flak and came down at Traon Brouen Farm, Plougonvelin, in the far west of Finistère, crashing in the early hours of 24 June 1944.

The human cost was devastating and fell on two families — British and French alike. Two of the crew, Pilot Officer Edward Lincoln and Flight Sergeant Leslie Richards, managed to bail out but both drowned. The remaining five crew were killed outright in the crash or on the ground.

The tragedy did not end with the aircraft. The crash killed five French civilians, four of them from the Bléas family who lived at or near Traon Brouen Farm: Jean François Bléas (43), who survived the initial crash but died of burns the following day; his son Athanase François Bléas (12); and two young daughters, Marie Claire Bléas (5) and Francine Marie Bléas (2). A local young man, Jean Marie Menguy (22), was also killed. The deaths of three children — aged 12, 5, and 2 — place this crash among the most sorrowful civilian incidents recorded in Bomber Command's Gardening campaign.

The crew are buried at two locations. Lincoln, Richards, Brady, and Fox lie in Brest Kerfautras Cemetery, Plot 47. Duckworth, Eaton, and McQuitty are buried at St Charles de Percy War Cemetery in Normandy — a split that reflects the different circumstances and locations of their deaths.

The stone memorial and plaque at Traon Brouen Farm commemorates both the airmen and the civilian dead. It stands as a reminder that this war came not only to the sky but to the farmyard.

The crash at Traon Brouen Farm killed not only the Stirling's crew but five local civilians — among them three children of the Bléas family, aged 12, 5, and 2. The stone memorial on the farm grounds commemorates both the RAF crew and the French families, a shared loss that bound the local community to this aircraft's fate from the moment it fell.

Do you know of any commemorative events or annual services held at this memorial? We would love to hear from local communities who remember.