Now and Then Magazine

Included in this magazine...

- Swimming superstar

- Rail disaster

- Cause for celebration

- Not mourned but not forgotten

- Oh Yes … Oh No

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PETER COOK
the editor

In our latest edition we feature the story of Sgt. John Pratt from Grangetown who in 1940 together with three other crew members, lost his life when their plane was shot down over the German occupied village of L’Hopital–Camtrout in Brittany.
Their charred bodies were retrieved by the Germans and buried on the crash site.

The villagers however had other ideas, and a week later almost under the noses of the occupying enemy, they retrieved the bodies of the stricken fliers and took them to a nearby churchyard for a formal burial.
Today, the four airmen still rest side by side in well preserved war graves each bearing fresh flowers which have been changed weekly by villagers for the past 72 years.
Yet during this time none of the airmens’ relatives have visited the men’s graves.

We know John Pratt was attached to 215 squadron Coastal Command, and he was the son of Robert and Jane Pratt (nee Armstrong) his parents married in 1917 and appear to have had six children of which John was the second.

When Bill Robinson, the president of Middlesbrough and Cleveland Rotary club, learned that the Rotary club of Dudley had joined forces with its twinned club in Brittany to build a monument to the four RAF airmen, he decided to travel on his motorcycle to L’Hopital-Camtrout and place his club’s pennant on Sgt. Pratt’s grave. “I felt someone from his hometown should honour this brave lad.” he said.

The names of the remaining crew members can be found in the full story on page 18 and I would be delighted to hear from anyone who can throw more light on this story.

Peter Cook – Editor-in-Chief

Email: editornowandthen@gmail.com