Unknown pilot no longer unknown

[Regulus 1]

In 1997 I ran into an unknown gravestone of the RFC at Bovekerke churchyard, West-Flanders, the man in question died 15 September 1917.

It was something that intrigued me and it was curious that an RFC member who died on that day could not be identified. Soon it would become a goal to be able to put on a name on this grave.

Although not having plans to publish any further on the matter when we probably solved the mystery in November 2005, I recently was confronted with the fact that someone else used my material which was on the Dutch WW I forum, and tried to convince the press that he had done the job leading to the probable identification of the pilot. He even had the guts to mention the forum as a source !

As the Dutch WW I forum contains the name of the pilot and the moment in 2005 we came to this conclusion, it was not hard for us to show that we had come to that conclusion much earlier, and we also got confirmation that a new article on the matter will be published on the websites and newspaper who published the original article with the wrong information.

In order not to be confronted with other persons or the same one claiming the same matter again, we decided to go public on the matter, although the work is not yet completely finished.

After having asked the question on a number of specialised forums such as the Aerodrome, The Great War Forum, and having received the precious help of many members, also Trevor Henshaw took a further look on the matter, but we came to the conclusion at the time that we could not identify the pilot on that moment.

We decided to look at the possibility of another nationality and meanwhile started the search also on the Dutch WW I forum at www.forumeerstewereldoorlog.be

A number of possibilities came forward which we all invested one by one, and in which especially Jean-Pierre Lauwers from Brugge was active and extremely helpful.

Finally there lasted on possibility, a pilot who died of wounds. Having done quite some research on this, we had to come again to the conclusion that it was a dead end…

Locally no information was found, and we continued the search.

What about a pilot who was MIA ? On first look we didn’t find anyone MIA in that period. We even went back one month, without result.

However, meanwhile, we had also found out that Bovekerke church seemed to have been used as a reserve lazarett/fieldhospital.

So a wounded man became very evident. But who ?

We went back to Mr. Henshaw’s excellent The Sky Their Battlefield. And by searching on the CWGC site we found a pilot who had been shot down a few days earlier, his gunner was found and buried, but the pilot’s grave remained unknown, and he was listed on the Arras Flying Services Memorial.

On the 11th of September they left their airfield and one of the planes of the Squadron had a meeting with a DFW C-type, which is mentioned also in the RFC Communiqué of the day : 2nd Lt's J Binnie & Tuffield, 48 Squadron, shot down a DFW two-seater out of control near Dixmude.

They ran indeed into a plane of probably Flieger Abteilung (A)224 at 10.15

Target that day probably was Bruges. At around 11.10 (all hours are British time) a plane of the same unit, 48 Squadron ran into a pilot of the I Marine Feldjasta with the name of Lt. Friedrich von Götz, who was about to take his first aerial victory, not that it would bring him much luck, as he was killed the same evening near the coast.

His claim was above Wijnendale, on a plane going in the direction of it’s own lines, so towards Diksmuide, which was no longer that far away. The plane was a Bristol F2b, the crew, pilot Sgt WH Roebuck and the gunner 2nd Lt HT Batson.

According to the RFC they were both KIA. And here we found something curious, ok both KIA but only one of the two had a known grave at Larch Wood Cemetery in the Ypres area…

If you go from Wijnendale towards the Diksmuide area, you will pass the area of Bovekerke, Werken, etc.

So the plane certainly crashed in the area. Body not found ? It leaves us with two possibilities :

First, and the most probable one, he is found badly injured, taken to the Bovekerke fieldhospital which is very close by and died of his wounds on the 15th of September.

Second, he fell out of the plane before it crashed and his body was only recovered on the 15th. Very doubtful, as this area is quite populated with German soldiers and local population. And it would not give an exact date on his grave.

So option 1 is the most obvious one.

The only other possibility is a loss one month earlier at Vladslo, but as there was another field hospital there, there’s no chance at all that they would have taken a wounded man to Bovekerke instead and that he only died a month later of his wounds is making the odds even unbelievable small.

The name of the gunner buried at Larch Wood cemetery is 2nd Lt. Henry Thomas Batson who originally served with The Queen's (Royal West Surrey Regiment) and was 28 years old.

The pilot of his plane had at least two confirmed victories

The first one on 17 august 1917 in BF2b A7115 above Oostende at 10.25, recorded as destroyed and the second one on 4 september 1917 also above Oostende at 19.00, in BF2b A7217 recorded as Out of control. Both claims were Albatros DV planes and were made together with 2nd Air Mechanis William Walker, who would total 5 victories and receive the DCM.

Anyway, on the 23rd november 2005 Jean-Pierre Lauwers and I agreed that the unknown gravestone at Bovekerke church yard most probably belonged to Sergeant William Harold Roebuck, service number 5788, member of 48th Squadron RFC.

And this, this is the most important thing of this whole story, with just a little luck, we have been able to identify a grave of a WW I soldier, that had the mark unknown on it for 88 years. That is what we do it for, not personal honour.

Lest we forget !

[Martin Bennitt]

Well done. It must have been galling to see someone hijack your good work.

I hope official recognition of your efforts in the form of a named gravestone can follow, though I suspect you will need more evidence.

cheers Martin B

[Michael Johnson]

Excellent work, Regulus!

Michael

[ItemCo16527]

Absolutely amazing. Job well done, Regulus!

[Regulus 1]

Thank you very much gentlemen !

It was not really a pleasure having to read that someone even had the guts of referring to our forum as a source and still tried to say that he had made the discovery. Everybody can make a mistake, but this had nothing to do anymore with making just a mistake...

The good news is that we are very far with the identification of an RNAS officer on another cemetary as well, and we still have doubts between two officers for another unknown grave. It would be really nice if we could identify this grave as well.

I should get some info from Berlin before the end of the month which might give us a clue...

[stevenbecker]

Mate,

Can the body be confirmed as the man you name and what happens now to gain that confirmation?

Can the body be recovered to a CWGC site?

Cheers

S.B

[Regulus 1]

Steve, we will now take steps to the MoD for further id.

[Andrew P]

Very well done Regulus. It's great to see all the work you have put into getting this pilot remembered.

It's a pity though that when people put up their own research on forums others have the gall to claim it as their own.

Cheers

Andrew