LIKE many young boys, Eric Richomme was fascinated by planes.
Leaving Jersey aged just 16 during the early days of the Occupation to join the Allied forces in the Second World War, the former De La Salle College pupil enlisted in the Royal Air Force, a move which starts a story combining mystery and emotion, and one that has never been fully told before.
Sergeant Flight Engineer Richomme was just 20 when Lancaster Bomber JB664, of which he was a member of the seven-man crew, was shot down near the French village of Bransles, around 60 miles southeast of Paris.
The log book for RAF Bomber Command’s Squadron 106 shows that the plane took off from RAF Metheringham near Lincoln at 10pm on Tuesday 27 June 1944. Chillingly, the record then states that “nothing was heard from this aircraft after leaving base”, followed by the single-word conclusion “MISSING”.
More than 80 years later, relatives of Sgt Richomme are due to travel to France this summer to take part in commemorative events to acknowledge those who perished that night and whose final resting place is the communal cemetery in Bransles.
The trip to France will be especially moving for nieces Bunty Langford and Anne Trafford. Even while sitting in the front room of Mrs Langford’s home in St Brelade, the emotion of the family’s enduring war-time story is readily apparent when talking to the sisters about the uncle they never knew.
One of the built-in features of the story is how little is known about uncle Eric after he left Jersey in 1940, soon after the Occupying forces arrived.
Mrs Langford, born after the end of the war and given the middle name Erica in honour of her uncle, said that her mother, Roselle Quant (née Richomme), and her grandparents, Philip and Gertrude Richomme, had always found Liberation Day difficult, particularly on 9 May 1945, at which stage her younger brother was still officially listed as missing.
“Lots of people were welcoming back their relatives after the war had ended, but my grandparents never had this opportunity; they didn’t even know what had happened to uncle Eric,” she said. “I feel emotional just thinking about how painful it must have been for my mother and father.”
The news the family feared came in a letter, dated 28 May 1945, from the Air Ministry in London, in which it was explained that Sgt Richomme’s engineer’s badge had been retrieved from his uniform and that he had been buried at Bransles Cemetery.
The letter explained that information had not been passed on previously because there was a fear that members of Sgt Richomme’s family in Nazi-occupied Jersey might suffer reprisals. Concluding the letter, the ministry’s director of personal services concluded: “In conveying this distressing information, I am to express the sincere sympathy of the department with you in your great loss.”
Mrs Langford said her grandfather, a farmer who had lived near the parish church in St Lawrence, had been profoundly distressed by the news about his only son.
“He never spoke about it after that; he just withdrew into a complete shell and never got over it,” she said.
A letter was subsequently received by Mr and Mrs Richomme from King George VI expressing “heartfelt sympathy in your great sorrow”. As well as members of his family, Sgt Richomme left behind a fiancée – the family have a picture of the couple together in uniform, but know nothing about the young woman.
Sgt Richomme’s nieces are unsure about the circumstances of his departure from Jersey, but it seems possible that he may have lied about his age, and been one of the young volunteers who joined the war effort prior to the age of 18.
Information received by the family was extremely limited, in part due to the aforementioned concerns about reprisals, although there was an exchange of telegrams in late-1942 and early-1943 in which his sisters, Roselle and Betty, sent replies to “Dear Boy”, saying how much they missed him. Betty, the youngest of the three siblings, reassured him that she had grown since her brother had last seen him more than two years ago.
Mrs Langford said it wasn’t just Liberation Day that was an emotional time for the family, with Jersey’s annual “Battle of Britain” Air Display also difficult for her.
“It’s hard to watch the Lancaster Bombers; they flew so slowly and it seems they must have been easy targets for the German guns,” she said.
Mrs Trafford said it was understood that Sgt Richomme may have been able to bail out of the plane but was then shot as he parachuted to the ground, later being identified by German soldiers
The family were contacted by civic officials from Bransles earlier this year and informed about plans to hold a weekend of commemorative events in August. This will include a visit to the cemetery, a civic reception hosted by the mayor and the unveiling of a plaque.
Relatives of fellow crewmen are expected to attend, including the family of Flying Officer Norman Easby, the plane’s captain. The Yorkshireman was the oldest member of the crew, aged just 25 at the time of his death.
“It’s wonderful that this is happening to honour the memory of our dear uncle,” Mrs Langford said. “He and so many others laid their lives down for all of us and our freedom, and it’s a great legacy for the family.”
Sgt Richomme and his colleagues are also part of the database compiled by the International Bomber Command Centre, based in Lincoln. The entry notes the motto of Squadron 106: pro libertate (for freedom), a simply summary of what those who lost their lives were fighting for, as marked in the Liberation 80 activities in Jersey earlier this month
