Tag: Canadian WWII history

Following the Echoes: Into the Abyss

Posted on by Claudia Fox Reppen in English Posts, Following the Echoes, Uncategorized

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In the latest installment of Following the Echoes, it’s been quite a week of developments related to some of the individuals featured in my earlier post “The Others.” There will be more to follow, but this post is dedicated to the crew members of Wellington HX726, of which Wendell “Del” Drew was the sole survivor when their plane crashed at Luqa, Malta, on February 13, 1943.

Recently, my brother and co-author, Lance Fox, and I were able to connect with Cate Wagstaffe. Just like Del Drew, Cate’s British great-uncle, Warrant Officer John Michael Wagstaffe, served with 458 RAAF Squadron on Malta. And, like Del, he was involved in a crash there. Unlike Del, however, Wagstaffe did not survive: he and four of his crewmates were killed on April 19, 1944.

Continue reading “Following the Echoes: Into the Abyss” →

Buried in Uncertainty: A Vanished Airman, a War Crime, and the Forgotten Mystery that Remains

Posted on by Claudia Fox Reppen in English Posts, Following the Echoes
Ross Bell Nairn. Photo: Canadian Virtual War Memorial

A young Canadian airman, Ross Bell Nairn, disappeared over Germany in 1944. Evidence of a war crime was uncovered and surreptitiously removed. And then a body mysteriously appeared.

About a year ago, after reading The Job to Be Done by Clint L. Coffey, I found myself going down the proverbial rabbit hole, thanks to a tangential story mentioned in the book.

The story of Pilot Officer Ross Bell Nairn, a young airman from 405 Pathfinder Squadron, could have piqued my interest for the simple fact that he hailed from Science Hill, Ontario, a tiny farming community just outside of St. Mary’s, near my own hometown of Sarnia.

I could also attribute my interest to what I would describe as a soft spot for the stories of those who left this world without descendants and, were it not for serendipity, would have remained largely forgotten.

But there was more to this story that drew me in and wouldn’t let me go: it involves a man stumbling across evidence of a war crime deep in a German forest; the curious removal of said evidence; a certain ambiguity surrounding a tomb in France; and—especially troublesome—a grieving mother and father who went to their graves without knowing the fate of their son.

Continue reading “Buried in Uncertainty: A Vanished Airman, a War Crime, and the Forgotten Mystery that Remains” →