Keith James Kinchington ( - 11 June 1944)
An airman from Epsom, is honoured in France.

When anybody goes to war their future must be considered at best, uncertain. All serve, many survive, and others are heroes. Some die, but never leave a mark; some outcomes are known; some are lost to history, while other stories emerge much later from the mists of time.

It was thus when the Epsom and Ewell Local and Family History Centre (E&ELFHC) were contacted by Monsieur Frederick Vincent, from Bois d'Arcy, a village to the west of Paris asking if we had any knowledge of the Kinchington family from the Epsom area, during the Second World War.

Having heard of similar searches M. Vincent had made for other WW2 plane crashes in France, a group of veterans got in touch with him and asked for his technical assistance. He is a WW2 aviation buff and vice-Chairman of a re-enactment club named "US Army Air Force - Club Europe (USAAF-CE)" which specializes in WW2 allied air forces. He suggested that beyond the historical circumstances he could help them find the relatives of the crew members. This is where we came in.

The reason for the enquiry was that the village was to unveil a memorial to the crews of two RAF Lancaster bombers that crashed near the village in June 1944. One came from 166 Sqdn. The other was from 625 Sqdn., in which the rear gunner, Keith James Kinchington came from Epsom. The History Centre, together with The Epsom Guardian, whom M. Vincent had also contacted, traced at least two members of the family, but what else could be found?

After some research at The National Archives at Kew, that one of our volunteers had an opportunity to carry out, it would seem that the crew in question all joined 625 Squadron on 18 April 1944, being transferred from 11 Base, and first flew operationally on 24 April on a raid to Karlsruhe in Germany, They flew in Lancaster W4263.

Subsequent missions included the following, in the build up to D-Day

11 May 44	ND472	to Haslett	Mission aborted
21 May 44	LM427	to Duisberg
22 May 44	ND639	to Dortmund
24 May 44	LM427	to le Clipon
27 May 44	LL956	to Merville
28 May 44	LM512	to EU coastal batteries	(Meaning of 'EU' is not known)
31 May 44	LL897	to Tergnier	Mission abandoned due to icing up port outer engine.(One of 3 to return to base)
7 June 44	ME733	to Foret de Cerisy
10 June 44	ND472	to Archeres	Aircraft lost

The Crew of Lancaster Mk III. ND 742 of 625 Squadron call sign CF - F took off from RAF Kelstern in Lincolnshire at 2332 hours .All were members of the RAFVR (Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve).

Official reports state, "Presumed shot down by night fighters on night of 10/11 June 1944, while attacking rail facilities at Archeres. Aircraft crashed near Bois d'Arcy near Versailles"

More aircraft were lost to night fighters than any other cause. Of those aircrew who were operational at the start of the war only 10% survived to the end. Also, Bomber Command lost more aircrew on a single night than Fighter Command lost throughout the entire Battle of Britain i.e. 497 (officially from 10 July to 31 October 1940). At this rate it is hardly surprising that Bomber Command's aircrew losses during WW2 were more than 55,000. As has been said by others, "If today it represents a debt which can never be repaid, it is at least a debt which must never be forgotten".

The unfortunate crew are buried at Clichy New Communal Cemetery, and are listed as being in Plot 16, Row 14, Graves 9 & 10. while Sgt Kinchington is also in Plot 16 Row 14, but Grave no. 1 . There is no known reason why this should be.

Details of the crew subsequently discovered from various sources, is shown below. The ranks given are those at the time of the operation, and not as shown on the memorial which include promotions that had been 'in the pipeline'

Rank	Name	Postn	Ser no.	Age	Family Details - if known.
P/O	James Dudman	Pilot	174032	26	Son of William James & Nora Annie Dudman
Sgt	Geoffrey Laurence Mills	Flt/Engr	1891587	20	Son of Mr & Mrs F K Mills Walthamstow Essex.
P/O	John William Wells	Navgtr	175072	34	Son of Tom & Ann Hainsworth Wells.and husband of Elsie Wells ofWibsey Bradford Yks.
F/Sgt	Peter Cowie	Air Bomber	177640	N/K	CWGC give no details
F/Sgt	John Taylor	W/Op	1079856	N/K	CWGC no details.But husband of Barbara & father of Linda Jacqueline, b. 22 2 1945.Station House Beckingham nr Doncaster.
Sgt	Robert Bruce Hodgins RCAF	Air gunner	R/197404	20	Son of Henry & Edna N Hodgins of Park Hill, Ontario Canada
Sgt	Keith James Kinchington	Air gunner	1338708	22	Son of James Daniel & Kitty Faith Kinchington (nee Rogers) and husband to Marjorie Evelyn, (Margie) (nee Plowman) of Epsom married in spring of 1943.

A great deal of effort must have gone into the preparations for the unveiling on 20 June 2007 of the monument to honour the crews of the two aircraft that crashed on 10 June 1944. But why now? There was no obvious reason or anniversary.

When asked, M. Vincent said "Why now ? There is no particular reason except that the local French veterans association of Bois d'Arcy wanted to honour the 14 dead airmen who fell on their soil in the fight for our freedom".

What was proposed was a dedication ceremony on 20 June 2007 with the following invitees :

On the day, the monument was unveiled with appropriate ceremony and much emotion.. It is to be hoped that more opportunities are given to record the many heroes of World War Two.

E&ELFHC were happy to have been able to help uncover some of this story of a brave aircrew and an air gunner who lived in Epsom.