Meanwhile, Cecil was born probably in
Bizana, Transkei in 1908. He and his
older brother Thomas and sisters Elsie
and Kathleen lived in Bizana, Flagstaff
and Libode (all in the Transkei) before
moving to Umtata when Thomas joined the
Army in 1915. The two boys attended
Umtata High School, but the girls went
to the Umtata Convent.
Brothers Thomas (left) and Cecil as
schoolboys at Umtata High School
(Picture courtesy of Mrs. Sefton Jones)
Cecil
probably worked as a stoker on the Union
castle Mail boat to England, before he
joined the Army and was posted to India.
After his discharge he retuned to
Northern Rhodesia, where the family had
moved to, but after the outbreak of the
Second World War, he once more returned
to England and joined the RAF.
Cecil
after he joined up (Picture courtesy of Mrs. Sefton Jones)
Cecil
and an unidentified friend while in the
RAF
(Picture courtesy of Mrs. Sefton Jones)
Cecil became an
observer with
58 Squadron, operating out of Linton-on-Ouse
and flying Whitley bombers.
On 7/8
April 1941 the squadron participated in a
mission to Kiel and Emden. P/O Jones was with a crew captained
by P/O Ronald Carrapiett.
The other members
of the crew were second pilot Sgt Anthony
White, air gunner Sgt Arthur Wroath, and wireless operator
Sgt Arthur Mason.
In flying
gear
(Picture courtesy of Mrs. Sefton Jones)
58 squadron
was ordered to attack the harbour in Kiel/Emdem. At 20.55 the crew takes off from their
base, Linton-on-Ouse, in Whitley T4145 GE-P
for 'Peter'. No fixes or "Off Target"
signals are received.
The
Whitley was most likely intercepted on the
way to the target area by a German night
fighter, piloted by Oberfeldwebel Paul
Gildner of 4./NJG1. Ofw. Gildner was stationed at Leeuwarden airfield
and patrolling his "box" over Northern
Netherlands.
At 00.27 Gildner attacks the
Whitley. After being hit by a burst of
the night fighter's cannons, the Whitley explodes.
Burning pieces of wreckage come down in a
wide area; the tail section comes down on
the Woortmansdijk in the town of Waterhuizen,
just 7 kilometers south west of the city of
Groningen. Another piece of the fuselage
crashes near the farm of the Steen brothers
in Waterhuizen. Several of the bombs aboard
explode on impact. Seven unexploded bombs are found the next day
in fields nearby.
The wreckage
of Whitley T4145. (picture courtesy of Nachtjagdarchiv Horst Diener via Ab Jansen
in Wespennest Leeuwarden, vol. I,
page 118)
That there
was a violent
explosion can be deducted from
the fact that a part of the right wing is
found one and a half kilometers from the main wreckage.
Four of the
five crew members die. They are found
between the wreckage of the
plane. The only crew member to survive is
Sgt Arthur Mason. He lands by parachute
near the shipyard of the van Diepen
Brothers. He was apparently wounded in the
neck due to his landing in a tree. Father and son Wiegers hear
him calling out for help and find him
wounded and bleeding. They take him to the house of the director of the shipyard.
He is given some brandy and
is known to have said that this was the
third time he had "come down" and had
"enough of it". It was not possible to keep
the flier in hiding as many people,
including collaborators, knew he had come
down and was known to enjoy the hospitality
of Mr. van Diepen. He was handed over to the
Germans and taken to the
hospital in Groningen. After
his recovery and interrogation he spent the
rest of the war in a PoW camp.
German
soldiers inspecting the wreckage at the
Woortmansdijk near Waterhuizen. (Picture
courtesy of Co Maarschalkerweerd)
The right wing
that was found approximately 1,5 kilometers
from the rest of the wreckage and
close to were Sgt Mason landed by Parachute.
(Picture courtesy of Co Maarschalkerweerd)
German
soldiers inspecting the wreckage of T4145.
(Picture courtesy of Co Maarschalkerweerd)
The same
night the body of P/O Carrapiett is found in
a field nearby. The body of a second crew
member, possible Sgt White, is found,
sitting up on the bank of a small creek.
The same day Jan and Hendrik Steen are
ordered by the Germans to salvage the
wreckage. The Germans want to cut it up so
they can transport it easier. When the two
brothers pull away a large piece of
wreckage, the are confronted by a crew
member with a machinegun on his lap, in a
pose ready to shoot. A German quickly pulls
Hendrik out of the line of fire. However,
the man was killed in the crash and is
probably observer P/O Cecil Jones.
Temporary
graves of P/O Cecil Jones, some of his crew
and Sgt McLean and P/OEccles, 103 Sqn
(Picture courtesy of Mrs. Sefton Jones)
The salvage
operation takes from 10 April till 16 April,
when the last bombs in the fields are
detonated.
P/O Jones buried at the Esserveld cemetery
in Groningen, Plot RW. Row Class 2. Joint
grave 2.
(picture by
Wim Bastiaanse)