Some of you may remember the 1970s BBC drama The Secret Army about a Belgian escape line set up to help downed British and Allied airmen to evade capture and return to the UK. This is the story of Sergeant Leonard Arthur Warburton who was one of the first airmen returned by the real life Secret Army, known as The Comete line.
This story was brought to my attention by Len’s niece Pat Jones at the recent Warburton Day in Altrincham. Pat’s brother Martin Warburton has also provided valuable assistance. My main source of information is the story at: https://www.backtonormandy.org/stories/136-stories/649-the-cross-in-the-heather-of-boxbergheide-genk.html?showall=1&limitstart=. Additional information is from the 207 Squadron RAF History site at http://www.207squadron.rafinfo.org.uk/belgium0505/Boxbergheide_070505.htm.
The history of the Comete line can be found at http://www.belgiumww2.info.
Leonard Arthur Warburton was born in 1915 in Chorlton cum Hardy, Manchester, and is a descendant of a family from Morley, near Wilmslow, Cheshire that features in the Ashley and Morley clan. His line was not previously documented fully, but it has now been added.
On August 31st 1941 Sergeant Warburton was 2nd wireless operator/gunner on Wellington R 1703-J which participated in a 108 plane attack on Cologne. The plane was from the 101st Squadron based at Oakington, Cambridgeshire and commanded by Pilot Officer John Frederick Ashton, aged 22. The four other crew members were Sergeant Ernest Lane, Observer, Sergeant John Redden, wireless operator, Sergeant Robert Wood, second pilot, and Sergeant John Hutton, rear gunner.
Two hours after take-off the plane was shot down whilst returning from the raid by a German night fighter and crashed in flames onto a heath at Boxbergheide, near Genk in Belgium.
The German Wehrmacht were quickly on the scene and found three bodies which were buried close by in the heather. These were the bodies of Ashton, Lane and Redden.
The site of the burial soon grew in significance. Flowers were often put on the graves by Miss Jeanne Dries, who regularly plundered the bushes at home, but also by Mrs. Leonie Decosemaker-Thoelen who ran a shop in the Winterslagstraat in Genk. The graves were frequently destroyed, by the local Hitler Youth, but was always restored by the local people.
A short time after the aeroplane had crashed, a wooden cross was put on the spot by the Glowacki-Plocinnik family, originating from Ikern in Poland. The wooden cross which was put there was made of burnt wood and its horizontal beam had the shape of an aeroplane’s propeller. Again the cross was regularly thrown into the heather, but always found and replaced.
Then in the autumn of 1943 a concrete cross appeared. This concrete cross had been made secretly in the Winterslag mine by the employees. It was on a dark late night between 10pm and 11pm that the cross was put in its place by its producer Mr and Mrs François Beelen, assisted by Mr and Mrs Pierre Reiss from the mine’s drawing office. At that time Mr Beelen was head of the production department of the Winterslag mine, and he also made the crosses that were put on the graves of Russian prisoners of war that had died during their work in the underground workings. This was during the time of occupation by the Germans and one can imagine the danger to which these people exposed themselves – a concrete cross is not easily hidden under a coat.
During the occupation Miss Daisy Gielen, who was also involved in the escape routes, successfully wrote to the Red Cross in order to find out the names of the fallen airmen. After the war she received a number of relatives at the graves. One mother took back to England “sprigs of heather fed by the blood of my boy”.
After the war the site was developed into a memorial for all RAF personnel who lost their lives in the province of Limburg during the war. The three fallen airmen were relocated by the British services to Schaffen where there is a military cemetery and where a ceremony is held each year to commemorate the fallen soldiers.
Pilot Officer Ashton had kept his plane flying long enough for 3 of the crew to parachute to safety. Sergeant Wood was wounded and soon captured by the Germans. He spent the rest of the war as a POW and later lived in Dallas, Texas.
Len Warburton and John Hutton landed safely. As Len was burying his parachute he was approached by some local people who wanted it for the cloth. They took him to where John Hutton had landed and the two set off to the west.
They passed through a village where they even exchanged a “Gute Nacht” with some German soldiers. They then slept in a potato field behind a hedge until morning. They were woken by the voices to two German soldiers on the other side of the hedge who were going to a local farm for milk.
When it was safe they looked around and saw a farmhouse at the end of the field. According to Len this farmhouse had “Vive le RAF” painted on the wall, but locals believe this is hardly possible in the circumstances in that region, and maybe Len was thinking of a farm he saw later in France.
In any case they decided knock on the back door of the farmhouse. They were warmly received and given milk. A little girl gave Len a scapular which is small piece of cloth containing the relic of a saint. He kept it in his wallet as a lucky charm for the rest of his life.
They were shown to a barn where they slept until awoken by two young women couriers who had brought them civilian clothes and two bicycles. They were taken about 3 kilometres to Hasselt where they were first questioned and then taken to shelter. Len was taken to a Monsieur Colaris who kept a pharmacy. He stayed there for 14 days before Mssr Colaris took him by train to Brussels. Len returned to visit the Colaris family after the war and subsequently kept in touch with Mssr Colaris’s daughter.
Len stayed in Brussels until about December, moving from place to place. He was reunited with John Hutton during this time. They were now firmly in the care of the Comete Line who arranged their transit through France to Spain, and back to England.
Len said of the Belgians who helped him “They were true patriots of the Belgian Resistance, and in Brussels or in the environment, I stayed one or two days, once or twice a fortnight [at each place]. The Belgian Resistance was amazing and I will remain grateful to them forever. It is sad however that so many had to die on this ‘job’, but they will never be forgotten”.
Sergeant Hutton returned to active duty on his return to England. He was killed over Calais six days after D-Day.
As Len was amongst the first few airmen to escape down the Comete Line the authorities in the UK were keen to learn all they could from him about it. After some detailed questioning Len started preliminary training as a pilot. In 1943 he went to Canada to conclude his training, but there is no record of any further operational duties before his discharge, with the rank of Flight Lieutenant, in 1945.
Len married Alice (Tess) Guest in 1944. After the war he rejoined the family business. In 1925 Len’s father Arthur had established a business in Manchester as a Ladies Fashion Agent. Len first joined the business in 1936, and his brother Ron joined in 1940, and the business became Arthur Warburton & Sons, Fashion Agents (for ladies coats, suits, dresses & ensembles). Len lived with Tess in Sale, Cheshire and worked in the business with his brother Ron until they both retired in 1982 when the business closed. He died in 1989 at Wythenshawe hospital. He had no children.