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The CWGC record Sergeant James O’Fee as the son of James and Jenny O'Fee of Kilrea, County Londonderry, Northern Ireland. |
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James Edward O’Fee was the son of James and Jenny O'Fee. He was born about 1920. |
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James Edward O’Fee served with the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve in World War Two. |
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By August 1944, Sergeant James Edward O’Fee was with 18 Squadron. |
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Sergeant James O’Fee was part of a crew of four which had taken off in a Boston aircraft (Serial Number BZ463) from Cesena in Italy at 22:30 on the night of 8th August 1944. It was on a night reconnaissance interdiction sortie over the Forli area, north west of Cesena. |
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The aircraft was shot down in the early hours of the following morning by the flak near Savignano sul Rubicone. The four man crew were lost. They were: |
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A thirteen year old Italian boy witness the crash. His report is translated from Italian: |
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‘I had been displaced with my sister Attilia since early July 1944 in via San Bartolo di Savignano sul Rubicone, in a country house of the Ricci family (Micalantoni, a house that now does not exist more). One very hot night we heard an immense noise enveloping the whole house. From the open window we saw a plane flying at low altitude wrapped in flames like a fireball that in the fall was heading north. It was an English airplane hit by the German antiaircraft near Rimini or Santarcangelo. The plane was in flames at low altitude and crossed Pietà, via Emilia, the railway line. The airplane, which was a night-time scout, crashed into the fields to the left of the provincial road to San Mauro, at the height of the brick furnace on the opposite side. The next morning with my bicycle, against the wishes of my sister, I went to see. The airplane had cut wires and several trees on the road and crashed still smoking in the field just beyond the road. I remember that German soldiers had surrounded the place and kept the curious away. The parish priest of Suffragio and of the cemetery of Savignano, Don Marino Giacomoni (1884-1953) collected the poor remains of the pilots in parachute flaps, then put on a cart he transported them to the nearby cemetery to give him a burial. Several years later, when the urbanisation spread on that side, many meters ahead in the construction of a factory, (Gemma di Nicolini), pieces of a propeller and other metal fragments were found. Certainly many other fragments will have been found during the excavations to make houses in that area. Other citizens of Savignano remember that event.’ |
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The four crew were initially buried at Grid Ref IT:1/50000 SH100-II 2798,025, Cesena. |
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Sergeant James O’Fee and the three other men were reinterred in Cesena War Cemetery on 4th July 1945. |
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He is also commemorated locally on the family headstone Kilrea Roman Catholic Church grounds. |
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Sergeant Jack HUGHES (1582761) |
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Flying Officer Alfred Ronald GASKELL (162083) |
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Sergeant Sidney George Apark ANSELL (756962) |
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Sergeant James Edward O'FEE (1544258) |
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The actual Boston Mark IV, BZ463, on the ground at Boscombe Down, Wiltshire, while undergoing armament tests with 1000-lb MC bombs mounted on wing pylons. This aircraft later served with No. 18 Squadron RAF in Italy. |
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Sergeant James O’Fee is commemorated locally on Kilrea War Memorial. |
