Black RAF WWII veteran honoured

Flight Lieutenant Grant was shot down over Holland in 1943 while returning from a bombing mission over the Ruhr, survived capture by the Gestapo, and was imprisoned for two years in the infamous Stalag Luft III prisoner of war camp in Silesia.

He has been honoured as an 'inspirational example' of how black men and women fought alongside white servicemen and women in the fight for freedom in two world wars.

His honour was planned by the Bomber Command Association before his death but his family decided to continue with the arrangements which involved a plaque being presented to his youngest daughter Sami Moxon.

She said:

"Dad was planning right to the end to make this ceremony in his honour - I am privileged to receive it on his behalf.

"He would have been very proud at this particular recognition of his contribution to the war effort. As the plaque says, he 'valiantly served in World War Two to ensure our freedom'."

Flight Lieutenant Grant was originally invited to be honoured last year during a 'Caribbean Glory' event in the US to raise the profile of West Indians' contribution to two world wars.

It was attended by Attorney General The Right Honourable The Baroness Scotland of Asthal, who noted he was too ill to attend, so she offered to honour him in the UK where he lived.

Flight Lieutenant Grant's Lancaster was attacked by a German night-fighter and exploded in mid-air as it returned from a bombing mission over the German industrial heartland of the Ruhr.

The crash was heard by 11-year-old Dutch boy Joost Klootwijk who cycled the next morning to the scene of the wreckage.

Later he heard of locals describing the 'dark-skinned navigator' who had initially sought shelter (with the aid of local farmers) in a local barn before realising his capture was inevitable and allowing himself to be given up to local police and the German authorities to prevent families suffering reprisals.

His was one of 6,500 aircraft - mainly RAF - that came down on Dutch territory. An estimated 2,000 wrecks are still buried and around 450 aircrew are still listed as missing in action.

More than 55,000 members of Bomber Command perished during the Second World War, the nightmare entry 'failed to return' in the flying logs of UK-based squadrons bringing misery to countless families as aircrew after aircrew from Britain, the Commonwealth and other nations died taking the war to Germany - a crucial factor in the defeat of Nazism.

Flight Lieutenant Grant was one of nearly 10,000 aircrew taken prisoner. He was transferred to Stalag Luft III where he served out the rest of the war, during which time his face was used in Nazi newspapers and propaganda to suggest the RAF was losing the war as it was using black aircrew.

The stories bore a photograph whose caption was: 'A member of the RAF of indeterminate race'. After the war Flight Lieutenant Grant used this as the title of his war memoir.

The Dutch boy that heard Flight Lieutenant Grant's plane crash has now published a book released this week entitled 'Lancaster W4827: failed to return'.

In the foreword Flight Lieutenant Grant wrote:

"Joost was able to trace the airfield in England where my Lancaster had taken off, the name of the squadron and even the total bomb load carried.

"He succeeded in tracing the members of the crew who survived, including me, to learn their version of events, the role of the Germans and the Dutch police whose duty it was to hand over shot-down aircrew like myself."

By the end of the war in 1945, there were between 300 and 500 aircrew from the Caribbean out of a total of around 6,000 volunteers who served during World War II.

About 70 were commissioned and 103 received decorations.

Joost's son Hans decided to create a special website - see Related Links - as an online memorial to fallen Caribbean aircrew, and it is now the most authoritative website on British West Indians who served in the Royal Air Force.