6 Bomber Group June 6, 1944
419 squadron sent 7 Lancasters to the coastal guns at Longues. Target was attacked from 6000 feet with crews releasing 78,000 lbs of ordinance. Richard Koval (6bombergroup.ca)
ND815 was shot down at ca. 05.00hrs on D-Day, 6 June 1944, by Hauptmann Helmut Eberspächer of Luftwaffe's I.Gruppe, Schnell-kampfgeschwader 10, 3. Staffel, who operated Focke-Wulf 190G night fighter-bombers out of Evreux. Eberspächer survived the war and corresponded with the Dutch aviation historian Theo Boiten. His account is featured in Theo Boiten's Night Airwar. Personal Recollections of the Conflict over Europe, 1939-45. Ramsbury: The Crowood Press, 1999. Eberspächer also wrote an article «Flugtag Juni 1944", in Luftwaffen-Revue 1/95 in 1995. Eberspächer's sortie is also described in Steven J. Zaloga's Smashing Hitler's Guns. The Rangers at Pointe-du-Hoc. D-Day, 1944. Cumnor Hill: Osprey, 2022. However, the kill was also claimed by Feldwebel Kurt Eisele of Eberspächer's squadron.
There were no survivors. Ashpole and an Unknown Norwegian Airman were, as far as we understand, found in the wreckage and buried in the local churchyard in Osmanville. The wreckage is said to have crashed in the garden of the local mayor. Ashpole was identified by the dental surgeon of the Norwegian War Graves Service, Major John Braadvig, in 1950; this was accepted by the RAF and his grave was subsequently rededicated and a CWGC headstone marking his name was installed. It was unfortunately not possible to identify the Norwegian; he was repatriated and is buried as an Unknown Norwegian Airman at Oslo's Western Cemetery.
The Mid-Upper Gunner, Flying Officer McCutcheon of the RCAF, and the Norwegian Rear Gunner, Sgt. Evensen, were found with what I understand to have been another piece of the wreckage, and buried at Bayeux War Cemetery. They were both identified on the basis of the piece of the wreckage and uniform effects. Sgt. Evensen was repatriated to Norway in 1946 and is buried in Oslo's Western Cemetery; being the only Norwegian crew member who is accounted for. As they were not buried in Osmanville but in Bayeux, I surmise that they were not found with Sgt. Ashpole and the Unknown Norwegian Airman.
The story of the Jespersen crew is quite well-known in Norway; there are relatively few RNAF crews that are still unaccounted for, and there is a certain shroud of mystery surrounding the case. The Norwegian War Graves Service has been reviewing and re-reviewing the case over a number of years.
In 2014, to mark the 70th anniversary of D-Day, the Norwegian Armed Forces erected a Memorial to the crew, with all names inscribed, in front of St. Clement's Church in Osmaville, with the attendance of the Chief of the Norwegian Defence Staff.
The Norwegian Armed Forces hold a ceremony there on D-Day each year. At the 80th anniversary in 2004, both the Norwegian Minister of Defence, the Chief of the Norwegian Defence Staff, and the Chief of the Norwegian Air Staff, were in attendance, as well as an honour guard from the Royal Norwegian Navy. Wreaths were laid at the memorial. The Senior Enlisted Leader of the RNAF, Command Sergeant Major Didrik Sand, laid a wreath on Sergeant Ashpole's grave.source: Haakon O. V. Vinje, Royal Norwegian Ministry of Culture and Equality
