Killed in action – the young gunner shot down in ‘friendly fire’ mistake
SERGEANT (air gunner) Wilfred John Pye was killed in Tunisia in December 1942 aged just 20.
He was born in Ormskirk where his parents lived on Tank Lane, later renamed Tower Hill.
His father, John William, and mother, Edith Ellen, née Jenkins, were married in 1903.
Their daughter, Edith, was born in 1908 but they waited another 14 years for a son; Wilfred was born when his father was 42.
Wilfred would have attended the Ormskirk Parochial Boys School, Aughton Street.
When he was old enough, he joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserves, enlisting at Padgate early in the war and was a sergeant by the age of 20, being posted overseas in May 1942 with the 117th Squadron RAFVR.
His loss was tragic but more so because his parents lost their longawaited and only son when his plane was shot out of the sky by an American patrol flight.
Wilfred was on the Lockhead Hudson – a light bomber and coastal reconnaissance aircraft – identified as FK389 on a daytime operational flight on December 27 1942, which was leading a convoy of Hawker Hurricane aircraft to fly from the Middle East to Tunisia.
During the flight the American-built Hudson inadvertently approached a US air base in Tunis occupied by an American (P40) fighter squadron, and the Hudson was shot down by a patrol that had failed to identify it as a friendly aircraft.
All on board FK389 were killed: RAF FO Popplestone, C L W Captain (pilot) RAAF 405112 Flt Sgt RC Thiele, (2nd pilot), RAF Sgt A A J Mills, (observer) RAF Sgt W J Pye, (wireless air gunner), and RAF Sgt T Holliday (rigger).
The men are buried in the Enfidaville War Cemetery in Tunisia.
It is very difficult to imagine the loss felt by Wilfred’s parents and sister, and whether they were informed of the circumstances.
Certainly it is recorded that the air crew were buried in unknown graves in Feriana Civil Cemetery,
Tunisia, with a wooden cross reading “Unknown Airman” on each grave apart from FO Popplestone who was identified by his rank.
Two years later, in the summer of 1944, the No 8 Graves Unit was ordered to locate the graves of these unknown men and identify them for reburial.
This was done and Wilfred and two of his comrades, Sgt Mils and LAC Holliday were buried in the same grave in Enfidaville War Cemetery on December 22 1944; they were later given individual headstones by the Commonwealth War Graves Commission.
Again, it is not clear that Wilfred’s family were fully aware of that.
Wilfred’s death was reported in the Liverpool Evening Express on January 20 and the Liverpool Echo of January 22 1943 and he was reported as “killed in action” as the military did not differentiate between killed by enemy action or friendly fire in those circumstances.
The place of his death was given as “in the Middle East”.
Wilfred’s father, John, will have been sent the two medals his son was entitled to – the British War Medal 1939-1935 and the 1939-1945 Star.
Wilfred is recorded on the WWII War Memorial panel in Ormskirk Parish Church and also on the Comrades Roll of Honour in the West Lancs Borough Council offices, formerly in the Comrades in Southport Road, and his name is now on the WWII memorial plinth in Coronation Park that was erected in 2016.
If any reader has any information on other men lost during WWII from this district please get in touch via the Advertiser, each man will be covered over the coming months with as much detail as possible.