Not forgotten: Memorial recalls loss of two World War II British pilots in Sebago Lake

By Ed Pierce

A gathering in Raymond 80 years and one day after a fateful crash during World War II remembered two British Royal Navy pilots killed while flying over Sebago Lake on Friday, May 17.

British Royal Navy Commander Vincent Owen salutes a new
memorial for two World War II British pilots who crashed
and died on a training mission over Sebago Lake in 1944
during a ceremony May 17 at Veterans Park in Raymond. 
Looking on is a contingent of U.S. sailors from the USS
John Basilone. PHOTO BY ED PIERCE       

Representatives from Great Britain and the United States dedicated a new memorial at Veterans Park in Raymond in the memory of the British aviators with two nephews of one of the lost pilots in attendance. The special ceremony included sailors from the USS John Basilone, the British Royal Navy, State Senator Tim Nangle, State Representative Jessica Fay, members of the Raymond Select Board, Raymond town officials and Dr. Peter Abbott, the British Consulate General for New England.

On May 16, 1944, a squadron of British Navy D4V Corsairs took off from Brunswick on a low-level formation training flight intended to give the pilots experience flying at low altitude over a body of water. Among the group of pilots that day were British Royal Navy Sub-Lieutenant Vaughn Reginald “Reggie” Gill, 24, who was flying aircraft JT-132, and Sub-Lieutenant Raymond Laurence Knott, 19, piloting aircraft JT-160. Both men were assigned to 732nd Squadron based at nearby Brunswick Naval Air Station in Maine.

As the formation passed over Sebago Lake near Raymond, Gill’s Corsair JT-132 suddenly banked sharply and struck the lake, sending a large plume of water flying into the air striking Knott’s aircraft, causing it to also crash into the lake. Within a matter of seconds, both aircraft quickly sank below the waters of the lake and disappeared. A military search and crash investigation began for the pilots using amphibian planes and U.S. Marines and a U.S. Navy diving bell was deployed in Sebago Lake, but no aircraft debris was ever found except for a Corsair D4V radio antenna and a small piece of an aircraft headrest.

The families of the lost pilots back in England were notified of the crash by telegram in 1944 and both pilots were declared missing in action by the Royal Navy.

In the 1990s, the Corsairs were discovered and photographed underwater in Sebago Lake more than 300 feet below the surface. A project was planned to recover the Corsairs but in 2003, a judge ruled that the aircraft and the pilots’ remains are not to be disturbed and considered to be war graves.

Last fall, the nephews of pilot “Reggie” Gill, Giles Bradley of Exeter, England and David Gill of Oxford, England, first heard about an effort to create a memorial for the pilots at Veterans Park in Raymond. “Reggie” Gill was born in India to British parents and had studied at the university level before wanting to serve his country as a Royal Navy pilot.

Bradley and Gill had heard stories through the years about their late uncle from relatives and both say they consider themselves fortunate to be able to travel to Maine and represent their family for the dedication. Surviving family members of Sub-Lieutenant Knott were unable to attend the ceremony.

“We think it’s amazing that they finally have a memorial,” Bradley said. “It’s a splendid occasion for such a fitting tribute.”

David McIntire of Raymond, the lone member of Raymond’s Veterans Committee and a retired U.S. Army officer, worked closely with James Normington, a representative of the British Commonwealth and Remembrance Project – USA to create a lasting memorial lakeside for the two Royal Navy pilots Gill and Knott.

A granite memorial was purchased from Collette Monuments in Lewiston and designed by David McIntire and Collette Monuments and approved by the British and Commonwealth Remembrance Project and the British Consulate General Peter Abbott.

Funding for the memorial was paid for by the British and Commonwealth Remembrance Project. That is a British organization situated in New England, which recognizes the service and sacrifice made by British and Commonwealth service personnel in times of war. Its volunteers help look after more than 200 British war grave sites throughout the New England area from World War I and World War II.

The day before the memorial’s dedication, the Maine Warden Service took “Reggie” Gill’s nephews out on Sebago Lake by boat and showed them where the Corsairs crashed, and where the planes sank below the water.

“We feel very privileged and honored to have done that,” Gill said. “And for us to be here on the 80th anniversary of the accident is very moving.”

The memorial dedication ceremony included speeches by Royal Navy Commander Vincent Owen and USS John Basilone Commander Carne Livingston.

Wreaths were placed on the memorial recalling the pilots’ ultimate sacrifice by Abbott and Peter Richardson, president of the British Officers Club of New England.

Normington said that dedicating the memorial almost 80 years to the day that the pilots died reinforces how difficult it was to serve in the military at that time.

“We remember what brought them here to Maine to begin with and we cannot forget,” he said. <

World War II pilot’s remains found after 75 years: Memorial services to be held in Windham on Tuesday

Burleigh Curtis

By Lorraine Glowczak

Pearl Grant, a resident of Windham for the past 93 years feels some closure now that her cousin, Burleigh Curtis, can be laid to rest in Windham, next to his parents – 75 years after his death.

According to a DPAA (Defense POW/MIA Accounting Agency) Public Affairs press release, “Army Air Forces 1^st Lt. Burleigh E. Curtis, killed during World War II, was accounted for on December 13, 2018.”

The press release continued by stating that Curtis, a member of the 377^th Fighter Squadron, 362^nd Fighter Group, piloted a P-47D aircraft on June 13, 1944. On that date, he was assigned to a dive-bomb attack near Briouze, France but, unfortunately, he crashed in a nearby field of the target. 

“Witness reported that he was not seen bailing out of the aircraft prior to the crash,” the press release stated.

“The last time I saw Burleigh was when he graduated from high school in 1939,” Grant said, who spent summers with her cousin and other family members on the family farm on Highland Cliff Road in Windham. “We all had fun. We played games, joked, laughed – a completely pleasurable experience on the farm as a family,” Grant said.

Curtis was born in Freeport, ME and lived there until the Great Depression required his family to move to Massachusetts where his father obtained a job – which was a stroke of “luck” during the hard and difficult times of the late 1920s and early 1930s. “But Burleigh along with his parents, two sisters and two brothers would always come back to Windham on summer vacations to spend time with us on our grandparents’ farm,” recalled Grant. “I don’t have any specific memories – for me it
was just a time with family, and it was something I always looked forward to.”

Grant and Curtis’s grandparents were Fred and Lida Cobb. Curtis’s sister, 94-year-old Madelyn Curtis Klose of Antrim, MA recalls her own memories of life with her brother on their grandparents’ Highland Cliff Farm:

“My grandparents had a total of 13 grandchildren, but there were ten of us who would spend the summers together on the farm in Windham,” Klose began. “One memory I have is the times when our grandfather came home from work at night, he would take all of us to the lower potato field and let us pick the very tiny fresh potatoes to eat raw. They were almost like eating peanuts.” 

Klose continued fondly, “We would play in the barn, sliding in the hay, making a mess of my

Pearl Grant of Windham holds a collage of photographs
 of her grandparent's farm  on Highland Cliff Road
where she spent summers with Burleigh
and her other cousins

grandparents' barn. We would pick bushels of blueberries on their farm and sell them. They would let us keep some of the money and all of us cousins would go shopping in Portland and buy our clothes for the school year. I remember once playing football with Burleigh. He grabbed the ball and ran into my stomach and knocked the wind of me - he wasn't rough or violent - just playing football.  I remember eating around the supper table together every night...and Burleigh sat right next to me....and he loved his mashed potatoes.”

A specific memory Klose shared about her brother is that Burleigh was rather quiet, gentle, thoughtful, she said. “He was just a nice boy. He was popular at school...voted as vice-president of his class all through his high school years.”

In an interview with the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript of Peterborough, NH, Klose stated that Curtis married his high school sweetheart before he was stationed in England, but never returned to her. Initially, it was believed the plane Curtis was piloting had been hit by its own bomb, but the family believes the bomb came from another plane based upon what they have been told from officials. Klose is also stated as saying in that article, “[Curtis] was missing in action for a whole year and then they automatically pronounced him dead, but they didn’t produce any of his remains.”

That is, until the non-profit History Flight took on Curtis’s case in 2017. As stated in the Monadnock Ledger-Transcript, the History Flight “embarked on an archaeological dig of which his plane went down.”

The story in the above-mentioned article detailed that once Curtis’ plane crashed behind enemy lines,
a French cabinet maker who witnessed the accident went to the field and reportedly buried what remains he could find. Those remains are believed to have been dug up by the Army at a later point and buried in a military cemetery in France. Scientists used anthropological analysis as well as historical and material evidence to successfully identify Curtis’ remains.

Klose and her 100-year-old brother, Donald, who lives in California, are the only remaining siblings of Curtis – and now the family can finally lay their brother to rest.

Curtis’ name is recorded on the Tablets of the Missing at the Brittany American Cemetery, an American Battle Monuments Commission site in Montijoie Saint Martine, France, along with the others missing from WWII. A rosette will be placed next to his name to indicate he has been accounted for.

“The family has heard from several people in France, thanking us for Burleigh’s sacrifice,” stated Grant. “In fact, one person from France plans to be at the memorial.”

Everyone is invited to a memorial service that will be held at Highland Cliff Advent Christian Church, 96 Highland Cliff Road in Windham at 1 p.m. on Tuesday, June 25. Interment at Chase Cemetery, next to the church. The community is invited to attend the memorial service to honor a great local hero.