A World War II Ultimate Sacrifice

A World War II Ultimate Sacrifice

Julius Bjorn when he was a toddler (his father is holding him)

My Uncle Julius Bjorn Johnson

On a June evening in 1943, Julius Bjorn Johnson, “Barney,” the first eldest son and second of nine children born to J.B. and Bina Johnson, made the ultimate sacrifice, giving his life to save the lives of hundreds in the Dutch town of Roermond-Deer in the Netherlands.  

Julius Bjorn, “Barney,” was born on January 4, 1916.  As a youth, Barney worked with his father J.B., fishing on his father’s commercial fishing boat, and later moving on to the goldmines of Ontario, where he worked as a miner.  

In 1940,  he enlisted in the RCAF and was posted to England in 1942 for his training as a flight engineer.  Two years later in November of 1942, Barney Johnson was placed in the 419th Moose Squadron, and on the night of June 24th at 2240 hours (10:40 PM) seated within his engineer’s compartment on a bomber plane, a Halifax JD147, took off on his 21st and last, bombing flight.

Crew of the Halifax JD147

Burton Norris Jost—pilot, 31, Canadian (3rd flight)
Ashley William Alfred Bruce- bomb aimer, 21, New Zealand 

Earnest Baily Pope- navigator, 27, English ( 23rd flight)
Julius Bjorn Johnson—flight engineer, 26, Canadian (21st flight)

Lesley Barker— M- upper gunner, 22, English
Robert Edward Austin, tail gunner, 24, Scottish
Robert Oscar Evens Goodwin, 24, radio operator, Canadian

The crew of the Halifax JD147 were based in Middleton St. George (in central England) on Goosepool airbase. When an airman finished his 25th flight, he was grounded, no more flying, and his duties then changed to ground and instruction service.  

Barney Johnson was only four bombing flights from achieving the safety of that ground service on June 25th, 1943.

On the night of the 24th to the 25th of June 1943, Bomber Command had planned an attack on the town of Wuppertal Elberfield, Germany.  600 planes from dozens of airfields all over England were deployed.  Barney's bomber plane, the Halifax JD147, was the first to be given the take-off command from the Middleton base.

The German's soon picked them up on their radar, and the two seater Messerschmitt ME110, piloted by Oberfeldwebel Reinhard Kollak, and his navigator Unteroffizier Hans Herman, was deployed.

The Messerschmitt ascended briskly, maneuvering behind and under the Halifax, shooting at and missing the Canadian bomber’s wing, then descended rapidly to avoid the Halifax gunfire.  From the tail turret,  Tail Gunner Austin spotted and fired at the Messerschmitt which, returning fire, hit the right wing and the outer engine of Halifax.  The Canadian bomber exploded in flames at 1:11 AM.  Jost tried to extinguish the fire by guiding the plane into a dive, a maneuver that sometimes succeeded at high speeds, but did not this time.

Without delay, Jost ordered the crew to stand-by for bailout.  The first to jump (near the railway station Maasbracht and Linne) was the New Zealander, Bruce.  Austin, the Scot and tail gunner, was next, landing in Leropperfield.  The two British airmen followed Austin: Pope, the navigator, and Barker, the Middle-upper gunner, bailed close to Hammerfield. 

Then, the engines dropped from the wings. The first engine fell, trailed by the second and third.  Only the three Canadians, the pilot Jost, the flight engineer Johnson, and the radio operator Goodwin were left in the failing Halifax which was still in the air but barely, flying beneath 350 feet over and just clearing the populated area of Roermond-Deer.  Somewhere among an electric company, concrete factory, and the Peele and Packing Company, Radio Operator Goodwin bailed.  His parachute, on fire failed to open, and he free-fell to the ground, breaking his back.
  

Near a radio tower, the Halifax JD147, manned only by the pilot Burton Norris Jost and his flight engineer Julius Bjorn Johnson, began to crumble.  The tail and  both wings had fallen off, fragmenting in an open field, and over half of the fuselage succumbed to fire.  The cockpit and only a short piece of fuselage, landing gear out, skimmed the Hambrook and crashed, burning in a Hammerfield area crop field.  In the cockpit, unable to save themselves, were Jost and Johnson, who died on duty side by side.

The New Zealander Ashley Bruce was hidden by the locals until July 29th of that year until he was discovered and sent to a POW camp near Fresne, Germany.  Robert Austin, the Scot, injured his leg in the fall; he was captured and interrogated for several days before being sent to a POW camp near Frankfurt, Germany.  Earnest Pope, English, wounded his ankle, was captured and joined Austin in the POW camp near Frankfurt.  English 2nd gunner Lesley Barker’s parachute, half burned, didn't fully open; Barker, who had been shot in the ankle, broke his back in two places and spent the rest of the war in a German hospital.

In honor to and in remembrance of the three Canadians—Jost, Johnson, and Goodwin—of the Halifax JD147 who sacrificed their lives so that others would live, stands a memorial in Roermond, Netherlands.  

The memorial reads: 

“DEDICATED TO THOSE CREW-MEMBERs OF HALIFAX B-11JD 147VR-C

MOOSE 419 SQUADRON ROYAL CANADIAN AIR FORCE WHO ON 25th JUNE 1943 GAVE THEIR LIVES TO SAVE ROERMOND-DEER
FROM DISASTER

LDR. BN JOST DFC AGE 32
AGT. JB JOHNSON AGE 27
FG. OFF. ROF GOODWIN AGE 24”

Alongside is a plaque fitted upon the stone. The inscription on the plate of that plaque reads:

ON PERFORMANCE OF A MISSION WAR IN THE NIGHT 25-06-1943 BOMBER WAS THEIR FAILED TO FIRE.

THREE MEMBERS OF THE SEVEN STUBBORN CREW
IN CANADA, ENGLAND AND NEW ZEALAND
Sacrificially generous ON
TO SAVE THE LIVES OF MANY CITITZENS
KEEPING THEIR UNIT AS LONG AS POSSIBLE IN THE AIR. ULTIMATELY collapsed HALIFAX OUTSIDE THE CULTIVATION OF ROERMOND-DEER DOWN THE HAMMER FIELD

THIS MEMORIAL WAS CREATED AS A TRIBUTE FOR heroism THE THREE KILLED CANADIANS.

OFFERED BY LIVING FOUNDATION MIDDLE Linburg BGV THE OFFICIAL OPENING OF THE “BERLAGE STATE” ON 13-10-1997, CANADIAN “‘THANKSGIVING DAY.’”

*This information is from part of a typed document called Yearbook Heemkunde Roerstreek, M. Th. P. vd Steen” Dec 1982 and from “Mission - Wuppertal” written by Johann V. Johnson (younger brother of Julius Bjorn Johnson).