The Airmen's Stories - P/O M S H C Buchin

Maurice Simon Henri Charles Buchin was born in Brussels on 2nd July 1906, the son of Henri Justin Buchin and Jeanne Marie Anne Christine Buchin (nee Storck).

Buchin married Simone Smits (1912-1999) in July 1932.

He was serving as an instructor in the Belgian Air Force at the time of the German attack.

He escaped to France in May 1940 and was employed there ferrying aircraft. In mid-June he sailed from Bayonne in a cargo ship for Britain, arriving on the 23rd.

Buchin was commissioned in the RAFVR, converted to Hurricanes and joined 213 Squadron at Exeter on 23rd July.

He shot down a Ju88 on 11th August but four days later he was killed whilst flying in Hurricane I V7227 which failed to return from a patrol over Portland.

He is remembered on the Runnymede Memorial and has a memorial grave at the Pelouse d'Honneur Cemetery of Brussels at Evere.

Buchin was 34 years old.

His brother Charles Buchin died aged 24 on 13th September 1944 in Bergen-Belsen concentration camp.

Photos and additional research courtesy of Andre Bar at www.bamfbamrs.be/RAF/index.htm