The Airmen's Stories - Sgt. M Keymer

Michael Keymer was born at Eastleigh Vicarage on 21st May 1916, one of a family of four sons and three daughters.

His father Bernard William Keymer (1876-1925) was a chaplain in the Great War and Mentioned in Dispatches twice for rescuing wounded men from barbed wire. He later transferred to the RFC and was posted initially to 40 Squadron at Bruay. He made himself popular with the pilots by building a tennis court and damming a river to create a swimming hole.

When Edward 'Mick' Mannock (later to amass 73 victories), a teetotaller, joined the squadron he failed to mix with the other pilots. Keymer encouraged him to take up drinking alcohol and Mannock went on to be the life and soul of the squadron.

Postwar Keymer was appointed Deputy Chaplain-in-Chief of the RAF but he died of pleurisy in 1925. Michael's mother was Ellen Constance Keymer (nee Scott).

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Michael Keymer was educated as a boarder in Westlake House of Blundells School at Tiverton in Devon. He represented his house at rugby and was a cadet in the Officer Training Corps. One brother, John Gilbert, had attended Westlake and another brother, Philip Nathaniel, was in the house for some of Michael's time there. After leaving school he worked on a chicken farm in Sussex while learning to fly with the Civil Air Guard at Hamble.

He was awarded Aero certificate 17706 at Bournemouth Flying Club on 7th April 1939, his licence photo below.

In 1939 he was a car salesman at Bournemouth and a member of the Auxiliary Air Force.

 Above (L to R): Mr.Bernard Keymer, John (with pipe), Philip and Michael (also below)

Called up on 1st September 1939, he was posted to 65 Squadron at Hornchurch on 7th August 1940. A week later he was credited with a share in the destruction of a Me109.

On the morning of 22nd August Michael wrote to his sister, referring to the dangers he was now facing and asked her not to worry their mother with his comments (see below). Later that day he was shot down in Spitfire K9909 YT-O and it had been assumed until 2004 that he came down in the sea, his body being washed ashore and buried in Bazinghen churchyard, NE of Ambleteuse. However it now seems that Keymer had engaged Me109s in fighting over the convoy 'Totem', the battle drifting inland over Ambleteuse.

In 2004 Jacques Mahieu bought a home in Bazinghen. He was intrigued to find a wooden memorial to Michael Keymer nearby.

He met Mme. Colette Dorer who had been an eye-witness of the loss of Keymer and who gave him in 2006 the following account (translated from French):

"On the 22nd August 1940 at about 5 or 6pm, I had gone to milk the cows with my mother and Mme Noel when suddenly we saw two aircraft quite close together. They were flying in circles at low altitude, firing their guns. They were so low that for a moment I could see the helmeted head of the British pilot with his thick goggles. The German aircraft was a little higher and in the end had the upper hand on his opponent. Within seconds the British plane disintegrated. We saw a part of it go down by the river in a marsh that we called ‘Ledquent meadows’. We sheltered under a tree. Once it was quiet again we did not run straight home but towards the river where we saw the propeller. Then we went home to find the aircraft tail 50 metres away from our house".

A part of the engine had fallen a little further down the meadow on a path to the Grande Maison. The main wreckage and wings were further on in the same direction followed by the pilot who came down close to the farm of Mme. Caron. The spot was very close to the camouflaged railway used to bring ammuntion to the big cross-Channel guns on the coast. The main part of the engine came down near the village of Colincthun. Keymer had been seen to bale out but his parachute was only partially developed, due to the low altitude, when he hit the ground.

"The house of my grandparents had been requisitioned by the Germans to set up a hospital. The German commander, an officer by the name of Damberger, had set off with other men to find the pilot. I saw him come back with a string of bullets (presumably a belt of ammunition from the Spitfire’s wings). He then tied up his dog and shot him. He was a strange man, an evil man, I was scared of him since he had tried to lock me in a cupboard when I was 7 years old, I had failed to salute him in the street. My father saw that the unfortunate pilot was still alive but with two broken legs, his parachute lay opened around him. Damberger shot and killed him. My father and other men wrapped the pilot in his parachute and buried him on the spot. A few days later my father made a coffin and the pilot was exhumed and then reburied in it. A fence was made to keep animals away and I would go back often to lay flowers".

The following year, 1941, Keymer was reburied in the churchyard.

There is speculation that the combat may have been observed by Goering, who was then attending a Luftwaffe conference at the nearby Chateau Ledquent. This has not been proved along with the idea that his special train 'Asia' had conveyed him there via the railway previously mentioned.

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A transcript of the letter follows below.

Sgts. Mess
R.A.F. Hornchurch
Essex

20:8:40

My Dear Di,

Thank you ever so much for your lovely long letter, so nice to hear from you.

I do hope the new job is turning out alright and is not too hectic. I am so glad to hear that you have at last had some definite news about your H.D. pals. I suppose it is really good news that they are prisoners of war and it won't be so bad if they are all in a crowd together really.

Things have been quiet the last few days here but we managed to have quite a good scrap yesterday, and we have just had another this afternoon.

I haven't had any more luck myself and today I was rather unlucky in not getting a chance to fire at all although I had some good long chases.

Gerry (*) Hill has now joined the squadron and was in action for the first time today when we met about 50 bombers with about 30 escort fighters.

Our flight engaged the fighters while B flight which Jerry was in went for the bombers. He had a crack at one but couldn't bring it down and had to break off when bullet holes appeared in his wings.

I had quite an amusing time with the fighters, but every time I got on the tail of one two or three would dive down on my tail and I had to give up chasing the other to get the two blokes off my tail. They seemed to be quite a cunning bunch of pilots this afternoon but although I got a few shots in my tail they didn't do any serious damage. I do wish the blighters would stay and fight it out instead of bolting into the clouds every time you attack them. The bombers are just the same, and although there were only 12 of us we turned them back over the coast before they could drop many bombs.

By the way, I think it would be advisable not to tell Ma too many details about these engagements, as it always sounds so much worse than it really is.

I am just dying to get a few days leave to get home and see everyone, and I want to try and get up to see John too wherever he is then.

There is just a slight chance that I may get leave from mid-day 26th to mid-day on the 30th of this month, but I can't bank on it and I will have to leave it till the last minute before I know, but here's hoping.

I must stop and write to (?), Ma, John, Barbie etc so if I don't keep going I'll never get half of them done, so bye for now Deggly darling.

Heaps of love,

MIKE

PS your P.S. was too utterly "The Knights of the Air" for words. I see the Daily Mirror now calls us the "Fighting Devils".

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John Gilbert Keymer also joined the RAF and flew Wellingtons as a Sergeant with 149 Squadron. On the night of 10/11th May 1941 his Wellington IC R1512 OJ-H was lost without trace on a raid to Hamburg. Also lost were:

P/O GRN Adams
Sgt. TN Menage
Sgt. FC Ockenden
Sgt. TC Pugh
Sgt. LG Sutherland

Sgt. Thomas Nathan Menage had flown in Blenheims with 29 Squadron in the Battle of Britain.

Philip Keymer served in the Army and was awarded a Military Cross for actions at Tobruk.

Additional research and photos courtesy of Edward Keymer.