Nova Scotia/Nunavut Command of The Royal Canadian Legion www.ns.legion.ca 87 Most of the graves in Milan War Cemetery were those of prisoners-of-war and/or airmen whose remains were brought in from the surrounding towns and villages - places such as Bergamo, Boves, Carpi, Cicagna, Modena, Parma, Piacenza, Turin and Val d'Isere - after the war. Milan War Cemetery contains 417 Commonwealth burials of the Second World War, 27 of them unidentified. There are also six war graves of other nationalities. Seventeen of the graves are Canadians – two of them are from Nova Scotia – Richard Crowell and George Curphey. Richard Alvinzie Crowell was born on 18 January 1923 in Shelburne; he was the only son of Robert and Eva Mary (Cunningham) Crowell. His family moved to Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA, when he was an infant. Richard, an American citizen, had been working as a shipping clerk when he opted to travel back to Nova Scotia to enlist in the RCAF at Halifax on 28 May 1942. Richard completed basic training at Lachine, Quebec, between 15 June and 11 September 1942. He then trained as a wireless operator in Jarvis and Guelph, ON, and Mossbank, SK. On 28 June 1943 he qualified as a Wireless Operator/Air Gunner (WAG) and left Halifax, for England, on 7 July. On 24 March 1944 he departed England for North Africa where he served with 614 RAF Squadron before being taken on strength with 142 RAF Squadron on 7 July. Flight Sergeant Crowell joined 148 RAF Squadron (Special Duty Operations) on 15 August in Brindisi, Italy. On Monday, 11 September 1944, Halifax II bomber BB412/C departed RAF Brindisi at 1930 hrs on an SOE (Special Operations Executive) Operation. The aircraft was manned by a crew of eight and carried five passengers. Richard Crowell was the bomber’s WAG. Three were personnel of No.1 Special Force (SOE): a British captain of The Parachute Regiment and a staff captain and a corporal (radio operator) of the Czechoslovakian Army. Two sergeant paratroopers of the Italian Army were also on board. The operation objective was to drop supplies to partisans in the Champorcher area and in the Aosta Valley region north of Ivrea, and to deploy the SOE operatives. The operation was to establish contact with the Czechoslovakian soldiers, drafted into the Wehrmacht forces to fight in Italy, and persuade them to defect. Halifax II BB412/C failed to return from the operation and the aircraft and those onboard were presumed to have been lost. It was not until information was received from partisans of the Garibaldi Brigade, an Italian partisan group, which relayed the information in July 1945 - that on 12 September 1944, a partisan patrol reported that on the night of 11 September, a Halifax aircraft had crashed in the area of Mount Cavallaria. It was noted that three bodies had been flung clear of the plane, while the remaining bodies had been badly burned in the wreckage. Milan War Cemetery Story by Gary Silliker continued ...
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