Abbott Lionel Henry Samuel - Overloon War Chronicles

Abbott | Lionel Henry Samuel

First names
Lionel Henry Samuel
Age
19
Date of birth
04-01-1925
Date of death
21-09-1944
Service number
T/14439683
Rank
Driver
Regiment
Royal Army Service Corps
Grave number
IV. C. 10.

Lionel Henry Samuel Abbott

Grave Lionel Henry Samuel Abbott

Author Arno van Dijk

Faces to Graves

The Commonwealth War Graves Commission cemetery in Overloon, popularly known as the English cemetery, contains 281 graves. Each with its own story. In this report series, the Overloon War Chronicles Foundation highlights such a special story every time. This time grave numbers 8, 9 and 10 in section IV, row C.

George Chisholme (1918 – 1944)
Roy Abbott (1922 – 1944)
Lionel Abbott (1925 – 1944)
Crash among the pines

“Why haven’t you jumped!?”
“Can’t, sir. All wounded in the legs.”

(Source: Testimony by Flight Lieutenant Jimmy Edwards)

The silence in this forest is deafening. Ominous. How long have they been lying here in this ditch under the trees? 10 minutes? A quarter of an hour? And that man, will he come back? Can he be trusted? It’s getting darker. How long do they have to stay here in the middle of this enemy territory, in this forest?

Here we tell the story of Lionel Abbott.

Auteur

Biography

Lionel Henry Samuel Abbott is born on Sunday 4 January 1925 on Shackleton Road in Slough, Buckinghamshire.He’s the second one in a total of 5 children of Reginald Charles Abbott and Ethel Alice Abbott. Lionel’s older sister Peggy was born in 1923, followed by Dennis (1927), Barbara (1929) and Pamela (1930). Lionel’s father becomes a councilor in Slough in the late 1930s and later he will become mayor of the city. Lionel attends the Tonman Mosley School in Slough. Later he works as an inspector for Superflexit, a technical manufacturing company, for some time. Lionel’s community involvement is expressed through his work as a volunteer driver for the St. John Ambulance Brigade and also as a driver for the British Red Cross Civil Defense unit.

Lionel is a cheerful, positive boy who loves sports and participates in all kinds of activities and sports. From darts to swimming. Lionel serves 6 months in the 8th Bucks Home Guard before being called up for military service in the Royal Army Service Corps. He regularly writes to his parents stating that he is having a great time in the Corps and above all he is positive about the food and mutual camaraderie in his unit.

In the Corps both Roy and Lionel, not related to each other, enlist as volunteers for the Airborne Forces section. Like Chisholme, they successfully complete their Air Despatcher training and are also stationed with the 223 Air Despatch Company. Meanwhile, Roy and Lionel have become good friends, they visit each other regularly and Roy is also considered a friend of the family by Lionel’s family.

The task of this recently established Air Despatch Company is to continuously supply the British armed forces at the war front with new supplies. These supplies are dropped by the despatchers from aircrafts of the Royal Air Force, division Transport Command, in containers on parachutes above and behind their own lines. A good dispatch crew can drop 16 containers in 12 seconds. But it is also demanding and dangerous work. Because more than once, self-despatching occurs when a despatcher gets entangled in the cables and falls down when pushing the load out.

In September 1944, George, Roy and Lionel are ordered to work on behalf of Air Despatch Company for 271 Squadron, 46 Group at Down Ampney base in Cirencester, Gloucestershire.

You can read how it continues in the full version of “Faces from the Past” below.

Sources and credits

See the extended list in the full version.