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Private Thomas Wilson Billington
Unit : 8th Parachute Battalion
Service No. : 6354301
The following article has been written and contributed by Bern and Fay Robins.
The Touffreville Murders
Among the first Parachutists to land on French occupied soil in the early hours of D-Day, 6th June 1944 were two men from The Advance Party of the 8th Battalion, The Parachute Regiment A.A.C., under the Command of Major George Payne. They were Private 6354301 Thomas Wilson BILLINGTON and Private 5384418 Arthur PLATT.
The men had been tasked to parachute onto fields at Touffreville, 4 miles east of Caen and 8 miles from the coast. They were to mark out the area known as LZ "K" by setting up Eureka radio homing transmitter beacons and prepare the flare path in the shape of the letter "T" in advance of the main invasion force which was due to arrive some 25 minutes later.
We will probably never know for sure what happened to the two men after they landed but the following morning their bodies were seen by local inhabitants. Both men had been murdered by being shot in the back of the head and were laying face downward in a hedgerow at the side of a track just outside the village. It is thought they had been captured by a detachment of 6 Company, 125th Panzer Grenadiers, which was billeted in Touffreville, and whose Regimental Commander was Colonel Hans von Luck.
A short time later, possibly on 10th June when the 51st Highland Division arrived in the area, their bodies were removed by the Germans and buried in a field approximately 2 miles away, presumably to remove any incriminating evidence of the murder from the scene. If they had been killed in action, it is reasoned, their bodies would have been buried by the French people in Touffreville Churchyard, alongside the grave of Lance Corporal Edward Delaney O’Sullivan of the 22nd Independent Para Group.
The grave of Private Platt was found when the area was liberated in July 1944, his body was exhumed in September 1945 and re-buried in Ranville War Cemetery. Private Billington's body was never found and it is thought to have been lost during the very heavy bombing and shelling which took place in this area at the start of the operation. He is commemorated by name on the Bayeux Memorial opposite the Bayeux War Cemetery.
John, the son of Arthur Platt, who also served in The Parachute Regiment, researched the events with the help of 8th Battalion historian Dr. Tony Leake.
On 9th June 1993, outside the Gondrée Cafe at Pegasus Bridge, John met up with Colonel von Luck and presented the findings of his research. The Colonel agreed he was the officer commanding the 125th Panzer Grenadier Regiment confirming the 6th Company of that Regiment was in Touffreville on the night of 5th/6th June 1944. John reports that he pressed the Colonel three times for an answer as to why the bodies were removed but the Colonel refused to respond and would not agree to the word MURDERED, but claimed they were shot in combat. John asked about the rumour of orders from Hitler to regard all Parachutists as spies or saboteurs and would be shot if taken prisoner. The Colonel denied any knowledge of such an order being issued by Hitler, and stated he never issued any such orders to his Company Commanders.
John continues "I told the Colonel the two bodies had been seen lying face down in a hedgerow, with bullet holes in the back of their heads, on the morning of the 6th June 1944 by a French lady who had shown me the place in 1987. The Colonel replied "It could have been an over reaction by one of my men" and said he was very sorry for me that it did happen. The Colonel went on to say "my men could have thought the Parachutists were saboteurs. I had fought a fair war in North Africa and had tried to do the same in Normandy".
The Colonel stated he had issued orders to his men to take and look after prisoners and cited that the Medical Officer of the 8th Parachute Battalion had indeed been taken prisoner. He also said it was a difficult situation for his men as Parachutists were dropping all around them.
John remarked to the Colonel that in the area of Touffreville only 25 Parachutists landed before the main drop. John continued, "the evidence I had spent 20 years collating establishes beyond all doubt that Privates Billington and Platt had been murdered by someone from the 125th Regiment, as Officer in Command you were responsible for the actions of your men, there is no excuse to murder prisoners of war". At this point the interview ended.
In 1988 John unveiled a small wayside Memorial which had been erected by the kind people of Touffreville to the memory of Arthur Platt, fifty yards from where he died. The other soldier was not known until 1992.
In 1993 John was pleased to unveil another plaque this time bearing the names of both men.
This story was first published in The London Illustrated News, "Red Berets '44". It was the first time the family of Thomas Billington knew what happened to their brother on D-Day. They visited the Memorial in September 1994.
Each year a short ceremony is held at the Memorial in June and November, attended by veterans, family, friends and local villagers, the promise is kept, WE WILL REMEMBER THEM.