“Every year, I come here at the same time to collect myself in memory of Ernest Russell-Lyon”. Plomurois Jean Robic is overcome by emotion each time he walks through this underground, in Kerkavas, a little off the road to Plomur. It was here that the aircraft of this Royal Pilot of the Royal Air Force was engulfed by the fire of the German DCA. It is July 24, 1949. It is 6 pm, with Ernest Russell-Lyon flying from the Prednac base (southwest England) along with seven other Spitfires, aiming to attack the Lutwaffe base at Kerlin-Bastard (now Lan-Bihoue). . Ernest Russell Lyon’s section comes through the Lorient coast when the flak at Quatre-Cemins collides with a Scottish pilot’s aircraft. The remains of the aircraft were rediscovered in 2003 by Jean Roebik on the instruction of Joseph Le Corollar, a farmer who witnessed the crash.
A long check
The rest of the story is known: after ten years of unreliable investigation, the Ploemur Country History Committee succeeded in establishing that the tomb of an unknown soldier in Guidel was the proper tomb of Ernest Russell-Lyon. In his memory a helix-shaped steel was made near the small roundabout of the Kerkavas.
On the evening of this Monday, July 27, Jean Roebik brought together members of the Ploemur Country History Committee, senior leaders of the Lan-Bihoué base, and elected officials of Larchmore-Pledge. Wreathed by Patrice Walton to the sound of the bagpipe of the Lorient Pipe Band Brittany.
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