|
Born on 4 December 1920 at
Tervuren. He was a pupil at the Flying School (Wevelghem) of
the Aé Mil at the outbreak of War. He evacuated with the
Flying School to France (Caen - Capriquet) and arrived via
Marseille and Oran to Oujda, Morocco at the time of French
capitulation. Escaped to Great Britain with a part of the
Flying School, arriving there on August 5th, 1940.Sent to
Tenby, he volunteered for RAFVR and was transferred to
RAF Depot St-Athan (13 August 1940) and then to the newly formed Franco-Belgian Service
Flying School at Odiham (2 November 1940). Laumans instructor here was Henry
Gonay. After 4 months of instruction, he was sent to SFTS of
Ternhill (15 February 1941). Graduated pilot, March 1941, he
joined 58 OTU (2 June 1941) at Grangemouth. He was
posted after training to 74 Sqn (27 July 1941) at Acklington.
Next posting saw his arrival to 350 Sqn on April 3, 1942. The
1st June 1942, the Squadron performed a "Target Cover" for
Bomber-Hurricanes to Bruges. The Squadron encountered a big
formation of FW-190. During the melee, Laumans flying as Blue
3 (Spitfire Mk V - AB173) was shot down
near Ostend, but succeeded to bale out before his plane
crashed in to the sea. He stayed 2 days and 3 nights in his
dinghy, before being picked up by the Germans and send as POW
to Stalag Luft III. He joined SABENA after the
War. |