Hamilton airman’s great escape during WW2 to feature on TV

Nov 26 2009 by Chris Clements, Hamilton Advertiser

A TV DOCUMENTARY is to be made about a Hamilton war hero who evaded capture after being shot down over Belgium during the Second World War.

Flight Sergeant John McCallum’s parachute was later used for a little girl’s Holy Communion dress after her family unearthed it in a field near the village Harmignies.

He was part of an eight-man flying team that crashed just south of Mons after their Halifax Mk2 bomber was brought down by the Germans on August 28, 1943.

Flt. Sgt. McCallum survived the crash along with six of the crew, but Canadian rear gunner Flt. Sgt. George Warren died on impact.

McCallum then escaped through France, where he was sheltered by a French family, before making his way through Andorra, Spain and Gibraltar, where he was shipped back to Britain.

Now TV crews are hoping to make a documentary about John - who died in Glasgow in 1999 - and his adventure.

The McCallum family are to meet 75-year-old Paulette Bisiaux, who used the parachute as her Holy Communion dress when she was 11 years old in 1945.

John’s son Neil McCallum (64) spoke to the Advertiser about the developments. He said: “We had heard my father’s story but we had no idea what had happened to the parachute.

“He made his way to France, where a couple named Lesec hid him from the Germans for a couple of weeks. They risked their lives for a complete stranger as they would have been shot by the Gestapo had they been caught.

“RAF historian David Mole let us know that the Bisiaux family in Belgium came across the parachute. A couple of years later in 1945, they used it as Paulette Bisiaux’s communion dress.

“The story of the parachute has really struck a chord. It was a lovely tale and added a new chapter that we didn’t know about. There has been an immense interest far beyond what we expected.

Neil, who lives in Cumbernauld, added: “My father also wrote a brief memoir for the family, called Jack’s Journey, but we had no idea what had happened until David Mole told us. The last we knew about the parachute was that it was buried.”

After the war, John had a long and successful career as a police officer in Glasgow, where he lived with his Blantyre-born wife Jean until he died. Jean, aged 90, is still living.

Neil, who works for Central Scotland MSP Jamie Hepburn, explained that his own middle name, Lesec, was is honour of the French couple who saved his father.

He will be visiting Belgium tomorrow (Friday) with sister Yvonne to meet with Paulette Bisiaux during the filming of a documentary about his father for Sky television.

Neil has taken part in a number of radio interviews about his father in the past few weeks.