Description
Object description
British officer served as special wireless operator with 214 Sqdn, No 100 (Bomber Support) Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 3/1945; prisoner of war in Germany, 15/3/1945-27/4/1945
Content description
REEL 1: Recollections of operations as special wireless operator with 214 Sqdn, No 100 (Bomber Support) Group, Bomber Command, RAF during raid on Lützendorf, Germany, 14/3/1945-15/3/1945: description of raid on oil installations at Lützkendorf; 14/3/1945-15/3/1945; use of adapted Flying Fortress Mk III (HB779) BU-K; crew; role jamming German ground radar and anti-aircraft defences on 'jostle patrol'; duties as special wireless operator; attitude towards prospect of death; hit on aircraft and baling out. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Germany, 15/3/1945-27/4/1945: capture and interrogation in Baden-Baden Prison, 15/3/1945-16/3/1945; removal to Pforzheim and opinion of destruction witnessed; attitude of German civilians to captured airmen; transfer to Huchenfeld, 17/3/1945; conditions and treatment in school boiler room; escape from barn and surrender to German Army troops; problem with feet and medical treatment; move to barracks in Pforzheim; transfer by train to Stalag V-A, Ludwigsburg; treatment by guards; issue of wooden clogs; interrogation; conditions in camp; bread; Red Cross parcels; acquiring new pair of boots; forced march to Ettringen; weather conditions; Soviet prisoners of war and theft of Red Cross parcels; problem of lack of food including eating boiled dandelions; exchange of cigarette lighter for potatoes; communal sanitary facilities in field; dysentery and dehydration and medical treatment; help received from Indian prisoners of war; arrival in Ettringen, 25/4/1945; accommodation in barn; story of Schutzstaffel (SS) officer; German Army troops surrendering to prisoners of war; flight to Rheims, France with United States Army Air Force; return to GB. Aspects of post-war life: role in war crimes investigation into execution of his five Royal Air Force crewmates in Huchenfeld; prosecution and conviction of villagers for war crimes; visits to Huchenfeld and question of reconciliation; donation of rocking horse to village children.
REEL 2 Continues: role of burgomaster in execution of his five Royal Air Force crewmates at Huchenfeld; further details of escape from barn; execution of Flying Officer James Vinall at Huchenfeld, 17/3/1945; presentation of rocking horse called 'Hoffnung' (Hope) to village children in Huchenfeld and setting up kindergarten; question of reconciliation and role of Cross of Nails group; reciprocal visits by children; story of German Air Force NCO; story of German civilian and shoes; names of his murdered crewmates; question of events in Huchenfeld being remembered.
REEL 3 Continues: Reiteration of material in Reels 1-2.
REEL 4 Continues: Reiteration of material in Reels 1-2.