Description
Object description
Australian officer served with Army Air Co-Operation, RAF in GB and France, 1939-1940; POW at Stalag Luft I, Barth and Stalag Luft III, Sagan in Germany, 1940-1945 including participation in Great Escape, 4/1944
Content description
REEL 1 Background in Perth, Australia, 1914-1938: family; education; views of Great Britain; employment at miner in Kalgoolie; celebrations of Anzac and Armistice Days; degree of interest in politics. Enlistment and training with RAF in GB, 1938-1939: decision to join RAF; number of Australians in RAF prior to Second World War; selection board for short term commission; arrival in GB; prior experience of flying; pattern of flying training; question of inter service rivalry; reaction to soloing in De Havilland Tiger Moth. Aspects of operations as officer with army co-operation unit in GB and France, 1939-1940: camouflaging of airfield on outbreak of war, 3/9/1939.
REEL 2 Continues: opinion of Germans; difficulty of understanding some British accents; flying at low level; opinion of British aircraft types; shooting down of aircraft on reconnaissance flight; capture by German troops, 1940. Recollections of period as POW in Stalag Luft I, Barth in Germany, 1940-1942: separation of officers from other ranks; treatment of officers; opinion of Hitler and Mussolini; conditions in first camp; drabness and boredom in camp; suicide of Fleet Air Arm officer; continuing education; escape committee; behaviour of German guards.
REEL 3 Continues: first escape attempt from Stalag Luft I; character of German guards; visits outside of camp; visit from American consol. Recollections of period as POW in Stalag Luft III, Sagan, 1942- 1944 including participation in Great Escape, 3/1944: reasons for transfer to Stalag Luft III; division of Polish airmen; living conditions and accommodation in huts; roll call; question of security; start of preparations for tunnelling; use of Klim tins for ventilation; importance of not talking about activities; dispersal of sand by 'penguins' from tunnels; character of guards.
REEL 4 Continues: character of Red Cross food parcels; use of all elements of parcels and packaging; importance of supplies of tea and cigarettes; background to involvement in X Organisation; situation in 1944; role as penguin and with security; his escape number; reaction to putting head out of tunnel; his plan with escape partner Humphries; motivation for escape; his escape clothing and supplies; movements on leaving tunnel including crossing autobahn; capture by German home guard; imprisonment in local gaol; physical condition of civilians at railway station; solitary confinement on return to Stalag Luft III; attitude towards film 'The Great Escape' and actual role of Americans.
REEL 5 Continues: return to main camp after period of solitary; reaction to shooting of fifty great escapers; playing ice hockey and other recreations; memories of German officer Hans Pieber; question of an officers' duty to escape; belief in Allied victory and strength of morale; situation in camp, 1944-1945; German farmers acquiring food that POWs could not carry on leaving camp, 1/1945; march away from Stalag Luft III, 1/1945; arrival of British troops at Milag Nord and liberation; Russian labourers method of cutting trees down outside camp; memories of Douglas Bader. Liberation and memories of VE Day, 5/1945.
REEL 6 Continues: Question of futility of war. Reasons for not continuing to fly and return to Australia. Attitude to having been POW during Second World War.