Description
Object description
British NCO served as pilot with 102 Sqdn, No 4 Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 1939-1940; prisoner of war in Dulag Luft Interrogation Centre, Oberursel, Stalag XII-A, Limburg an der Lahn, Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf, Stalag Luft I, Barth and Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Stalag Luft VI, Heydekrug, Germany, Stalag XX-A, Thorn, Poland and Stalag 357, Fallinbostel, Germany, 5/1940-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of enlistment and service with Royal Air Force in GB, 1930: reasons for enlistment; pattern of service; application to learn to fly. Recollections of operations as pilot with 102 Sqdn, No 4 Group, Bomber Command, RAF in GB, 1936-1940: role of squadron; promotion to captaining aircraft; conversion to Vickers Wellesley during Munich Crisis, 9/1938; checking camouflage of airfield on outbreak of Second World War, 9/1939; first raid on Germany, 9/1939; problems navigating aircraft over Germany; anticipation that aircraft would not return from early raids; character of first leaflet raid on the Ruhr, Germany; presence of emergency landing grounds in France; fuel shortage on return flight from first raid; fate of other squadron aircraft during first raid; story of award of medal to New Zealand officer.
REEL 2 Continues: participation in raid on the island of Sylt, Germany; replacing of his crew for raid on factory in Ruhr, Germany, 19/5/1940; attitude to attacking targets over Germany; damage to aircraft from anti-aircraft fire over Essen, Germany, 19/5/1940; ordering crew to bail out of aircraft; his bailing out of aircraft; landing near Goch, Germany and capture by farmer. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Dulag Luft Interrogation Centre, Oberursel, Germany, 5/1940: transfer to centre; his rank; degree of information known by his interrogators; move into camp; memories of Wing Commander Harry 'Wings' Day; role as senior NCO; arrival of large numbers of Royal Air Force personnel shot down during 5/1940.
REEL 3 Continues: Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Stalag XII-A, Limburg an der Lahn, Germany, 1940: transfer to camp; arrival of army personnel captured at Dunkirk; reaction of French prisoner of war to fall of Paris, 6/1940; question of behaviour of permanent staff prisoners of war at Dulag Luft. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf, Germany, 1940-1941: transfer to camp; poor quality of rations; role as senior Royal Air Force NCO; method of handing out rations; commuication with Germans. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag Luft I, Barth, Germany, 1941-1942: transfer to camp; problems with prisoner of war contacting Germans; subsequent contacting of senior British officer and his advice on dealing with man; behaviour of prisoner of war who had contacted Germans.
REEL 4 Continues: treatment of Jewish prisoners of war by Germans; election of Sergeant James 'Dixie' Deans as prisoner of war representative; memories of Sergeant James 'Dixie' Deans; prior recollection of crew bailing out of aircraft; prior recollection of inventing silk escape map; devising secret code in communication with wife; information subsequentely sent by secret code to Air Ministry; sending information in code about best way to crash land aircraft on sea; background to devising secret code with wife and how it was subsequentely taken up by Air Ministry; debreifing about code on return to GB; effect on morale of Germans of invasion of Soviet Union, 1941; trading with Germans.
REEL 5 Continues: forging German passes and clothing; how prisoners of war gained items for secret wireless; construction and discovery of escape tunnel; his removal from camp after interrogation from Gestapo. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf, Germany, 1942: transfer to camp; escape during train journey from camp and recapture.
REEL 6 Continues: Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany, 1942-1943: return to camp; prisoners of war escape from camp where they disguised themselves as workmen. Aspects of period as prisoners of war in Stalag Luft VI, Heydekrug, Germany, 6/1943-7/1944: opinion of film 'The Great Escape' (1963); level of organisation of escapes; use of dummies in beds to decieve German guards; effect of panic amongst Germans and prisoners of war at time at Great Escape, 3/1944; fate of escaper Sergeant George Grimson; presence of future actors amongst prisoners of war; fire in camp theatre. Aspects of period as prisoner of war at Stalag XX-A, Thorn, Poland, 7/1944-8/1944: removal to camp.
REEL 7 Continues: story of last prisoners of war encountering Soviet Army tank crew on final evacuation of camp, 2/1945. Recollections of period as prisoner of war at Stalag 357, Fallingbostel, Germany, 8/1944-4/1945: move to camp; arrival of female Polish Home Army prisoners of war in camp, 10/1944; rations; attitude of German guards; prisoner of war education; change in political attitudes in camp; bartering cigarettes; creation of swop shop; workings of pricing system in swop shop; reasons for wanting to escape; problems of being responsible for rations; importance of keeping occupied; removal from camp; escape from prisoner of war column; encounter with German officer and return to camp.
REEL 8 Continues: taking responsibility for prisoners of war remaining in camp; return to GB. Reflections of period as prisoner of war in Germany and Poland, 1940-1945: thwarting German counting of prisoners of war; V2 Rocket site of near Stalag XX-A, Thorn, Poland; origins of nickname 'Kreiges'.