Hawkins, David Cedric (Oral history)

British NCO served as navigator with 107 Sqdn, RAF in GB, 1940; POW in Stalag Luft I, Barth, Stalag Luft III, Sagan and Stalag 357, Fallingbostel in Germany, 1940-1945

REEL 1 Background in Islington, 1921-1939: family; education; employment. Enlistment and training with RAF in GB, 1939-1940: volunteering for RAF, 8/1939; reaction to declaration of Second World War; training as navigator. Recollections of operations as navigator with 107 Sqdn, RAF during operations over France and Belgium, 5/1940-6/1940: crewing up at RAF Wattisham, 5/1940; initial operation against German column; character of Bristol Blenheim operations in France, 5/1940; role as bomb aimer and air gunner; attack on Nieuwpoort and against airfields; shooting down of his aircraft during attack on St Omer, 30/6/1940; setting fire to aircraft with Very Pistol, 30/6/1940; initial treatment on capture. Recollections of period as POW in Germany, 1940-1945: degree of knowledge Germans had of his unit during interrogation at Dulag Luft, Oberursel; move to Stalag Luft 1, Barth; opinion of work of camp leader James 'Dixie' Dean; contrast in morale between RAF and US Air Force morale in Stalag Luft III, Sagan. REEL 2 Continues: character of rations; German handling of Red Cross Parcels; theft of food rations; involvement in three unsuccessful tunnels; lack of hot water and problems of bathing; work in hospital at Stalag 357, Fallingbostel; his state of health as POW; volunteering for work and acts of sabotage, summer 1940; escorting POW to hospital in Hamburg after night of bombing; studying as POW; POW entertainments; question of effects of lack of female company; repatriations of medical cases; forced march from Stalag 357, Fallingbostel to Luneberg and RAF strafing of POW column, 4/1945; liberation by British troops. REEL 3 Continues: Memories of 1945 Election. Attitude towards Germans.