Description
Object description
British NCO served as wireless operator/air gunner with 42 Sqdn, RAF in GB, 1942; prisoner of war in Dulag Luft Interrogation Centre, Oberursel and Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf in Germany, 4/1942-12/1944
Content description
REEL 1 Background in New Cross, London, GB, 1920-1939: family; employment. Aspects of enlistment and training as wireless operator/air gunner with Royal Air Force in GB, 1940-1941: joining Royal Air Force and deferment; ground work on airfield; crewing up. Recollections of operations as wireless operator/air gunner with 42 Sqdn, No 16 Group, Coastal Command, RAF in GB, 1942: attacks on German Navy battleship Gneisenau during Channel Dash, 12/2/1942; amusing story of leaflet dropping from Bristol Beaufort; emptying toilet bucket from aircraft; torpedo dropping; further details of attacking German battleship Gneisenau during Channel Dash in English Channel, 12/2/1942; shooting down of his aircraft in Stavanger Fjord, Norway, 1/4/1942; getting out of stricken aircraft and into dinghy. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Norway and Germany, 1/4/1942-20/4/1942: initial imprisonment in Norway, 1/4/1942-8/4/1942; removal to Germany; interrogation at Dulag Luft Interrogation Centre, Oberursel, 10/4/1942-19/4/1942.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of period as prisoners of war in Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf in Germany, 4/1942-1/1945: description of camp; question of escaping from camp; hut members; German reprisals against prisoners of war after Operation Jubilee, 19/8/1942; rations; state of health; incident of his punching fellow prisoner of war; relations with German guards; prisoner of war skills in manufacturing items; speaking German language; decision to escape; obtaining false papers; exchanging places with New Zealand Army prisoner of war Len Murray; joining working party in factory making armoured trains; sabotaging work; obtaining pairs of boots and briefcase; German search of prisoners of war; escape from factory, 2/1944.
REEL 3 Continues: use of trains during escape; activities in Berlin; arrival in port; arrest by dockyard policeman; return to camp; overnight incarnation in prison in Berlin; character of prisoners of war in punishment barracks; period in solitary confinement; removal from camp, 29/12/1945. Aspects of prisoner of war march from Lamsdorf to Bad Sulza in Germany, 12/1944-3/1945: throwing away of possessions; contracting dysentery; liberation by American forces; effects of overeating on liberation; encounter with Soviet forces whilst foraging for food; taking surrender of German Army officer.
REEL 4 Continues: sight of female concentration camp inmates; story of loss of bread and obtaining more; disappearance of German guards; medical effects of imprisonment; return to GB; question of effects of imprisonment; reunion with family; debriefing by MI9 on return to GB. Reflections on period as prisoner of war in Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf, Germany, 4/1942-12/1944: question of presence of informers in camp; behaviour during escape; story of stealing vegetables from German allotments; relations between different services and nationalities in camps.