大象传媒

We were in 1 of 32 aeroplanes lost on 20th/21st April 1943. It was part of the moon period. We were in a Stirling aircraft. The captain was an experienced Squadron Leader and I was navigator and deputy captain. We had a running batttle with ground defences of a German airfield in Ebsjerg, Denmark. Because of eight searchlights the pilot was unable to see and we ploughed through trees before doing a bellyflop landing. Our bomb-aimer was killed and the other six of us were quickly taken prisoner. We spent just over two days in cells at Ebsjerg.
On the 23rd of April we left for Frankfurt on Main, travelling via Schlesweig, Flemsburg. We went over the Kiel Canal using the Kaiser Wilheim Bridge, then to Altona station. Hamburg followed Hanover, Kassel and then to Dulag Luft Frankfurt. This was split into two. On one side of the road we spent six days in solitary confinement. We then crossed to the other side of the road for eight days.
On May 8th we left for Stalag 1 Barth in Pomerania on the Baltic coast. We travelled via Halle, outskirts of Berlin and Straslund. We arrived on May 10th. The two officers in our crew had beer sent to another camp. There were about two thousand prisoners in our camp. Most of these were aircrew. We did not get much food from the Germans and our main source of food was the Red Cross parcels.
During our time at Barth there were several escape attempts but none were successful. During August 1943, bombers changed course over our camp on the way to bomb Peenemunde where V rockets were being made.
So gfar our journeys had been by normal railways but this was about to change.

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