- Contributed by听
- Elizabeth Lister
- People in story:听
- Andrew Wiseman
- Location of story:听
- RAF Leconfield Yorkshire
- Background to story:听
- Royal Air Force
- Article ID:听
- A7592808
- Contributed on:听
- 07 December 2005
"This story was submitted to the People's War site by a volunteer from 大象传媒 Radio Berkshire's CSV Action Desk on behlaf of Andrew Wiseman and has been added to the site with his permission. Andrew fully understands the site's terms and conditions".
I was a sargent observer in a Halifax bomber and on the night of 18/19th April 1944 we bombed a railway station at Tergnier in Normandy to destroy lines of communication before the invasion.
We were attacked by a German night fighters on our return journey, we caught fire and were ordered to abandon aircraft. Four of my crew were killed. I parachuted out and because it was dark, landed on the only tree in a huge field and twisted my ankle. 48 hours later I was captured by the gestapo and taken to a transit camp near Frankfurt and then to LUFT 3 at Sagan in Polish Sileilesia POW camp, where I arrived shortly after the great escape.
I spent 15 months as a POW losing a lot of weight and almost all my teeth. As I spoke German I became the Senior British Officer's (SBO)interpreter. In January 1945 we were marched to Berlin in temperatures of minus 20 degrees and in clothing more suitable for a sitting room party. Our last camp was south of Berlin at Luckenwalde, where we were liberated by the red army in April 1945 and repatriated to the Uk towards the end of May 1945. As I spoke Russian as well I became the SBO Russian Interpretor. I joined the 大象传媒 Monitoring Service in 1946 and retired from the 大象传媒 in 1983 as a senior Television Producer.
Life in POW camp was tough, the food was lousy, accomodation - 15 people in one room and in three tier beds. Our German hosts did not provide alcohol or women! The only advantage was to be together with other RAF air crew, help each other, annoy the Germans and count the days towards the end of the war, we didn't know when that was going to be. Some of the POWs had assembled a wireless and we listened everyday to one 大象传媒 news bulletin, so we knew what was going on and didn't have to rely on German lies.
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