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I was one of the Heinkel III crew who landed at Whitehall on 8th April 1941. The crew consisted of: Pilot Lt. Julius Tengler, Observer Gefr. Wolfgang Earle, Wireless Operator V.O. Hubert Faber, Flight Mechanic Gefr. Franz Reitmayr. One other airman flew with us that night, V. O Zander.

So far as I can remember I was the last to leave the aircraft. As I came down through the air suspended below my parachute, I saw the open parachute of my comrades and the crashing, burning aircraft under me. I landed on a pasture or field. My parachute was caught in the branches of a small tree or bush and I remained hanging. I had been wounded in the left leg by a phosphorus bullet — incendiary bullet, and I was also lightly wounded in the hands. I was able to free myself and I hobbled to where I thought my comrades would be. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anyone. I decided to return to where I had left my parachute.

On the way there by a hedge I was taken prisoner by Home Guards — they were armed civilians. They took me to a nearby village. In the village there were many people on the roads. I was put into a car. The guards did not bring their weapons into the car; they opened the side windows and pointed their guns through from the running board. So we journeyed through the darkness of the night. When I got out I was handed over to soldiers. One of these was a Pole. He had a great hatred against the Germans and he expressed this.

I was taken into a room — there were two of my comrades there already. One was Lt. Tengler who had internal wounds. He lay rolling about on the ground. It seems that he had knocked himself against the aircraft tail as he bailed out. The other was Franz Reitmayr. He had a wounded left arm and had lost a lot of blood and was very weak. I could not grasp why all the people in the room were so mad to get hold of souvenirs; as I took off my flying suit they came at me from all sides with scissors and so on to cut off my shoulder epaulettes, collar tabs and all my other badges markings and orders and took them off. After that and only then were our wounds provided for and we were taken to an ambulance and on to a hospital. There I lay a long time with Reitmayr in the same room. Afterwards we received medical attention and were taken to separate rooms.

As I asked after my comrades it was said to me that they are here no more but have been taken to a special hospital. Whilst I was there I had many visits from an interrogation officer, an Austrian. As there were things he wanted to know, I received only short replies to my personal private questions.

My unit was the 3rd Group of Kamp:geschwaden 26 — the Lion Geschwaden. It was a special group with special orders. It flew on a directional beam whereby we were also guided from home over the target and received a signal to drop the bombs.

The security re the aiming points regarding this system was very great. We flew in advance of other units (pathfinders).
Our bomb bays were loaded with incendiary bombs as well so that the following aircraft knew when and where to drop the bombs. Over this system the officer interrogating asked various questions of me. My seemingly plausible statements did not satisfy him. One day as he was with me he said the doctor would be coming soon and would be coming to see my wounds and it would not hurt as I would get an injection.

Afterwards when I became fully awake and established my whereabouts I realised that I was still wearing the old bandage — it had not been changed. I did not see the interrogating officer again. During my residence in the hospital I was also visited by the R.A.F. fighter pilot that had shot me down. As my wounds started to heal and I was capable of being transported so I was taken to the military hospital in Knutsford near Manchester. I was astonished when I met Franz Reitmayr there. We travelled by train together to Manchester. From a platform in Manchester we were taken in an ambulance to the military hospital. The reception in Manchester railway station and the journey through the town was unnerving. The night before there had been an air attack on Manchester and the civilian population were still very shocked as, of course, I can well understand. Today I am only too thankful that there was with us a body of uniformed troops to protect us. Behind the cordon civilians threatened us — calls like ‘kill him’ where shouted at us. In the military hospital we were again with German P.O.W’s — brought together.

There came new wounded prisoners of the Air Force and the Navy — some from the Bismarck and they brought us the latest national news with them. Reitmayr went from here to an exchange camp and was later repatriated on an exchange basis. I came after my convalescence to the P.O.W. camp at Bury. It was a former old textile factory and here we began to get the feeling that we were P.O.W.s. the food was not very good, something we could understand, the English civilians had the same.

On 22.12.41 I was with the greater part of the camp transferred to Canada. The journey by train, the ship a freighter, the journey across the water in a convoy and again a railway journey to another camp was very interesting. It was a small, new camp which we ourselves beautified — it contained 800 prisoners. The difficulties were made lighter not least of all through the help of the Y.M.C.A. I willingly went to work as a lumberjack — it made a pleasant change. After residence in the woods as a lumberjack I was taken to another camp at Medicine Hat and Lethbridge — these were in the providence of Alberta. Each camp numbered about 10,000. I can only say looking back that in Canada we had a good time to the end of the war. In 1946 we were transported to England. There, there were two possibilities, we could go to work in a work camp or we could go to a camp in Scotland. I declared myself ready for work and was sent to Wales. From the camp we were sent to farms. I worked in the area of Tenby, Pembroke and Carmarthen. At the end of 1946 I was prepared for my release and in December 1946 I commenced my journey home from Hull. In Germany I was in 3 camps but with patience at last, on 5.1.1947 I was released from imprisonment.
It was not easy for me - I had been imprisoned for six years — to find myself a free man without a home in a destroyed Germany.

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