Names of 47 officers shot after escape from Stalag Luft 3

SValentineJRM1251404v10116.jpg

Title

Names of 47 officers shot after escape from Stalag Luft 3

Description

Accounts of some of the officers shot: Flt Lt J G Stower, Flt Lt J F Williams, Flt Lt E G Brettell, Flt Lt M J Casey Flt Lt D. O Street. List of 47 Officers shot. Photograph of W.O Bristow and his model steam boat captioned 'An RAF sergeant at Stalag Luft 3 with model steamboat he made from scrap metal probably from red cross parcels'.

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One newspaper cutting

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Identifier

SValentineJRM1251404v10116

Transcription

of Fountain House, Park Lane, W., saying: “We were eleven hours drifting in the dinghy. We thought we were being washed on to a neutral coast, but it was Germany, and we were captured.”

Stower apparently made more than one attempt to escape, for in September last, after his letters had ceased for six months, he wrote to Mrs. Brown: “I nearly managed it in June, but just failed by less than a hundred yards… Will tell you all about it when I see you. So near and yet so far.”

Flt.-Lt. Brettell was the elder son of Mrs. Vivian Brettell, a member of an old Chertsey family who recently removed to Ropley Hants.

In one of the earlier battles over France he was shot through the head and was so seriously injured that his life was despaired of.

Flew again

Some months later he resumed active operations and won the D.F.C. The citation stated that he had taken part in 111 sorties over enemy-occupied territory. He was listed missing in September, 1943.

Before the war he was a freelance journalist. A keen motorist, he won several races at Brooklands.

Flt.-Lt. Williams, aged 26, was the only child of Mr. and Mrs. J. Williams of Stoneleigh Park Road, Ewell.

He was shot down and captured in a daylight rain on Northern France two years ago. He was educated at Battersea Grammar School, and before joining the R.A.F. represented an engineering firm.

His parents received a letter from him last Saturday, dated March 19, in which he asked them not to send any more tobacco or cigarettes.

“We rather imagine from that he was planning something,” his mother said yesterday. “He was a boy who loved freedom and we know his imprisonment would be very hard to bear.”

Flt.-Lt. Casey was a son of the late Mr. Michael Lewis Casey, Inspector-General of the Indian Police, of Kildare, Ireland, and of Mrs. Casey, of Hendon, London. He was a grandson of the late Sir James Power, of Kildare.

He was reported missing three weeks after his marriage in September, 1939, and first intimation of his safety came from a German pilot who described in a newspaper interview his aerial battle with Casey.

The news that he was alive and a prisoner was officially confirmed later. According to letters received by his wife he had made previous attempts to escape.

Flt.-Lt. D. O. Street (22) was the youngest son of Sir Arthur William Street, Permanent Under-Secretary for Air.

[Photograph of a Prisoner of War] An R.A.F. sergeant at Stalag Luft 3 with the model steamboat he made from scrap metal, probably tins from Red Cross parcels

Names of the 47 Officers

FOLLOWING are the names of the 47 shot officers:

R.A.F. (25)

F/Lt E. G. Brettell
F/Lt L.G. Bull, D.F.C.
S/Ldr R. J. Bushell
F/Lt M. J. Casey
F/O D. H. Cochran
S/Ldr I. K. P. Cross, D.F.C.
F/Lt B. H. Evans
F/Lt W. J. Grisman
F/Lt A. D. M. Gunn
F/Lt C. P. Hall
F/Lt A. R. H. Hayter
F/Lt E. S. Humphreys
S/Ldr T. G. Kirby-Green
F/Lt T. B. Leigh
F/Lt R. Marcinous
F/Lt H. J. Milford
F/O H. A. Picard
F/Lt C. D. Swain
P/O R. C. Stewart
F/Lt J. G. Stower
F/Lt D. O. Street
F/Lt A. Valenta
F/O G. W. Walenn
S/Ldr J. E. A. Williams
F/Lt J. F. Williams

CANADIAN AIR FORCE (6)

F/Lt H. Birkland
F/O G. A. Kidder
F/Lt P. W. Pangford
F/Lt G. E. McGill
F/Lt J. C. Wernham
F/Lt G. W. Wiley

AUSTRALIAN AIR FORCE (3)

S/Ldr J. Catanach
W/O A. H. Hake
F/Lt R. V. Kierath

NEW ZEALAND AIR FORCE (2)

F/Lt A. G. Christensen
F/O P. R. J. Pohe

SOUTH AFRICAN AIR FORCE (3)

Lt S. Gouws
Lt R. J. Stevens
2nd Lt F. C. A. N. McGarr

FIGHTING FRENCH AIR FORCE (1)

P/O B. W. M. Scheidhaver

POLISH AIR FORCE (4)

F/Lt Antni Kiewnarski
F/O Kolanowski
F/O Jerzi Mondschein
F/O K. Pawluk

NORWEGIAN (2)

2nd Lt N. Fuglesang
Sgt H. Estelid

ROYAL HELLENIC AIR FORCE (1)

W/O E. Scantzikas

Citation

“Names of 47 officers shot after escape from Stalag Luft 3,” IBCC Digital Archive, accessed November 5, 2024, https://ibccdigitalarchive.lincoln.ac.uk/omeka/collections/document/22103.

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