Browse Items (165 total)

  • Tags: escaping

ACuthbertJ160507.mp3
John wanted to be a wireless operator/air gunner, having both air and radio knowledge, so volunteered for the Royal Air Force. He went to RAF Cardington and completed initial training but re-mustered as an air gunner as the radio schools were full.…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PMcNamaraL1502.jpg
Len McNamara was born in Bristol in 1924. While working as an apprentice plumber, he joined the Air Training Corps and volunteered for aircrew. He discusses his initial training at various stations, the gunnery course he passed with merit and…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

ARobertsonIU150824.mp3
Iain was a National Service air gunner in the 1950s and served with 214 Squadron at RAF Upwood in Huntingdonshire, after being called up at the age of 18. Upon completion of training, he flew on Wellingtons and fighter affiliation with Spitfires. He…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PWadeR1503.jpg
Ron was born in Stoke-on-Trent. He left school at 14 and tells of his experiences working in a pottery factory doing odd jobs, until he was called up. He joined the Royal Air Force in 1939 at the age of 22 and trained as an air gunner at RAF…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PCarswellA1702.jpg
Andrew Carswell volunteered for the Royal Canadian Air Force in his native Toronto. He trained as a pilot and, on arrival in the UK and completion of his further training, he was posted to 9 Squadron. His first operation was to Berlin. On their final…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

SDexterKI127249v10025.jpg
Small compass with needle and cardinal headings. Note 'Compass from RAF Escape/Survival kit'.

Tags: ;

PPopeKMJ18010016-0001.jpg
List of phrases translated into German, French, Dutch and Spanish to help with evasion.

Tags: ;

PStorerB1620.jpg
Brass escape compass with crazed glass

Tags: ;

PWarnerJ1602.jpg
Three full face portraits, left side, head on and right side. All submitted with caption; “Three of him from his "escape pack" for use if he needed documents forging, should he be shot down”. Additional information about this item was kindly…

Tags: ;

MFullerFT1804809-151001-160001.jpg
Official pamphlet stating action that service departments carry out to try and trace personnel reported missing. As soon as any reliable news was obtained it would be passed to relatives.

Tags: ;

MHartE[Ser#-DoB]-151029-010003.jpg
Pencil sketch of four men playing cards round a table and explanatory note explaining 'sketch by Blenheim wireless operator Sgt E (Ted) Hart (who escaped from Le Kef with Douglas'.

Tags: ; ; ; ; ;

MHudsdonJD755052-151029-040024.jpg
View from a hill of a military camp surrounded by a wall. Camp contains many single story buildings with arched promenades. In the background mountains. On the reverse 'Our prison camp occupied part of this caserne and was "barbed wired off"…

Tags: ;

NSmithEA151029-030003.jpg
Relates how after tunnelling 187 feet to escape from internment camp in Algeria, 29 soldiers were recaptured. Tunnel took seven months dug in relays 24 hours a day. After escape Arab guards tracked them down and they were sent back to prison.

Tags: ;

NSmithEA151029-030006.jpg
Sergeant observer J Douglas Hudson resting at home after being released from spending two years in French North African internment camps. Freed after British and American troop landings in November. Tells of force landing in Tunisia, internment in Le…

Tags: ;

NSmithEA151029-030008.jpg
Account of Douglas Hudson's safe arrival home after two years internment in French North Africa. Notes squalid conditions in camps and two escape attempts.

Tags: ;

ALastRR151125.mp3
Ronald Last grew up in Dorset and worked as an apprentice for the local Gas and Water company before volunteering for the Air Force. He attended the reception centre at Lord's Cricket Ground and describes the medical tests and inoculations recruits…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PLawrenceJ1701.jpg
Jack ‘Lawrie’ Lawrence planned on making a career in the RAF and joined in 1938. He enjoyed those early days when it felt like he belonged to a flying club. This was interrupted by the start of war and operational flying. He flew in Blenheims and…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

AMulhallJE160823.mp3
James was born in Gorton, attended Catholic schools, and became an apprentice plumber. In November 1942 he joined the Royal Air Force and trained as a mechanic at RAF St Athan before being posted to RAF Henlow to assemble Hurricanes. He then went…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

OStavesME203137-160226-020001.jpg
List of phrases translated into German, French, Dutch and Spanish to help with evasion.

Tags: ; ;

PWilsonT1502.jpg
Gabi Wilson grew up in Berlin and was a schoolgirl in 1939. She discusses one brother training as an interpreter and another brother returning from Russian prisoner of war camps. She worked as an apprentice at a publisher firm. She met her husband,…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

MWhiteheadT1502391-180307-010001.jpg
Warning prisoners of war the dangers of escaping - 'it is no longer a sport'.

Tags: ; ;

PWhiteheadT18010002.jpg
Top left - a guard tower taken through barbed wire. Captioned 'F36 Dulag Luft'.
Top middle - a wooden guard tower with telegraph wires and fence to the right and church in the background on the left. Captioned 'F29 Stalag Luft 1'.
Top right - a…

Tags: ; ; ; ; ;

MGeachDG1394781-160401-050001.jpg
RAF Form 2825 filled in by David Geach claiming 1939/45 star, Air Crew Europe Star and France and Germany Star

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ;

MGeachDG1394781-160401-18.pdf
A book of Prison Camp cartoons with some explanations.

Tags: ; ; ; ; ; ; ;

PStachiewiczM17010007.jpg
Photo 1 is a group of people round the back of a car, annotated:
We got stuck in the sand near Garwolin.
Photo 2 is five people with a caption with their names 'Maciek Miszewski, Jerzy Rajewski, Jan Rabek NN.
Photo 3 is the same group as photo 2…

Tags: ;

Output Formats

atom, dc-rdf, dcmes-xml, json, omeka-xml, rss2