Operation: Escort mission

Date: 21st August 1942 (Friday)

Unit No: 248 Squadron, Coastal Command

Type: Beaufighter VIc

Serial: T5164

Code: WR:O

Base: RAF Ta Kali (Ta’ Qali), Malta

Location: 19¼ km (12 mls) west of Corfu

Pilot: Plt Off. Guy Paxton Stanton 121344 RAFVR Age 27. PoW No. 2645 * (1)

WOp/Obs: Flt Lt. Charles Kenneth Lesbirel Bryson 112710 RAFVR Age 28. PoW No. 228376 * (2)

* Stalag Luft 3 Sagan-Silesia, Germany, now Żagań in Poland. (Moved to Nuremberg-Langwasser, Bavaria).

REASON FOR LOSS:

T5164 took off from RAF Ta Kali (Ta’ Qali) at 16:15 hrs on the 21st August 1942 to escort six Bristol Beauforts of 86 Squadron tasked with a shipping strike on a convoy that had left Messina in Italy bound for Benghazi, Libya. The convoy was located 19¼ km (12 mls) off Paxos Island, but during the attack T5164 was hit by flak and was forced to ditch 19¼ km (12 mls) west of Corfu. The crew survived and were safely picked up by an Axis surface vessel and taken prisoners.

(1) Plt Off. Stanton was transferred to Campo Concentramento di Prigioniere di Guerra (PoW concentration camp) (Campo PG) 75 at Torre Tresca in Bari which was a Transit Camp, arriving there on the 13th September 1942.

On the 1st March 1943 he was transferred to Campo PG 47 in Modena, an officers camp, arriving there on the 3rd March 1943. He was involved in the digging of two tunnels whilst at PG 47 but both were discovered by the Italians before they were finished.

With the surrender of the Italians the German Wehrmacht arrived at the camp within hours of the Italian guards leaving and on the 11th September 1943 he was transferred to Oflag VA, Weinsberg-Wurttemburg, Germany arriving there on the 8th October 1943.

On the 29th October 1943 he was transferred to Stalag Luft 3, Sagan arriving there on the 1st November 1943.

Just before midnight on the 27th January 1945, because of advancing Russian forces, the PoW’s started their force-march to Spremberg. Between the 31st January and 7th February, the PoW’s were sent to Stalag 13D at Nürnberg and Stalag 7A at Moosburg. During these transfers some 32 PoW’s but all were recaptured. With the approach of US forces on the 13th April, the PoW’s at Stalag 13D were force-marched to Stalag 7A.

Whilst the majority reached Stalag 7A on the 20th April, many had dropped out on the way, but the German guards made no attempt to stop them. Stalag 7A then held some 130,000 PoW’s which was ten times its designed capacity. On the 29th April 1945 the camp was liberated by elements of the US 14th Armoured Division.

He was interviewed on the 16th May 1945

Prior to enlisting in the RAFVR on the 8th January 1941 he was a Company Director for Messrs Child & Co. on Fleet Street, London

Note: Plt Off. Stanton's youngest brother, Capt. Arthur John Cecil Stanton 73088 serving with the 14th/20th King’s Hussars, on detachment to the 2/9 Battalion Australian Infantry, was KiA in Papua New Guinea on the 29th January 1944. He is interred at the Lae War Cemetery, F.D.1, Papua New Guinea.

After the war Guy Paxton Stanton left the RAF and became a Stockbroker. For unknown reasons he committed suicide by means of a gunshot to the head on the 19th September 1958, aged just 43 years.

Guy Paxton Stanton 6th August 1915 - 19th September 1958

(2) An affidavit submitted by Flt Lt. Henry Roland Train, 402913 RAAF, after his liberation on the 2nd May 1945 records the circumstances of Flt Lt. Bryson’s death as described to him by Flt Lt. Joseph Edmund Tobin Asselin, J4882 RCAF, who was an eye witness to the events.

On a leg of the forced march from Stalag Luft 3 the PoWs stopped at the Marlag und Milag Nord PoW Camp.

Marlag und Milag Nord was a camp for British Merchant Navy and Royal Navy PoWs, which was located near Westertimke, NE of Bremen. Some sources give the camp’s location as Tarmstedt, a larger village about 4 km miles to the west.

The camp had a thriving black market which was conducted by the Kriegsmarine (German Navy) guards. Eggs and other items of food were purchased by PoWs for cigarettes and coffee. The PoWs arrived at the camp some time early in March 1945. One night at about 21:00 hrs Flt Lt. Bryson was trading with a Kriegsmarine guard and after he had completed the deal he stepped across the warning wire to exchange goods. A nearby Luftwaffe Unteroffizier (Cpl), whose name was believed to be Krause, shot him in the stomach without any warning. Flt Lt. Bryson died on 9th April 1945. He was initially interred at the Westertimke Temporary Burial Ground.

The guard’s name has not been confirmed and it is not known what, if any, action was taken against him for the shooting.

The same Luftwaffe Unteroffizier was also implicated in the shooting and wounding of Flt Lt. Douglas Randolph Matheson, J15847 RCAF (Pilot from 411 (City of York) Sqn, RCAF) and Flt Lt. Frederick Anthony Bowler* 42482, RAFVR (Pilot from 40 Sqn) on or about the 10th April 1945.

* Publications report this airman’s name as Bowker, however, no records exist for an airman with this name. Research has determined that in all probability that this airman’s name was Bowler.

Burial details:

Left Grave marker - Courtesy of The War Graves Photographic Project: Right Bryson family headstone at the Hong Kong Cemetery, Happy Vally, Hong Kong Island (Courtesy Chris Nelson at FindAGrave)

Flt Lt. Charles Kenneth Lesbirel Bryson. Becklingen War Cemetery 12.G.12. Inscription reads: “FATHER, IN THY GRACIOUS KEEPING LEAVE WE NOW THY SERVANT SLEEPING”. Born on the 16th September 1916 in Kowloon, Hong Kong. Son of Andrew Birrell and Alice (née Lesbirel) Bryson, of Little Brickhill, Buckinghamshire. Husband of Ruth Penelope (née Pickles) Bryson. Married in 1st Qtr of 1942 at Flyde, Lancashire, England.

Researched by Ralph Snape and Traugott Vitz and dedicated to the relatives of this pilot. Thanks also to Traugott Vitz for his work on the VitzArchive database. Update to PoW information added (Sep 2023)

Other sources listed below:

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