RCAF Notes Database: 1914 - Present Day

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This database provides notes on over 9300 RCAF personnel. These were previously published by us in a non-searchable form and we hope the new database structure makes it easier to find what you are looking for. These notes were assembled by Jean Schadskaje over many years from research books, biographies, mentions on websites etc. and were originally intended for private use, not publication, hence the frequent use of shorthand terms. Because these notes were works-in-progress they may include errors: if you find any, please let us know via the Helpdesk.

They make available information on many RCAF personnel, some of which is unavailable elsewhere in the searchable context provided here. Researchers may cross-reference names with the 45,000 entries in our Paradie Archive. In January 2018 our colleague François Dutil began an exercise to review and correct entries where appropriate, particularly in relation to 438 Squadron RCAF. Further Canadian material can be found here.

Thanks to Jacqueline Freeguard for technical assistance in preparing this data for publication.

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You searched for: “asselin”

#	Family Name	Notes	Links	Photo
1	Asselin	F/Lt Joseph Edmond Tobin Served w/ 92 Sqd Home in Montreal; enlisted there 20 September 1940. Trained at No.2 ITS (graduated 31 October 1940) No.8 EFTS (graduated 22 December 1940) and No.4 SFTS (graduated 17 March 1941). On 4 Sept 1941 he is s/d near St.Omer bails out and made Pow. Liberated 2 May 1945 on a farm turned camp 15m S of Lubeck. He escaped three times - in March 1942 from Oflag VIB; in October 1942 from Oflag XXIB and from the same camp in the earlier part of the following year. Flight Lieutenant Asselin was a member of the escape committee at Stalag Luft III from April 1943 til January 1945. His first escape was from Camp VIB Warburg via a tunnel planned and engineered by Flying Officer Ricks Flying Officer Cerny and by Asselin with the help of some 30 fellow POWs. The tunnel was built under poor conditions (waterlogged so that a well had to be built under entrance shaft with home-made pump. German searches also forced rushed completion and the exit hole was actually in radius of light from overhead boundary lamps. Thus although 40 prisoners were assembled for escape only six made it out - Ricks Cerny Asselin Flying Officer Croll Pilot Officer Kowslovski and Flight Lieutenant Beauclair (in that order). They left at 0230 hours and travelled some 15 kilometres avoiding a few German civilians. They took shelter to sleep that day (he had been without sleep for 48 hours) but were awakened and captured at mid-day by a search party. The treatment I received after my capture on this occasion was the roughest of any of my escapes. It included face slapping assorted kicks a bayonet jab stealing of personal belongings and on my return to camp being made to stand facing the wall at attention without food or water for about 14 hours with a guard standing over me. The reason for the latter was that the German security officer was furious at my unwillingness to answer questions on methods used in building and engineering the tunnel. Also the fact that he was unable to find any German money maps compasses and other escape paraphernalia which I had disposed of while being marched back to camp. His second escape involved Flight Lieutenant Ash from Camp 21B Schublin (spelled Chubin in Ash account). Exchanged identities with two orderlies to get into working part outside the camp. Worked on several parties to learn of topography and decided to escape from local railway station. Each time we left the camp on a working party it was necessary to carry hidden about our persons all our needs such as food and other escape paraphernalia. We carried enough food to last us ten days our plan being to get to Danzig and stow away on a Swedish ship in the hope of finally arriving at Sweden. We had so arranged our clothing that by throwing away our hats and turning our tunics inside out we had the appearance of being civilians. The party from which we escaped was one for the unloading of bread from station wagons in Schubin Station itself. The plan as it developed was carried out by having two of the other orderlies engage the guards in conversation and giving them a cigarette or so while we disappeared behind the freight truck. We then threw away our hats and turned our tunics inside out and walked away screened by the trains as civilians. However while we were crossing the train bridge on the outskirts of the station we were spotted by a youngster of about 15 years of age who was suspicious and we later found out though we were Russians who had escaped from some Russian prisoner parties a few days previously. He gave the alarm to our guards who immediately telephone the camp and the local barracks from which soldiers were immediately despatched on bicycles. In the meantime we attempted to reach a piece of wooded ground which was possibly eight kilometres away from the station. The terrain in the vicinity of Schubin was very swampy and criss-crossed by a network of drainage canals thus rendering cross- country travel very difficult and forcing us to keep to known paths or roads. We were captured while attempting to ford a steam by a party of guards on bicycles who had cut us off from the wood about three quarters of an hour after we left the station. On this occasion our treatment was better with the exception of F/O Ash who was hit in the face by the Schubin Station Master who was incensed at the thought that anyone should try to escape from his station. We managed however to rid ourselves of all our escape paraphernalia such as maps compasses etc. before we were captured. Third escape attempt involved a tunnel from Camp XXIB Schubin built by Asselin with the help of 24 fellow prisoners; 33 men eventually broke out using this tunnel which began from an outside lavatory. It was necessary not only to excavate the tunnel but also a holding room for escapees who would have to secret themselves on the day of the escape as they could not get from barracks to tunnel entrance. The tunnel was supplied with air through an elaborate air line made of tins plus a pump. On the day of the escape he opened the tunnel exit about 7.00 p.m. to allow air into the tunnel and the crowded holding chamber which had filled with men before 5.30 p.m. He and Ash left about 8.00 p.m. crawled across a field without being detected with men following at intervals until about 30 minutes past midnight. The Germans did not detect the escape until roll call next day (the exit itself was concealed in a potato patch). They were unable to discover the entrance to the tunnel for two or three hours even after they had discovered the exit and to do so it was necessary for them to tie a rope around a Russian prisoner's body and send him into the exit hole and make him go to the beginning of the tunnel and knock on the concrete floor in the lavatories before they were able to discover the entrance which they did by tearing up the concrete. Asselin and Ash headed east hoping to link up with Polish partisans and then be passed to Yugoslav partisans. They travelled 20 kilometres the first night intent on putting distance between themselves and the camp although the marshy ground hindered their progress. They hid in a wood which was exhaustively searched but evaded detection. They continued travelling on the second third and fourth nights but the dragnet seemed to thicken as the enemy posted guards at all bridges and cross roads. On one occasion he and Ash crossed a bridge by crawling on their stomachs and evade two guards. On many occasions they threw themselves into ditches to evade foot and motorized patrols. It was apparent that Germans had turned out all possible troops in several rings around the camp to round us up. It was later discovered through our camp intelligence and from the trend of the German interrogation after our capture that they were under the impression that this large break had been engineered from England and was designed to foment rebellion amongst the Poles. In addition to the rings of guards around the camp the frontier guards on the Dutch Swiss and Belgium borders were increased and organized search parties composed of Hitler Jugend home guards and foresters etc. searched all barns haystacks etc. for miles around the camps. Our pictures and descriptions appeared in police gazettes around Germany. All trains with destinations near any border were searched periodically. I have forgotten the number of man-hours we estimated had been lost to the German war industry directly caused by the tunnel and the German fear of the consequences (due of course to the impression the Germans had of the reason for the escape) but it was considerable and we deemed it well worth while. We were captured on the evening of the fourth day by a Folkdeutsch policeman (Polish German) who was guarding a station crossing about eleven o'clock at night. He was hidden in the shadows and we did not see him until he came up behind us and challenged us. We had no choice but to surrender claiming we were French workmen who had been sent to work in the Krackau train yards and had somehow lost our way. We had forged papers substantiating our story but he was adamant and it was necessary for us to accompany him to the local Gestapo headquarters as he had had strict instructions to bring in anybody even remotely suspicious. These orders had been issued since the break and he was one of the special guards posted for our apprehension. They detained us at the Gestapo headquarters where they proceeded to identify us and where we proceeded to destroy all our incriminating papers compasses maps etc. After they found out who we were we were passed through five or six jails on our journey back to the camp always under Gestapo or Crepo guard. The jails ranged in importance from small local town jails to larger political ones. We were finally returned a few days later to our own camp where we were again questioned and searched on many occasions. During our passage through these jails we met numerous other prisoners of war who had been captured since the break. Though engaged in the other aspects of escaping organizations camp and intercompound security etc. tunnels remained my special job and it was in the organizing and building of tunnels (and/or the planning and advising in connection with tunnels) that my main work of escape organization lay. Though being a member of the escape committee and security committee there were many other aspects to camp life in relation to escape and subversive activities in which I was engaged. In all I worked on about 25 tunnels. I was a member of the escape organization at Sagen from April 1943 to January 1945 in which I represented one of the eight barracks at the meetings proposed escape plans and passed on other plans which had been submitted. Also I acted as contact man for some time for the camp...to obtain information and bribe guards into selling items which would be useful for escaping purposes such as German money files tools local maps train schedules specimen papers from which we would copy our forgeries. During incarceration in the cells as punishment for escapes I was able to buy in exchange for cigarettes many of these articles from corrupt guards. It was also our duty to organize stealing parties on which we would relieve the Germans of any of their excess equipment which we thought might be useful to us. I designed an undershirt with specially constructed pockets which enabled an escaping prisoner to do away with the tell-tale haversack and carry unnoticed about his person from two to two and a half weeks' supply of food. It was also our duty to devise hidden places for the concealing in safety of all our forbidden material. These were constructed in the walls tables underground etc.,

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