Operation: Reconnaissance, France

Date: 18th May 1940 (Saturday)

Unit No: 53 Squadron, Army Cooperation, Advanced Air Striking Force (AASF)

Type: Blenheim IV

Serial: L4861

Code: PZ:M

Base: Poix-de-Picardie airfield, France

Location: Fontaine-au-Pire near Cambrai, France

Pilot: Plt Off. Paul Gordon Royle 42152 RAF Age 26. PoW No. 2269 * (1)

Observer: Sgt. Eric Francis Woods 581254 RAFVR Age? PoW (2)

Air Gnr: AC2. Alfred Henry Malkin 631632 RAFVR Age? Evader (3)

* Stalag Luft 3, Sagan-Silesia, Germany, now Żagań in Poland.

REASON FOR LOSS:

Blenheim IV L4861 took-off from Poix-de-Picardie on the 18th May 1940 on an reconnaissance operation. According to French sources, Blenheim L4861 was shot down at Fontaine-au-Pire SE of Cambrai.

After the Blenheim crash-landed, the three (3) crew members found shelter with a local priest. AC2. Malkin then left their hiding place to try and find an ambulance to transport Sgt. Woods who was wounded. In the meantime Plt Off. Royle returned to the wreckage of his aircraft to try and set it ablaze in order to prevent it from falling into enemy hands.

That afternoon Plt Off. Royle and Sgt. Woods were captured by an German patrol and arrested.

(1) Plt Off. Royle was transferred to Oflag 2 which was south of Prenzlau and 93 km (58 mls) north of Berlin.

In 1940, the first permanent prisoner of war camp for members of the RAF was established in Barth. He was amongst the first group of officers and NCOs of the RAF that arrived at the camp on the 7th July 1940. In April 1942, all 800 inmates were transferred to the newly constructed Stalag Luft 3 in Sagan, Silesia.

Plt Off. Royle was promoted to Fg Off. on the 6th November 1940 and to Flt Lt. on the 6th November 1941.

On the night of the 24th/25th March 1944, seventy-six (76) officers escaped from the north compound of Stalag Luft 3 which, at that time, held between 1000 and 1500 RAF PoWs. The escape was made by the means of a tunnel. At about 05:00 hrs on the 25th March the 77th PoW was spotted by guards as he emerged from the tunnel.

Flt Lt. Royle was the fifty-fourth (54th) in the tunnel and left at 02:30 hrs on the 25th March. His party of ten (10) split up after about an hours march. He and Flt Lt. Humphreys began to walk in a south-easterly direction.

Flt Lt. Edgar Humphreys was one of the fifty (50) officers murdered by the Gestapo.

The next morning at 08:00 hrs they decided to rest in a pine forest and that evening at 20:00 hrs they started walking in a southerly direction again. At about 02:30 hrs they were apprehended and taken to a jail in Tiefenfurt. In the morning at 09:00 hrs they were taken back to the Sagan civilian jail. That night at 22:00 hrs with another twenty (20) captured escapers they were moved to the Gestapo HQ at Görlitz. He was held there for six (6) days but was only interrogated on a single occasion. On the 2nd April he was returned to Stalag Luft 3. (Ref 1, p 210)

On the night of the 27th January 1945, with Soviet troops only 26 km (16 mls) away, orders were received to evacuate the PoWs to Spremberg which is to the West in Germany. The PoW’s were informed of the evacuation, which was on foot, at about 22:00 hrs the same night and were given 30 mins to pack and prepare everything for the March. The weather conditions were very difficult, with freezing temperatures, and it was snowing accompanied by strong winds. There was 15 cm (6 in) of snow and 2000 PoWs were assigned to clear the road ahead of the main groups.

After a 55 km (34 mls) march, the PoWs arrived in Bad Muskau where they rested for 30 hours. The PoWs were then marched the remaining 26 km (16 mls) to Spremberg where they were housed in empty garages, storerooms and in military barracks. There they were provided with warm soup and bread.

During next days, PoWs were divided up according to Compounds, and they were led to railway sidings and loaded into tightly packed carriages. On the 2nd February he was amongst the North, East and remaining West compound PoWs sent to Marlag und Milag Nord at Westertimke.

Marlag is an acronym for Marinelager (naval prisoner of war camp), Milag is short for Marine-Internierten-Lager(naval internment camp), and Nord is German for ‘north’.

On the 2nd April 1945 the Commandant announced that he had received orders to leave the camp with most of his guards, leaving only a small detachment behind to hand over the camp to Allied forces, who were already in Bremen.

However, that afternoon a detachment of over a hundred SS-Feldgendarmerie entered the camp, mustered over 3,000 men including Flt Lt. Royle, and marched them out, heading east. The next day, at around at 10:00 hrs the column was strafed by RAF aircraft, and two PoWs were killed.

Over the next few days the column was attacked from the air several times. Finally the Senior British Naval Officer (SBNO), who was later killed in a strafing attack by RAF aircraft, offered the Germans the PoW’s parole, in return for being allowed to rest during the day and march at night. The Germans agreed.

On the 9th April 1945 the guards at Marlag-Milag moved out and were replaced by older men, presumably local Volkssturm. Meanwhile, the column slowly headed east, finally crossing the River Elbe, north of Hamburg, on the 18th April 1945.

On the 27th April the camps were liberated by elements of the British Guards Armoured Division. The next day, the 28th April, the column finally arrived at Lübeck on the Baltic coast. They were liberated by the British 11th Armoured Division on the 1st May 1945.

Flt Lt. Royle was interviewed on the 3rd May 1945.

Paul Gordon Royle was born on the 17th January 1914 in Perth, Western Australia.

He enlisted as a Cadet Midshipman in the Royal Australian Navy (RAN) on the 1st January 1928. He attended the RAN College (RANC) in Melbourne at HMAS Jervis Bay and then at HMAS Creswell, where he berthed at ‘Cerberus House’. He voluntarily withdrew from the RANC and his appointment was terminated on the 8th May 1931.

He was a mining student prior to enlisting in the RAF on the 13th March 1939.

Paul passed away, aged 101, on the 23rd August 2015 in Perth, Western Australia.

(2) The extent of Sgt. Woods’ injuries are not known, however, they were severe enough for him to be repatriated in a prisoner exchange.

(3) AC2. Malkin was reported as an evader, however, no details of his evasion has been found.

Burial details:

None – crew survived

Researched by Ralph Snape from Aircrew Remembered as dedicated to this crew and their families (Apr 2025).

Other sources listed below:

References:

1. Stalag Luft III - An official history of the “Great Escape” PoW Camp - Published by Frontline Books - ISBN: 978-1-47388-305-5.

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