Operation: Leipzig, Germany

Date: 19th/20th February 1944 (Saturday/Sunday)

Unit No: 77 Squadron, 4 Group, Bomber Command

Type: Halifax II

Serial: HR949

Code: KN:H

Base: RAF Elvington, Yorkshire

Location: Wail, 7 km (4¼ mls) ENE of Hesdin, Par de Calais, France

Pilot: Flt Lt. Derek Anthony Thomas 42773 RAF Age 24. PoW No: 3512 * (1)

Flt Eng: Sgt. A. Smith 1423946 RAFVR Age? PoW No: 1743 ** (2)

Nav: Flt Sgt. Derek Kenneth Measures 1320887 RAFVR Age 22. Id No: 784117 ***, PoW No: 8107 * (3)

Bomb Aimer: Fg Off. Dennis Laird Thorman 151102 RAFVR Age 22. PoW No: 3540 * (4)

WOp/Air Gnr: Sgt. Alexander Leask Robertson 1552272 RAFVR Age 20. PoW No: 1744 ** (5)

Air Gnr (Mid Upp): Sgt. James Slater 1535622 RAFVR Age? Evader (6)

Air Gnr (Rear): Sgt. Domenico Anthony Alexander Di Ciacca 1821622 RAFVR Age 21. PoW No: 1717 **** (7)

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

** Stalag Luft 6, Heydekrug, Memelland (now Šilutė in Lithuania).

*** Buchenwald concentration camp established on Ettersberg hill near Weimer, Germany in July 1937.

REASON FOR LOSS:

On the 19th/20th February 1944 77 squadron joined a force of 823 aircraft on a mission to Leipzig in Germany. The force lost 44 Lancasters and 34 Halifaxes with 4 of the Halifaxes from 77 Sqn;

Halifax V LL143 KN:O, lost without trace. Flt Lt. Henry A.L. Ellis DFC 412932 RAAF and his crew are listed MiA;

Halifax V LL184 KN:K, crashed in the sea off the coast of Holland. WO. James Dunlop 989158 RAFVR and five of his crew are posted MiA and one KiA;

Halifax V LL239 KN:A, shot down by German night-fighter. Flt Sgt. Johnstone C. Dalzell 1457698 RAFVR and three of his crew were KiA and three became PoWs.

The circumstances leading to the loss of HR949 and its crash-site was not recorded in the available reference documents. However, from the ‘General Questionnaire for British/ American Ex-Prisoners of War’ for four of the crew it has been determined the aircraft crashed at or near Wail, 7 km (4¼ mls) ENE of Hesdin, Par de Calais, France. It is not known if the aircraft was outbound or homebound to/from the target.

What is known is that all of the crew successfully abandoned the aircraft and six became PoWs and one was a successful evader.

(1) Flt Lt. Thomas was captured at Wail which is ENE of Hesdin, Par de Calais. After the statutory visit to Dulag Luft, Oberursel he was transferred to Stalag Luft 3, arriving there on the 28th February 1944.

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 1945 Flt Lt. Thomas joined the North, East and remaining West compound PoWs to Marlag und Milag Nord at Westertimke, arriving there on the 4th February 1945.

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 and marched them out, heading east. It is not known if Flt Lt. Thomas was in this group or if he was amongst the many PoWs who hide in the camp or in the surrounding woods.

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.

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. Thomas was Interviewed on the 3rd May 1945.

He enlisted in the RAF on the 8th October 1939 and was granted a short service commission as an acting Plt Off. on probation for 4 years on the 9th October 1939 (London Gazette 27th October 1939).

Promoted to the war substantive rank of Fg Off. on the 4th May 1941 (London Gazette 27th June 1941) and to Flt Lt. on the 4th May 1942 (London Gazette 16th June 1942).

Upon return to the UK he remained in the RAF on the active list and was granted extended service for four years on the 15th May 1947 (London Gazette 8th July 1947).

He obtained a Private Pilots Licence on the 12th September 1947.

He was promoted to Sqn Ldr. on the 1st November 1947 (London Gazette 24th October 1947). Sqn Ldr. Thomas relinquished his commission on account of medical unfitness for air force service retaining his rank on the 14th March 1951 (London Gazette 20th March 1951)

Derek Anthony Thomas was born on the 12th March 1919 in Belmont, Surrey. He passed away in the Queen Mary’s Hospital, Roehampton, Wandsworth in August 1977, aged 58.

(2) A General Questionnaire for British/American Ex-Prisoners of War has not been found for Sgt. Smith. However, other PoW listings and the fact that his PoW No. was 1743 and only one lower than that Sgt. Robertson, it is probable that his PoW experience was the same as that for Sgt. Robertson. See (5) below.

(3) The details of the evasion of Flt Sgt. Measures is not known except that he was denounced on the 6th April 1944 by local people whilst in hiding. He was imprisoned for 7 days in Amiens and then transferred to Fresnes prison.

Fresnes prison was located to the south of Paris and was where French political prisoners were held and ordinarily Allied airmen, after questioning, were moved to a PoW Camp. In the summer of 1944, with the Allies having liberated Paris and closing in, the Gestapo guards started reducing the prison population by execution, and then relocating surviving prisoners to various concentration camps east of France. On the 15th August 1944 he was amongst 169 Allied PoWs and hundreds of French men and women who were packed into a freight train and transported to Buchenwald concentration camp on a journey lasting five days. Buchenwald was located 8 km (5 mls) north of Weimar, in the German province of Thüringen. It was established and administered by the Schutzstaffel (SS).

Fg Off. Joel Mathews ‘Tex’ Stevenson C27788 RCAF, the pilot of 419 (Moose) Squadron, RCAF Lancaster X KB727 VR:H escaped from the train and successfully evaded.

Sqn Ldr. Lamason and Fg Off. Chapman succeeded in getting all but two of the Allied PoWs transferred to Stalag Luft 3. Two airmen, 1st Lt. Levitt Clinton Beck Jr. O-736945, US AAF and Fg Off. Philip Derek Hemmens, 152583, RAFVR died in the sick barrack.

Recognition:

For decades the International Red Cross (IRC) had stated that there were no military personnel in Buchenwald despite the overwhelming documentary and anecdotal evidence. It was not until 1988 that the IRC eventually confirmed the airmen were illegally held at Buchenwald.

The Australian, New Zealand and Canadian governments also consistently denied that any of their service personnel were ever held in concentration camps and refused to investigate the claims made by a 'mere’ handful of men.

Reparations were made to the British airmen who had been illegally held at Buchenwald in 1965. Eventually in 1988 the Australian, New Zealand and it is believed the Canadian governments acknowledged that their airmen had been illegally held in concentration camps.

American airmen were among those receiving compensation and the US Air force have acknowledged the Buchenwald airmen with an exhibit at the Air Force Museum, albeit the airmen are shown in uniform rather than in civilian attire. Furthermore, there is no mention of decades-long denial of their experiences by other branches of the government.

He was transferred to Stalag Luft 3 over the period 15th to 20th October 1944. Whilst at Stalag Luft 3 he was promoted to Warrant Office (WO).

From this point forward until he was interviewed on the 3rd May 1945 his PoW story is the same as that for Flt Lt. Thomas. See (1) above.

Derek Kenneth Measures was born on the 6th July 1922 in Steyning, Sussex. He passed away on the 9th December 1992 in Surrey, England.

(4) Fg Off. Thorman was captured between Béthune and Boulogne-su-Mer that day. He was slightly wounded but the nature and extent of his injuries are not known.

After the statuary visit and interrogation at Dulag Luft Oberursel he was transferred to Stalag Luft 3 arriving there on the 10th March 1944. He was promoted to Flt Lt. on the 22nd January 1945 (London Gazette 16th February 1945).

From this point forward until he was interviewed on the 3rd May 1945 his PoW story is the same as that for Flt Lt. Thomas. See (1) above.

After he returned to the UK he remained in the RAF. On the 3rd August 1949 he was granted a short service commission as a Flt Lt. in the RAF, General Duties Branch (eight years on the active list and four year on the reserve) (London Gazette 4th October 1949).

On the 1st April 1953 he was appointed to a permanent commission (London Gazette 22nd September 1953). On the 6th July 1964, as a Flt Lt. he was transferred to the reserve (London Gazette 14th July 1964).

Dennis Laird Thorman was born on the 6th July 1921 in Newcastle-on-Tyne, Northumberland. He was a bank Clerk in Newcastle-on-Tyne prior to enlisting in the RAFVR in March 1941. He passed away on the 22nd October 2005 in Swaffham, Norfolk, England.

(5) Sgt. Robertson was captured 64¼ km (40 mls) inland from Calais that day. After the statutory visit to Dulag Luft, Oberursel he was transferred to Stalag Luft 6, Heydekrug arriving there on the 2nd March 1944.

In early 1944 the Russian Army were advancing into the Baltic States from the North and the East preparation for evacuating the camp was being made. On the 12th August 1944 the PoWs from the camp, being the closest to the Russian advance, were transported by train to Stalag 357 Kopernikus at Thorn (Toruń) in Poland arriving there on the 14th August 1944.

On the 2nd September 1944 the camp was evacuated and was part of the “Northern route forced-march”. It went to Stalag Luft 4 at Gross Tychow, Pomerania then via Stettin to Stalag 9B and Stalag 357 at Fallingbostel arriving there on the 9th September 1944. Some prisoners were marched from there at the end of the war towards Lübeck, however, for most including Sgt. Robertson, Fallingbostel was their final destination.

Note: The camp was commonly referred to as Stalag 357, Fallingbostel, however, it was officially designated as Stalag 357, Oerbke.

The camp was liberated on the 16th April 1945 by British troops from B Squadron 11th Hussars and the Reconnaissance Troop of the 8th Hussars. They were met at the main gate of Stalag 357 by a guard of Airborne troops, impeccably attired and led by RSM Lord. Sgt. Robertson was Interviewed on the 10th May 1944

Alexander Leask Robertson was born on the 27th June 1923 in Aberdeen Scotland. He enlisted in the RAFVR in October 1941.

(6) The escape and evasion report for Sgt. Slater is not currently available and all that is known is that he was interviewed on the 5th September 1944.

(7) Sgt. Di Ciacca was captured near Hesdin, Par de Calais that day. The General Questionnaire for British/American Ex-Prisoners of War for Sgt. Di Ciacca records that his PoW experience was the same as that for Sgt. Robertson. See (3) above.

Domenico Anthony Alex Di Ciacca was born on 15th March 1922. He enlisted in the RAFVR on the 25th January 1943. No further information about him has been found other than he returned to Scotland and resided in Port Seton, East Lothian, Scotland

Burial details:

None - All of the crew survived

Researched by Ralph Snape for Aircrew Remembered and dedicated to the crew and their families (Jul 2024).

Other sources listed below:

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