My grandpa lied about his age to get into WW2, but despite several attempts to recruit him his mother kept answering the phone lying that he was not home (until one fateful day she was out and he answered). He was from Calgary and joined the RCAF as a pilot. Took a ship to England and trained there, flew the Halifax and Lancaster bombers.
On one mission, their plane was hit and was going to crash. He tried to scramble out of the plane but his copilot in the confusion took his parachute. He found an emergency extra parachute but by the time he could bail out of the plane, and then release the chute, he was pretty close to land and hurt (broke? Not super clear on the tape / don’t remember) his leg on the fall. Copilots name was Red, a Canadian who ended up retiring and living in Winnipeg and who several decades later wrote a written letter to my grandpa apologizing for that.
A French farmer found him in his field and let him stay in his barn for a short time to recover. This was outside the town Rolampont. After some time he left and met the mayor of Rolampont who aided him as well as housed him. He started walking to Switzerland and crossed a river to get in, but was almost immediately captured sneaking in and taken to Lausanne, and then Bern. He was able to get in contact with the British forces who thought he was dead (indeed I have a MIA Calgary Herald article from the time with his name on it) and then told him to make his way to Perpignan, near the Spanish / French border for rendezvous pick up.
So he snuck his way back into France and travelled to Perpignan. He was captured just outside the town by the Germans, and taken to a temporary holding cell with another person (soldier I think?). He and his new compatriot decide that that evening in the middle of the night they’ll make an escape attempt. My grandfather was awoken to gunshots and saw out the window that his cohort had attempted to leave without him and that he was very lucky to not have joined him given the result. So off to Paris by train for the trials.
It is determined at trial, for crimes of espionage, that he should go to a POW. He is then put on a train and sent to a concentration camp, name escapes me right now, in the western part of present day Poland. He spends the next 2-3 years here, and attempts to escape 2 more times, and on the 2nd attempt is thrown into solitary confinement. Eventually, the Germans decide they’d prefer to be captured by the Americans rather than the Soviets as the war starts to grind down. As such, grandpa was put in chains and commenced the famous Death Marches back across Central Europe into Germany. He walked over 400km and lived off a loaf of bread a week. He ended up getting dysentery and scurvy, and eventually was starving to death.
He was cut loose from the chains, and left in an old hospital to die with some of the others. General Patton drove in and saved him as he lied dying in this hospital in some remote German town. He recovers in the town for a couple days, and speaks about the regaining his strength somewhat with food provided, and then a general anger he and his friends had. He was eventually shipped out back to London, where when he arrived he was ~70-80lbs and 6’2” or so. He was then given a ride back to Canada and met my grandma.
He then returned to Calgary and joined the post office where he worked as a postman for several years. He didn’t speak about the war much (at all? Not sure) until my older brother sent him some questions about his life as a school project. At the time in the early 90’s, we were living overseas. So my grandpa records this insane story and sends it to our family. My dad (his son) didn’t know and had not heard I think most of the story if not all of it. My grandpa died only a few short months after that, after recording this war story and life story on tape.
Later, I travelled to LA with friends to watch the Flames. At the game, I end up seated next to some random Kings fan and we get to talking. My grandpa comes up for some reason and I get into the story and next thing I know I find out this guy produces movies and audio stories / podcasts of WW2 stories and wants me to send my grandpas tapes (copies of) them to him to use as material. I never did, as I wasn’t sure how my family would like that, although I’ve asked a few people and they seem okay with it.
There are 6 tapes, and he talks about being a postman in the majority of them, which I find amusing and which for sure gets pretty dry. He sprinkles in some interesting family commentary and opinions along the way though for colour.
His father had his arm shot off with a cannonball in WW1. Anyway, that’s my grandpas story.
My mistake here is the POW camp, it is in present day Poland but at the time was German territory. Lamsdorf...
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stalag_VIII-B
His prisoner and pilot ID’s is listed on the internet for prisoners at Lamsdorf.
