Sandbag - Wincanton RBL Newsletter: August 2011

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Summary

Editor Tony Goddard - 01963 824193
Secretary Arthur Pickup - 01963 32952

Branch Meetings for 2011 - Wincanton Memorial Hall - Monday at 7 p.m.

19th September
17th October
7th November (AGM)
19th December
16th January
20th February

Coffee Mornings for 2011 - Wincanton Memorial Hall - Saturday at 10 a.m.

29th October

Trips and Events for 2011

20th August - We will visit Lulworth Cove, departing from the Memorial Hall 9 a.m. With a possibility of visiting Swanage too. Cost £10.
24th September - Exmouth with a stop at Honiton for the Saturday market. Cost £10.
14th October - Annual dinner.
23rd October - Taunton for the County Poppy Appeal Launch, this will include a parade and events by 40 Commando Royal Marines. Cost £10.
5th November - Bristol, afternoon in central Bristol then on to Colston Hall for the Festival of Remembrance. Cost for the coach £10 and entrance to Colston Hall £10.
19th December - Pre-Christmas lunch and Poinsettia Trail at Ottery St. Mary.

New Members

Everyone is welcome to join the legion, regardless of whether or not you have a service background. Pop along to one of our branch meetings and see what we are doing to safeguard the welfare, interests and memory of those who have served in the Armed Forces.

The Great Escape

In the Spring of 1943, Sqdn Ldr. Roger Bushell RAF conceived a plan for a major escape from Stalag Luft III POW camp, which occurred the night of March 24–25, 1944.

Previous attempts had involved the escape of anything up to a dozen or twenty men, but Bushell was proposing to get in excess of 200 out, all of whom would be wearing civilian clothes and possessing a complete range of forged papers and escape equipment. Three tunnels named "Tom", "Dick" and "Harry" were started . More than 600 prisoners were involved in their construction.
 
Of the 600 prisoners who had worked on the tunnels only 200 would be able to escape in their plan. The prisoners were separated into two groups, and had to wait about a week for a moonless night so that they could leave under the cover of complete darkness. Finally, on Friday, March 24, the escape attempt began and as night fell, those allocated a place in the tunnel moved to Hut 104. Despite these problems, 76 men crawled through the tunnel to initial freedom. Finally, at 4:55 a.m. on March 25, the 77th man was seen emerging from the tunnel by one of the guards. Those already in the trees began running while New Zealander Sqdn Ldr. Leonard Henry Trent VC, who had just reached the tree line stood up and surrendered. Of 76 escapees, 73 were captured. Hitler initially wanted to have not only the escapees shot as an example, but also Commandant von Lindeiner, the architect who designed the camp, the camp's security officer and the guards on duty at the time. Göring and others argued against any executions as a violation of the Geneva Conventions. Hitler eventually relented and instead ordered Himmler to execute more than half of the escapees. Himmler passed the selection on to General Artur Nebe. Fifty were executed singly or in pairs. Roger Bushell, the leader of the escape, was shot by Gestapo official Emil Schulz just outside Saarbrücken, Germany.

Following our stated wish to pay respects to our Country's War Dead where ever possible, we were contacted by Doug Louth whom you may remember visited Kohima and enabled us to place a wreath at Wincanton soldier Tony Fraser's grave there. Doug and his wife Chris were visiting Poznan, Poland and agreed to placed wreaths at the graves of the RAF personnel involved in the "Great
Escape".

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