- Contributed by
- listert
- People in story:
- William Thomas Lister
- Location of story:
- Luneburg Heath
- Background to story:
- Royal Air Force
- Article ID:
- A1991856
- Contributed on:
- 08 November 2003
The following is an exact transcription of a war time story my father once wrote down. Sadly he died this year, but I know he would have been very pleased to know that someone would be reading this. I also have some photos which I hopefully will get scanned soon.
Regards
“
No Names if possible please
Nom de plume - “British Airman”
Dear Sir
I enclose the following short story hoping that I shall be lucky to have it published.
During the war I was stationed at an airfield near Luneburg Heath, servicing and flying in aircraft of the C in C British Forces, Field Marshall Lord Montgomery. Our billet was a tent by the watch tower on the airfield.
One night after dark we were awakened by an officer and told that one of the aircraft, an Avro Anson,was needed for a special flight next morning. We then were told that white crosses were being painted on the wings underneath. Next morning we were up early, had breakfast and awaited our passengers or passenger as we normally had to do.
In due course a staff car and escort turned up and several staff officers got out, one of which we learned later was Colonel Warren.
After the officers boarded the aircraft and we were taxiing to the end of the runway the pilot informed us we were going to fly over Hamburg where fighting was still going on, and were heading for an airfield about 100 miles north, a few miles south of Flensburg, which we knew was occupied by Germans.
The flight was uneventful and when we reached the airfield and looked out we could see that the perimeter was full of every type of aircraft that we knew the Germans flew. After landing we were ordered to follow a car to a spot outside the commanders quarters, between two rows of enemy aircraft.
Colonel Warren and his party then left us and we were told to wait till one o'clock and if they had not returned by then we should take off and return to Luneburg.
We sat in the sun outside the aircraft and about two hours later to our suprise, a man dressed in a long black leather coat and a trilby hat ( a perfect example of a Gestapo man as seen on films), came out of the commanders office and approached the pilot stating that the commanding officer would like us to join him for coffee. Ginger, the observer, put in his piece by saying “No bloody fear” and the pilot refused stating we would rather stay with the aircraft.
During the morning we were fascinated by periodic appearances of squads of about 20 German soldiers goosestepping armed to the teeth with automatic machine guns and made us feel very nervous.
Time passed and we started to get anxious as 12 noon came and for the next hour we were hoping that Colonel Warren was on his way back. But at one o'clock he had not returned and we started to make preparations for the take off when an officer hurried to the aircraft to inform us that Colonel Warren had sent a message that he had been delayed and we were to wait for him.
About 2:30pm three cars turned up and Colonel Warren with several high ranking German officers boarded the aircraft and we at last took off and returned to Luneburg where staff cars were waiting to take our passengers for what we were later to learn was the start of the talks with Field Marshall Montgomery to end the war.
For the next four days we returned with one German officer to Flensburg and then after a couple of hours a different officer would turn up and we would return to Luneburg. On the second day much to our suprise, a spitfire landed and the aircraft taxied up to us and asked us what we were doing there as he had seen us sitting by our aircraft. He was told by the pilot that he should get the hell out of there before he was taken prisoner — which he did.
Our pilotm who was a bit of a comedian, always seemed to hit quite a lot of air pockets making the journey very bumpy for our passengers.
PS Colonel Warren we were told died several weeks later in a car accident. We were also told that the crew of an American aircraft that flew the peace document to General Eisenhowers headquarters in Rheims in France had medals — we had no such recognition.
I remain
Yours Truly
“
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