COURT-MARTIAL OF BRITISH AIRMAN

Auckland Star, Volume LXXVI, Issue 200, 24 August 1945, Page 6

COURT-MARTIAL OF BRITISH AIRMAN

RELEASED PRISONER Charges Of Giving Aid To Germans N.Z. Press Association—Copyright Rec. 2.30 p.m. LONDON, Aug. 23. A Royal Air Force court-martial at Uxbridge began hearing 11 charges against a repatriated war prisoner, Air-Gunner Warrant-Officer Raymond Hughes, a volunteer reservist, alleging that after his capture by the Germans he gave more information than was compulsory. Two other Royal Air Force repatriated war prisoners will face similar charges soon.

The principal charges against Hughes, to which he pleaded not guilty, are: Disclosing to the Germans the method adopted by the Royal Air Force for carrying out the raid in which he was shot clown; asking war prisoners on behalf of the German authorities to fill in answers on forms containing questions relating to Royal Air Force formations; making German propaganda records; broadcasting German propaganda; lending money to persons engaged in forming a British Free Corps" intended for use against the Red Army; advising the German authorities on methods of combating Allied air raids against Berlin; accepting employment from the German Foreign Office and Berlin radio.

Prosecution's Allegations

The prosecutor, Flight-Lieutenant R. W. Goff, stated that Hughes was shot down on August 17, 1943, and taken to the Dulagluft interrogation centra, where he remained for two months. He was later removed to Frankfurt and then to Berlin, where he stayed until August 8, 1944, wearing civilian clothes and under no kind of detention or restriction.

Flight-Lieutenant Goff said he was calling as witnesses a German officer who interrogated Hughes at Dulagluft, the German official in charge of the English section of the German Foreign Office Broadcasting Department, also Royal Air Force prisoners.

Flight-Lieutenant Goff alleged that whereas prisoners ordinarily stayed at an interrogation centre for only two or three days before their removal to a permanent camp, Hughes stayed on, working for the Germans and enjoying special privileges.

The prosecutor added that Hughes in Berlin expressed -willingness to write anti-Jewish talks for a broadcast to England, after which he was provided with a special room in the Foreign Office and also broadcast propaganda talks in Welsh for the Welsh troops in Italy. Hughes' appointment terminated when his employers refused him seven days' leave, which he nevertheless took, whereupon they arrested him and sent him to a war prisoners' camp. The Germans offered Hughes a commission in the British Free Corps, after which he attended various meetings and lent money to other prisoners. In December, 1943, Hughes went to the German Air Ministry and pointed out what he had observed during the Berlin raids. He offered advice about improving the city's defences. Statement by Accused An investigating officer of the R.A.F., giving evidence, said that he interviewed Hughes on May 28, after which Hughes made a statement. Hughes' alleged statement said that he was a war prisoner from August IS, 1943, to April 2, 1945 when he was liberated by the Russians. When interrogated at Dulagluft, after being shot clown, he at first refused any information beyond his name, number and next-of-kin. The Germans told him that if he did not answer further questions he would be handed over to the Gestapo. The interrogator later told him that they had all the information they required concerning his squadron, group, etc., and requested him to sign a paper bearing these particulars, which he did. Returning to Dalagluft after being flown to a castle near Bonn, where a German officer- asked him about the food situation in Britain, he was given civilian clothes and found his cell door left unlocked. He volunteered to take a Red Gross letter form round the cells and got more freedom until he was able to visit any part of the building, including the offices, where he caw many photographic copies of English documents. A girl clerk told him that these were received from German spies in Britain by radio photography. The statement continued that Baillie-Stewart, in December, 1943, told Hughes "he was no good at broadcasting and particularly dumb at writing," but he was prepared to offer him a commission in the British Free Corps, which Joyce (Lord Haw-Haw) and Amery were raising on the lines of the Viking Waff en and S.S. The hearing was not finished.