ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE FROM NAZI CAMP

Dominion, Volume 38, Issue 6, 2 October 1944, Page 4

ATTEMPT TO ESCAPE FROM NAZI CAMP

Shooting Of Allied Air Officers A list of the names of the 47 flying officers who were shot in an attempt to escape from the German prison camp Stalag 111 on March 22 this year has been received by Lieutenant-Commander R. L. Cross, R.N.Z.N.V.R., Wellington. Among them is the name of his nephew, Squadron Leader lan Cross, D.F.G., of the Royal Air Force. The numbers of officers of the Allied air forces who were shot are: 25 R.A.F., 6 Canadian, 3 Australian, 2 New Zealand, 3 South African, 1 Fighting French, 4 Polish, 2 Norwegian, and 1 Hellenic. The names of the New Zealanders are Flight Lieutenant A. G. Christensen and Flying Officer P. R. J. Pobe. George Pollock, “Daily Mirror reporter, formerly of the R.A.F., tells the following story of Squadron Leader lan Cross:—■ “I remember the afternoon when Squadron Leader Cross took off from a damp, sodden Lincolnshire airfield in his Wellington bomber, captain of one of the machines that went out on the suicidal endeavour to destroy the Scharnhorst, Gneisenau and Prince Eugen, which were making their dash up the mist-shrouded Straits of Dover. I remember the stunned, dazed feeling that swept the camp when his machine failed to return, and the wild exultation that seized everyone a few days later when he was reported safe, though prisoner, having been picked -up by the Germans in the North Sea. That February afternoon in 1942 when he fearlessly dived through one of the most ferocious flak barrages of the entire war, almost to mast-head height, in the foulest flying weather imaginable, Squadron Leader Cross, became, in my mind, one of the heroes of the war.

“His record up to that time had been brilliant. He was one of the very first pilots to risk the hazards of night bombing in the days when we could muster a mere handful of bombers. He undertook at least 50 operational flights over Germany, Norway, and‘’France (including Dunkirk). He undertook long distance flights. He went to Stettin and over the Alps to Turin and other Italian targets. He was one of the ace pilots of the Bomber Command. And at 23 he was one of the youngest squadron leaders in the R.A.F. At the same time he was one of the most popular men in the service. . . . That was why when he did not return on that chill, raw February afternoon, his friends could not believe they had heard the last of lan Cross. That is why now have heard the news of his death by shooting they will be thinking of ways to repay his death.” By the same mail Lieutenant Commander Cross has learnt that lan’s brother, Air Commodore Kenneth Cross. C.8.E., D. 5.0., D.F.0., has, at the age of 33, been appointed Director of Overseas Operations at the Air Ministry in London, ikt the time of his promotion to commodore he was the youngest officer to attain that rank in the Royal Air Force.

Air Commodore Cross was appointed air officer in charge of training at Headquarters, Allied Expeditionary Force, in March last. He was formerly air officer commanding a Mediterranean Allied coastal group (1943), and previously commanded a number of groups and wings in the Middle East. He was posted as missing after the sinking of H.M.S. Glorious, but was later reported safe, being one of five survivors out of a number of 39 who managed to get onto rafts and the majority of whom died during two days’ exposure among the floating ice of the Arctic Circle. Air Commodore Cross received the D.F.C. in 1940 and the D.S.O. in 1942. for operations during the Libyan campaign.