60 GERMANS

Grey River Argus, 5 July 1944, Page 2

60 GERMANS

Taken Prisoners

BY BRITISH BOMBER CREW

LONDON, July 3

A British Tommy near Caen was surprised one morning to be hailed by a New Zealand airmen but when he learned that the airman had 60 German prisoners for him he could hardly believe his ears. The New Zealander was a Christchurch airman, Flight Sergeant M. P. Burgess. Giving an account of the capture Burgess said: “I was a radio operator in a four-engined bomber detailed to take supplies to the Normandy beachhead on D Day. This we did successfully and set a course for England, but the aircraft was hit by flak while crossing the French coast, causing a large fire in ,the port wing. Owing to the number of ships standing off the beach-head we were unable to make a forced landing in the sea, with the result that we crashed behind German lines, north of Caen. Everyone of the crew miraculously got out scratchless from the blazing bomber, but we had no sooner congratulated ourselves than we found Germans covering us with tommy-guns. They were evidently retreating, but decided to take us along. Our four officers were ordered to carry a wounded German on an improvised stretcher, while the flight engineer was given a motor-cycle to push. 1 Was given a bicycle on which was a heavy radio. We marched phat night, taking rests at frequent intervals. We were thankful when a German tank took the wounded man aboard. At dawn on June 7 we arrived at a chateau which had been shelled rather badly. We were put into a barn containing baled hay and given a meal of very hard black German bread and German sausages and had quite a surprise when, asking for water we received a bottle of champagne labelled ‘To be consumed by German Army officers only. We also had a pot of coffee and plenty of real butter, so we managed to make a good meal. We passed the day listening to British and German shells whizzing over our heads, but the h'ghlight was when eight Junkers 88’s appeared, only to be sent crashing in flames by about 30 Spitfires in a matter of a couple of minutes. British mortars were now getting the chateau’s range, and the commandant told us to get into a slit trench with his men because it was much safer. “As we sat in the trench the Huns, passing backwards and forwards, would say: ‘Excuse, please, British soldier,’ and give a little bow. They were very apologetic to us and things seemed to get crazier and crazier. We were very glad to be in the trench, for just after we left the barn it was hit bv a mortar and went up in flames. Until now the Germans had not mentioned surrendering. but after British Tommies had lobbed some grenades into each end of the trench they wanted us to march out of the trench in front of them to surrender, but we said that if they wanted to surrender they could do so themselves, for it would be rather worse than suicide to go into the open at that time. When everything was again quiet sixty Huns and ourselves shifted our lodgings to the basement of the burntout chateau, and for the remainder of the night things were pretty hot for lots of bombs fell in addition to British naval shells. The whole place seemed to have gone mad and sleep was impossible. At last -daylight same, but we were pretty miserable. It was then the Commandant asked us to take him and his men prisoners and scout round for a British Tommy. Although our advance passed on ahead, it was still dangerous, for the place was rotten with German snipers, but after one or two exciting moments the navigator and myself managed to find a Tommy. He had a great surprise seeing us. but .received a bigger one when I told him v/e had 60 prisoners for him. We lined up the Germans a iid marched them to Brigade Headquarters, where with the Commandant we handed them over. We spent the next few hours with Tommies in the trenches, and managed to obtain a captured German staff car to get to the beach-head. There we found a ship, about to sail for England, and I’ll never forget the welcome sight of England the next morning. It all seemed like a nightmare."