REPATRIATED OFFICER

Grey River Argus, 12 September 1944, Page 8

REPATRIATED OFFICER

FIRST CAPTURED BY GERMANS. LONDON, Sept. 8 The first British officer taken prisoner in this war has arrived in Sweden after five years in German prison camps. He is Flight-Lieuten-ant Laurence Edwards, Royal Air Force, of Wellington, who was among 2633 prisoners who arrived at Trelleborg from Germany. Flight-Lieutenant Edwards had arrived in England only a few weeks before war broke out. His aeroplane was shot down by, a German pilot ever Heligoland on September 4, 1939 —the day after Britain declared war on Germany. Two non-commissioned officers from another British aeroplane who were shot down by Germans were captured only a few hours before Flight-Lieutenant Edwards. They are still in German prison camps. Flight-Lieutenant Edwards said that he had seen the Nazi regime rise and fall. At first there had been seme uncertainty. This was follower! by a period of surpassing arrogance, which in turn, was followed by, another period of doubt, but no diminution of arrogance. To-day the debacle and the spirit had gone out of the Nazis entirely.