Acquit Air Gunner On Serious Charges

Northern Advocate, 25 August 1945, Page 6

Acquit Air Gunner On Serious Charges

(Rec. 2.30 p.m.) LONDON. August 24. A court-martial has acquitted an airgunner, Warrant-Officer Raymond Hughes, on four of 11 charges which alleged, that after capture by the Germans lie gave more information than was compulsory. The four charges alleged that Hughes gave information on the methods adopted for carrying out the Peenemunde raid. Alternatively he was guilty of conduct prejudicial to good order and discipline; that he broadcast German propaganda from Radio Metre pel; that he advised the Germans on methods of combating Berlin bombing raids. The first and last, if proved, would have carried the death penalty. Giving evidence today, Professor Reinhard Kal'erkorn, who was in charge of English broadcasts from Berlin, said that Hughes was introduced to him as a possible collaborator. Hughes wrote scripts which were valueless as propaganda, even when rewritten. Hugbes'then left the English broadcast section. "It did not occur to me that Hughes was trying to use me. but later after I heard that he had talked to SquadronLeader Carpenter (another R.A.F. prisoner). I had some ideas about it. and I became suspicious of Carpenter. The department got little from Hughes for its money." Another witness. Captain Hans Volland. of the German Air Force, told the court-martial that Hughes gave no more information than hundreds of other R.A.F prisoners when interrogated. Counsel for the defence, in an address lasting an hour, described what Hushes had done as a campaign for assisting his own country, and not assisting the enemy, and asked for dismissal of all charges.