KILLED BY ALLIED BOMBS

Otago Daily Times, Issue 25856, 29 May 1945, Page 4

KILLED BY ALLIED BOMBS

BRITISH AND AMERICAN SOLDIERS an air raid tragedy A Dunedin soldier who spent many months in a prisoner-of-war camp in Germany tells, in a letter to his parents in Ravensbourne, of a narrow escape from death when liberty was in sight. The advance of the Russians caused the Germans to remove Allied prisoners from Stalag IVA, and they were marched away from the camp to Leipzig. The Dunedin soldiers and others, however, were permitted to travel by train. From Leipzig the prisoners were taken to Halle, and were released from captivity by the Americans on April 15 ‘‘ It was at Halle,” writes the Ravensbourne soldier, “ that I had a very lucky escape from being killed. On March 31, during an Allied raid, we were' in a shelter, which we always found to be the best place when a raid was on. Unfortunately, a stick of five bombs landed right across the shelter, and one of them hit our emergency entrance. Well, that is all I remembered for a while. When I regained consciousness I was completely buried, but I was fortunate to be one of the first to be dug out. I received only slight head wounds, and I had a twisted leg, but both are now as good as ever. My hair, however, is still a little uneven, as part of my head had to be shaved. , , “In that raid, concludes the writer, ”43 British and American prisoners of war were killed. There were roughly 100 of us in the shelter at the time."