Harold Bastable
Home Town: Manitoba Conflict: World War II Branch: Air Force
Then Goering’s Luftwaffe got me out and got me to Stalag Luft III, where they had that big ‘hobby horse’ escape.
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I was in the Air Force. Ended up as a Navigator in Bomber Command. I was in an RAF station, 640 Squadron in Leconfield, I think it was.
We got shot down over Versailles on June the 8th, the day after D-Day. From then, I ran into more trouble, I think, than the average. I got involved in the French Underground and got caught by the Gestapo, and ended up in French prison and then went on one of those boxcar rides into Germany, and into Buchenwald concentration camp for a hundred and one days.
Then Goering's Luftwaffe got me out and got me to Stalag Luft III, where they had that big 'hobby horse' escape. Then in January, '45 they took us on the winter march, and I ended up in, not Buchenwald, but Luckenwald, just twenty miles south of Berlin. Then we were released by the Russians… I shouldn't say 'released', they wouldn't let us go. The Americans had to come in and take us out.
Then I went back to England, and back home.
We got shot down over Versailles on June the 8th, the day after D-Day. From then, I ran into more trouble, I think, than the average. I got involved in the French Underground and got caught by the Gestapo, and ended up in French prison and then went on one of those boxcar rides into Germany, and into Buchenwald concentration camp for a hundred and one days.
Then Goering's Luftwaffe got me out and got me to Stalag Luft III, where they had that big 'hobby horse' escape. Then in January, '45 they took us on the winter march, and I ended up in, not Buchenwald, but Luckenwald, just twenty miles south of Berlin. Then we were released by the Russians… I shouldn't say 'released', they wouldn't let us go. The Americans had to come in and take us out.
Then I went back to England, and back home.
