Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Written by Willard Noel Fethers -
No date probably 1980s or 1990s
Transcribed by Carol Fallows from handwritten notes on 28 Dec 2012.
Willard died on 26 December, 2012

“The end of the 1939-45 war had a special significance for me. I had been a prisoner of war in firstly Italy and later Germany and had been released in May 1942 [sic 1945] by the Russian Army. There were about 6000 Australian Army personnel in P.O.W. camps who were captured during the fighting in North Africa and then [?] abortive landings in Greece & Crete. There were also about 600 Air Force, the survivors of 6,500, who had been shot down whilst bombing Germany from Great Britain or had been shot down and captured in the desert of North Africa.

“I was one of the latter. I had been trained as a pilot in Australia in 1941 and posted to England where, after further training I was posted to fly a medium bomber with a crew of 6 - named a Wellington - out to Africa in May 1942. After refuelling stops at Gibraltar and Malta we got there after 18 hours of flying. I could count myself as one of the lucky ones as one out of every three of the Wellingtons flying down the Mediterranean Sea was shot down before it got to Malta. Having made it to Egypt my crew and I were to return to England by ship around the Cape of Good Hope to bring out another plane.

“However this was not to be. The German Army under the command of General Rommel over-ran our forces taking Tobruk and pressed on into Egypt before being stopped at what has been known as the El Alamein line. The aircraft ferry crews of which I was one were sent out to your [?] Squadrons and set about bombing the German supply lines. Because our aircraft were all armed we did this under cover of darkness but were still vulnerable to night fighters and ground fire. On 5th October 1942 my luck ran out and I was shot down.
[Later Willard told me that the engine of his plane failed]. However the Good Lord was looking after me and I was able to land my crippled plane and ??? on a flat patch of ground and with my crew of 5 we all managed to get out. After walking for 9 days we were captured by the Italians whilst trying to obtain food.

“I spend the next [months] in Italy until the Italians capitulated and the P.O.W.s were bundled into cattle trucks by the Germans and taken to various camps in Australia and Germany. After a number of moves I finished up in Stalag Luft III. The German words Stalag - camp, Luft - air - a camp for Air Force P.O.W.s.

“When I arrived the occupants had been working since April 1943 on 2 tunnels known as Tom, Dick and Harry. In Sept. that year Tom was discovered by the guards [and] later Dick was shut down and used for disposal of sand, whilst work was concentrated on Harry which was eventually opened on March 1944 after traversing some 365 feet (approx 112 meters) and 28 feet deep - 76 men got out. 3 (one Dutchman and 2 Norwegians) got back to England, 73 were re-captured of whom 23 were sent back to camp whilst 50 were murdered by the Gestapo.

“In the early winter of 1944 the Germans marched us across Germany ahead of the advancing Russians. The temp was 40° below zero and frostbite was rampant. Crammed into a camp with some 50,000 other prisoners just south of Berlin until finally the Russians and the the Americans arrived.


“I just got back to England after V.E. so missed the celebrations and was returning home by ship when the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan. Were were mid Pacific Ocean when the news came thru and I recall our incredulity about the new weapon. However it meant that our war was over and we would not have to serve in a new theatre. So this day is one great significance to me. “