Virtual
War Memorial
Australia

Extract  see the link in the sidebar

On the 21 March 1945, there was a heavy bombing attack on Dreierwalde which killed some 40 German and foreign civilian workers on the airfield. Shortly after the raid, an Australian pilot, Flying Officer Jack Paradise, was brought in and locked in a cell in the guardroom. His aircraft, Halifax MH-D MZ348 [D-Dog] of No 51 Squadron Bomber Command, had been hit by bombs from another aircraft during an attack on Rheine. The whole of Flying Officer Paradise’s crew had escaped by parachute and later the same day a further four members of the crew, Flight Lieutenant Keith Berick [RAAF], Pilot Officer Bruce Greenwood [RAAF], Sergeant R. Gunn [RAF] Flight Sergeant A. Armstrong [RAF] were brought in, having been captured in a nearby village possibly Hopsten or Bevergern, and were locked up with their captain. Two other crewmembers, Val Hood and Les Hart were captured separately from the others and ended up in a POW camp.
All were interrogated by Rauer and Scharschmidt. The captured aircrew were confined to their cell except for a short period on the 22 March when the airfield was attacked again and they were taken out into a nearby field for safety’s sake and then returned to their cell after the raid. Later that same day, Scharschmidt ordered an escort to be formed to take the prisoners to the nearby railway station, possibly at Spelle, where they were to catch a train to start their journey to Oberursel.

In the late afternoon, the five aircrew and three escorts left the airfield ostensibly to walk to the railway station. The three German NCOs were armed with machine pistols and Amberger, who was in command, also carried his service pistol. A short distance outside the aerodrome, the party turned off onto a rough path with woods on one side and fields on the other. According to Flying Officer Berick, who was later to testify, Amberger gave the order to the prisoners to walk abreast. No sooner had they done so than the escort opened fire with their machine pistols; four of the airmen were killed, but Berick, despite suffering two bullet wounds in his left thigh, managed to escape into the woods to the right of the track. He was pursued for some distance but not caught. After being on the run for about two days, he surrendered to the German Army, was treated for his wounds and sent to a POW camp.

Postscript:

All the accused from the first trial, Boettcher, Scharschmidt, Lommes, Bopf, Guenther and Lang were found guilty as was Karl Amberger from the second trial. They were sentenced to death by hanging and executed at Hamelin prison on the 15 May 1946. Pleas for mercy by their wives and fiancées were unsuccessful. Karl Rauer was originally sentenced to death but this was subsequently commuted to life imprisonment.