PILOT IN TEARS

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 2, Issue 122, 12 February 1940, Page 2

PILOT IN TEARS

CAPTURED GERMAN

TOLD ENGLISH WOULD

TORTURE HIM

A German pilot dined in the mess ol' a Royal Air Force squadron among the pilots who had brought him down, writes Ronald Walker, a special representative in France of the News Chronicle, London.

The story is one of the most remarkable of the war. and was tolil to me when I visited the squadron alter driving through a violent rainstorm along a road made by the Romans through conquered Gaul. The German was pilot of the Dornicr which landed near Chalons. He had been engaged on a long reconnaissance over France, when the lighter boys ot this little village spotted him. Three Hurricanes went after him and attacked one alter the other.

After the Nazi gunner, badly wounded, and observer had jumped with their parachutes, the pilot remained with his machine making a long approach to bring it down in a field.

One of the Hurricane pilots flew along side, and seeing that the pilot was drooping.over his wheel, thought that he was probably wounded. The German pilot by this ingenious trick encouraged the British pilot to fly on.

As he got ahead the German, now sole occupant of his crippled machine, got out. of his seat, and stand \ng in the nose, managed to keep one hand on the controls, and operate the forward gun with the other. The German's aim was good. He got in a long burst,, shattering the cockpit covering, smashing through instruments on the dashboard, and stopping the engine. The pilot escaped injury and brought his ma- | chine down safely, while the Dornier was making a crippled landing some mil'es away. The pilots of the squadron, which has new many enemy machines to its credit, were so filled with admiration for the resource of the German pilot that they brought him to the squadron mess in the town hall lof the village, where a special dinner had been prepared. He i,s a man of 31, a former flying instructor and now a sergeantpilot. Back in Germany are his wife and six months old child. He drank wit/h his hosts and then sat down to dinner. Suddenly, to the embarrassment of the hosts, their guest broke down and burst into tears. Two officers of the squadron who speak German led Mm into another room. They tried to comfort him. Eventually he returned to the dinner tables and apologised for his behaviour.

He explained that while he used to think that the English were good people, the German authorities had told him and his colleagues that the English would shoot or torture any German they caught. He had fully expected to be treated in that manner.

Instead he received kindness, and now he had been taken to dinner and treated as an honoured guest. His feelings had overwhelmed him.