ALLIED AIRMEN SHOT

Dominion, Volume 37, Issue 199, 20 May 1944, Page 7

ALLIED AIRMEN SHOT

Fate Of 47 Officers “FREEDOM BID” IN GERMANY Details Demanded LONDON. May 19. The Foreign Secretary. Mr. Eden, announced in the House of Commons t<>day that the Germans had shot 47 R.A.F., Dominion, and Allied air force officers who were prisoners of war. The Germans said this had occurred when the men were attempting to escapie Mr. Eden said that on April 17 the Germans told representatives of the protecting Power that 76 officers from a prisoners’ camp had escaped on Match -•>. Fifteen had been recaptured, 14 were still at large, and 47 had been shot. According to the Germans some of the men were shot while resisting arrest. Some tried to escape again after they had been recaptured. Mr. Edeu said the-British Government was profoundly shocked at the incident. He paid a tribute to the courage ami high sense of military duty of the men. "We have asked for au immediate report on till the circumstances, and an explanation from the German Government of it§ failure to report the matter tit once to the protecting Power,” said MrEden. The next-of-kin had been informed, and anyone not informed need have no anxiety. A woman in uniform was a member of the crew of a British bomber which crashed nt Gantoffe, in Denmark, last Monday night, declared Berlin radio. “It is assumed,” the radio added, “that she was a war correspondent, unless the R.A.F. is filling up gaps by recruiting women pilots. All of the crew of the bomber were killed.” Women journalists are not allowed in operational British planes.