Thursday 2nd April

Dick Raymond and me yesterday

Spent a lovely couple of hours this morning with my good friend, Dick Raymond, in north Devon. Dick, who will turn 102 in July, has a chapter dedicated to him in my book, "The Bomber and the Weathervane". He was an RAF Sergeant (Flight Engineer) in Lancaster bombers during WWII. He was shot down over the Netherlands in early 1944 and parachuted to the ground, only to be taken prisoner and shipped off to a POW camp on the German/Polish border. He was one of only three crew members who survived. As the Russians closed in from the east, Dick, along with thousands of other prisoners, was forced to march through horrendous blizzard conditions to a camp nearer to Berlin. Known as the Death March, hundreds died en route. The Russians eventually liberated the camp but refused to release any POW's because of ongoing difficulties in the Yalta Conference talks between Churchill, Stalin and Roosevelt. Dick and some others managed to escape the camp one night and eventually found their way to Allied forces. Dick Raymond - a true hero!