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Peter Stevens (RAF Officer)
Peter Stevens (born Georg Franz Hein; 15 February 1919 – 16 July 1979) was a German Jew who flew bombers in the British Royal Air Force in World War II. As an enemy alien living in London in the late 1930s, Hein assumed the identity of a dead schoolfriend in order to join the RAF at the outbreak of hostilities. Shot down on a bombing raid, he was captured by the Germans and held a prisoner of war. Aware that if his true identity was discovered he would be regarded as a traitor he made repeated escape attempts, but was always recaptured. Liberated from the POW camp at the end of the war, he finally obtained British citizenship. In 1947, he transferred to MI6's East German section, retaining his RAF commission. After leaving MI6, he emigrated to Canada in 1952, embarking on a business career. Early life Stevens was born Georg Franz Hein, on 15 February 1919 in Hanover, Germany, a member of a wealthy German-Jewish family. In 1934 his widowed mother sent him to school in Engla ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Hanover
Hanover ( ; ; ) is the capital and largest city of the States of Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Its population of 535,932 (2021) makes it the List of cities in Germany by population, 13th-largest city in Germany as well as the fourth-largest in northern Germany after Berlin, Hamburg and Bremen. Hanover's urban area comprises the towns of Garbsen, Langenhagen and Laatzen and has a population of about 791,000 (2018). The Hanover Region has approximately 1.16 million inhabitants (2019) and is the largest in the Hannover–Braunschweig–Göttingen–Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region, Hanover–Braunschweig–Göttingen–Wolfsburg Metropolitan Region, the List of EU metropolitan areas by GDP, 17th biggest metropolitan area by GDP in the European Union. Before it became the capital of Lower Saxony in 1946, Hanover was the capital of the Principality of Calenberg (1636–1692), the Electorate of Hanover (1692–1814), the Kingdom of Hanover (1814–1866), the Province of Hannove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Berlin
Berlin ( ; ) is the Capital of Germany, capital and largest city of Germany, by both area and List of cities in Germany by population, population. With 3.7 million inhabitants, it has the List of cities in the European Union by population within city limits, highest population within its city limits of any city in the European Union. The city is also one of the states of Germany, being the List of German states by area, third smallest state in the country by area. Berlin is surrounded by the state of Brandenburg, and Brandenburg's capital Potsdam is nearby. The urban area of Berlin has a population of over 4.6 million and is therefore the most populous urban area in Germany. The Berlin/Brandenburg Metropolitan Region, Berlin-Brandenburg capital region has around 6.2 million inhabitants and is Germany's second-largest metropolitan region after the Rhine-Ruhr region, as well as the List of EU metropolitan areas by GDP, fifth-biggest metropolitan region by GDP in the European Union. ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Gestapo
The (, ), Syllabic abbreviation, abbreviated Gestapo (), was the official secret police of Nazi Germany and in German-occupied Europe. The force was created by Hermann Göring in 1933 by combining the various political police agencies of Free State of Prussia, Prussia into one organisation. On 20 April 1934, oversight of the Gestapo passed to the head of the ''Schutzstaffel'' (SS), Heinrich Himmler, who was also appointed Chief of German Police by Hitler in 1936. Instead of being exclusively a Prussian state agency, the Gestapo became a national one as a sub-office of the (SiPo; Security Police). From 27 September 1939, it was administered by the Reich Security Main Office (RSHA). It became known as (Dept) 4 of the RSHA and was considered a sister organisation to the (SD; Security Service). The Gestapo committed widespread atrocities during its existence. The power of the Gestapo was used to focus upon political opponents, ideological dissenters (clergy and religious org ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Jimmy Buckley
James Brian Buckley, ( – 21 March 1943) was a Royal Navy Fleet Air Arm pilot who became a notable prisoner of war during the Second World War. He died during an escape attempt on 21 March 1943. Fleet Air Arm Buckley's naval career began in the mid-1920s. He was commissioned as a sub-lieutenant in the Royal Navy with seniority from 15 June 1926. He then spent much of his early career attached to the Royal Air Force (which then controlled the naval aviation requirements of the British Armed Forces), interspersed with periods of other naval duties. He continued to receive regular promotions within the Royal Navy during this period, to lieutenant on 1 December 1928, and lieutenant commander on 1 December 1936. Control of naval aviation returned to the Admiralty in 1939. Buckley assumed command of No. 825 Squadron Fleet Air Arm in January 1940, which was equipped with Fairey Swordfish aircraft. With the squadron, Buckley operated from and from RAF Hal Far on Malta. When the sh ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
William Ash (pilot)
William Franklin Ash MBE (30 November 1917 – 26 April 2014) was an American-born British writer, broadcaster and Marxist, who served as a fighter pilot with the Royal Canadian Air Force in World War II. He was shot down, made a prisoner of war, and was noted as an escaper. Early life Born into a lower-middle-class family in Dallas, Texas, Ash was a migrant worker during the U.S. Great Depression, and graduated from the University of Texas with a BA degree, writing privileged pupils' essays to gain money and also for his personal development as an author. Around this time, the Spanish Civil War broke out, and the largely apolitical Ash, driven by a hatred of bullies and fascism, decided that if the war was still going when he turned 21, being old enough to fight, he would join the Abraham Lincoln Brigade. World War II service Ash enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at Windsor, Ontario, on 22 June 1940. He did his basic training at No.1 Initial Training School from 20 ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Harry Day
Harry Melville Arbuthnot Day, (3 August 1898 – 11 March 1977) was a Royal Marine and later a Royal Air Force pilot during the Second World War. As a prisoner of war, he was senior British officer in a number of camps and a noted escapee. Early life Day was born in Sarawak on Borneo on 3 August 1898, and grew up there. His grandfather had been a major in the 66th Foot before forming a private army for Charles Brooke, the second White Rajah of Sarawak. The army became known as the Sarawak Rangers. Day's father joined the Rajah's service and became a Sarawak resident.'Wings Day' by Sydney Smith page 26 Day's great-uncle was George Fiott Day, who had won the Victoria Cross during the Crimean War. He is also a descendant of George Miller Bligh, who was an officer on during the Battle of Trafalgar. Day was sent to England and was educated at Haileybury College, where he joined the Officers Cadet Corps. While on manoeuvres, he was wounded when shot in the back wi ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oflag XXI-B
Oflag XXI-B and Stalag XXI-B were World War II German prisoner-of-war camps for officers and enlisted men, located at Szubin a few miles southwest of Bydgoszcz, Poland, which at that time was occupied by Nazi Germany. Timeline * September 1939 – The Germans established a camp for arrested Polish civilians, mostly the intelligentsia, arrested as part of the '' Intelligenzaktion''. * October 1939 – First Polish soldiers captured during the German Invasion of Poland (1939) brought to Szubin, ''Kriegsgefangenenlager Schubin'' prisoner-of-war camp for Poles established. The camp was built around a Polish boys' school by adding barracks. Polish POWs were used for the expansion of the camp. * December 1939 - The Germans formally established the Stalag XXI-B2 POW camp in Szubin, and the Stalag XXI-B1 POW camp in Antoniewo near Skoki, both for Polish POWs. * March-May 1940 - Polish POWs were transferred to other camps, located in Germany. * June 1940 - French officers were bro ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Dominic Bruce
Dominic Bruce, (7 June 1915 – 12 February 2000) was a British Royal Air Force officer, known as the "Medium Sized Man." He has been described as "the most ingenious escaper" of the Second World War. He made seventeen attempts at escaping from POW camps, including several attempts to escape from Colditz Castle, a castle that housed prisoners of war "deemed incorrigible". He was named by Jim Rogers ("Tunnelling into Colditz") as one of the ten 'Kings of Colditz', the men who "dedicated their waking hours only to the idea of escaping". Famed for his time in Colditz, Bruce also escaped from Spangenberg Castle and the Warburg POW camp. In Spangenberg Castle he escaped with the ''Swiss Red Cross Commission escape''; it is also argued he co-innovated the wooden horse escape technique while serving time inside Spangenberg. In Warburg he escaped dressed as a British orderly in a fake workers party. Inside Colditz Castle, Bruce authored the ''Tea Chest Escape'' and also faced a firing s ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Pete Tunstall
Peter David Tunstall (1 December 1918 – 27 July 2013) was a squadron leader in the Royal Air Force during the World War II, Second World War and a prisoner of war (POW) held at Oflag IV-C, Colditz Castle. He holds the record for the most time spent by an Allied POW in solitary confinement. Early life Tunstall was born in Chadwell St Mary, Essex, in 1918 and moved to the nearby village of Orsett at the age of three. As a schoolboy he took his first flying lesson from a local airfield, paid for by shooting and selling rabbits to his local butcher. He joined the RAF in 1937 and trained at No. 61 Squadron RAF, No 61 Squadron at Hemswell in Lincolnshire and eventually became a Handley Page Hampden, Hampden pilot. During his RAF training he was told by A.J. Evans – a World War I Royal Flying Corps pilot and double prisoner-of-war escapee – that if he was captured, "Your first duty was to try to escape. Your second duty was to be as big a bloody nuisance as possible to the en ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Oflag VI-B
Oflag VI-B was a World War II German prisoner-of-war camp for officers (''Offizierlager''), southwest of the village of Dössel (now part of Warburg) in Germany. It held French, British, Polish and other Allied officers. Camp history In 1939, before it was a POW camp, the area was originally planned to be an airfield. The POW camp was opened in September 1940. At first French, and then British officers were housed there. The serial escaper Eric Foster in his autobiography explained that upon arrival he chatted to a guard to ask about the conditions of the camp. Foster explained the guard confided, "the camp was a very, very bad camp indeed". Foster stressed that this guard desperately wanted the prisoners to complain about the conditions, with the guard believing that if they harassed the camp command about the conditions, the camp would be closed down. The guard, who wanted an easier posting also stated to Foster, "We are prisoners as much as you are." Foster explained the pr ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Flying Officer
Flying officer (Fg Offr or F/O) is a junior officer rank used by some air forces, with origins from the Royal Air Force. The rank is used by air forces of many countries that have historical British influence. Flying officer is immediately senior to pilot officer and immediately below flight lieutenant. It is usually equivalent to the rank of sub-lieutenant in the navy and of the rank of lieutenant in other services. The equivalent rank in the Women's Auxiliary Air Force was "section officer". Canada The rank was used in the Royal Canadian Air Force until the 1968 unification of the Canadian Forces, when army-type rank titles were adopted. Canadian flying officers then became lieutenants. In official Canadian French usage, the rank title was . United Kingdom Origins The term "flying officer" was originally used in the Royal Flying Corps as a flying appointment for junior officers, not a rank. On 1 April 1918, the newly created RAF adopted its officer rank titles ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Nazis
Nazism (), formally named National Socialism (NS; , ), is the far-right politics, far-right Totalitarianism, totalitarian socio-political ideology and practices associated with Adolf Hitler and the Nazi Party (NSDAP) in Germany. During Hitler's rise to power, it was frequently referred to as Hitler Fascism () and Hitlerism (). The term "neo-Nazism" is applied to other far-right groups with similar ideology, which formed after World War II, and after Nazi Germany collapsed. Nazism is a form of fascism, with disdain for liberal democracy and the parliamentary system. Its beliefs include support for dictatorship, fervent antisemitism, anti-communism, anti-Slavism, anti-Romani sentiment, scientific racism, white supremacy, Nordicism, social Darwinism, homophobia, ableism, and the use of eugenics. The ultranationalism of the Nazis originated in pan-Germanism and the ethno-nationalist ''Völkisch movement, Völkisch'' movement which had been a prominent aspect of German nationa ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
