William Franklin Ash
MBE (30 November 1917 – 26 April 2014) was an American-born British writer, broadcaster and
Marxist
Marxism is a political philosophy and method of socioeconomic analysis. It uses a dialectical and materialist interpretation of historical development, better known as historical materialism, to analyse class relations, social conflic ...
, who served as a fighter pilot with the
Royal Canadian Air Force
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...
in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...
. He was shot down, made a
prisoner of war
A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610.
Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...
, and was noted as an escaper.
Early life
Born into a lower-middle-class family in
Dallas, Texas
Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
, Ash was a migrant worker during the U.S.
Great Depression
The Great Depression was a severe global economic downturn from 1929 to 1939. The period was characterized by high rates of unemployment and poverty, drastic reductions in industrial production and international trade, and widespread bank and ...
, and graduated from the
University of Texas
The University of Texas at Austin (UT Austin, UT, or Texas) is a public research university in Austin, Texas, United States. Founded in 1883, it is the flagship institution of the University of Texas System. With 53,082 students as of fall 2 ...
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
The Spanish Civil War () was a military conflict fought from 1936 to 1939 between the Republican faction (Spanish Civil War), Republicans and the Nationalist faction (Spanish Civil War), Nationalists. Republicans were loyal to the Left-wing p ...
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
The XV International Brigade was one of the International Brigades formed to fight for the Spanish Republic during the Spanish Civil War.
History
The XVth Brigade mustered at Albacete in January 1937. It consisted of English-speaking volunte ...
.
World War II service
Ash enlisted in the
Royal Canadian Air Force
The Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF; ) is the air and space force of Canada. Its role is to "provide the Canadian Forces with relevant, responsive and effective airpower". The RCAF is one of three environmental commands within the unified Can ...
at
Windsor, Ontario
Windsor ( ) is a city in southwestern Ontario, Canada. It is situated on the south bank of the Detroit River directly across from the U.S city of Detroit, Detroit, Michigan. Geographically located within but administratively independent of Esse ...
, on 22 June 1940. He did his basic training at No.1 Initial Training School from 20 July 1940, and he was promoted to
leading aircraftman
Leading aircraftman (LAC) or leading aircraftwoman (LACW) is an enlisted 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.
Leading air ...
on graduation on 14 October 1940. Having been accepted for pilot training, Ash was posted to No.12 Elementary Flying Training School, from where he graduated on 30 November 1940. Posted to No. 31 Service Flying Training School, he learned to fly single-engine fighters. On graduation, he was commissioned on 25 March 1941. Ash was assigned to Embarkation Depot on 3 April 1941 for the voyage to England, where he completed a period with Operational Training Unit before joining
No. 411 Squadron RCAF. He flew
Spitfires in many defensive and offensive missions, including an attack on the German battleships ''Scharnhorst'' and ''Gneisenau''. In 1942, he flew in "
Big Wing" fighter sweeps over France with
No. 411 Squadron RCAF.
Prisoner of war
On one of these missions to attack Comines Power Station on 24 March 1942, flying
Supermarine Spitfire
The Supermarine Spitfire is a British single-seat fighter aircraft that was used by the Royal Air Force and other Allies of World War II, Allied countries before, during, and after World War II. It was the only British fighter produced conti ...
Mark Vb (serial number "AB281") from
RAF Hornchurch
Royal Air Force Hornchurch, or more simply RAF Hornchurch, is a former Royal Air Force List of former Royal Air Force stations, sector station in the parish of Hornchurch, Essex (now the London Borough of Havering in Greater London), located to ...
, Ash was one of three of the squadron's pilots shot down by
Jagdgeschwader 26
''Jagdgeschwader'' 26 (JG 26) ''Schlageter'' was a German fighter-wing of World War II. It was named after Albert Leo Schlageter, a World War I veteran, Freikorps member, and posthumous Nazi martyr, arrested and executed by the French fo ...
he crash-landed at
Vieille-Église
Vieille-Église is a Communes of France, commune in the Pas-de-Calais Departments of France, department in the Hauts-de-France region of France 9 miles (15 km) east of Calais.
Population
See also
*Communes of the Pas-de-Calais department
...
, about 15 miles from
Calais
Calais ( , , traditionally , ) is a French port city in the Pas-de-Calais department, of which it is a subprefecture. Calais is the largest city in Pas-de-Calais. The population of the city proper is 67,544; that of the urban area is 144,6 ...
, and was smuggled by the
French Resistance
The French Resistance ( ) was a collection of groups that fought the German military administration in occupied France during World War II, Nazi occupation and the Collaboration with Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy#France, collaborationist Vic ...
to
Lille
Lille (, ; ; ; ; ) is a city in the northern part of France, within French Flanders. Positioned along the Deûle river, near France's border with Belgium, it is the capital of the Hauts-de-France Regions of France, region, the Prefectures in F ...
and onward to Paris. He was arrested in Paris at the end of May 1942 and imprisoned at
Oflag XXI-B,
Szubin
Szubin () is a town in Nakło County, Kuyavian-Pomeranian Voivodeship, Poland, located southwest of Bydgoszcz. It has a population of around 9,333 (as of 2010). It is located on the Gąsawka River in the ethnocultural region of Pałuki.
A small ...
. In September 1942, he exchanged identities with an army private and joined a fatigue party, from which he escaped, only to be recaptured the same night. In the spring of 1943, Flight Lieutenant Ash and 32 others escaped from Oflag XXI-B through the latrine tunnel with
Harry Day and Peter Stevens. With a companion, he tried to reach
Warsaw
Warsaw, officially the Capital City of Warsaw, is the capital and List of cities and towns in Poland, largest city of Poland. The metropolis stands on the Vistula, River Vistula in east-central Poland. Its population is officially estimated at ...
, but was recaptured four days later. Shortly afterwards, he was transferred to
Stalag Luft III
Stalag Luft III (; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a ''Luftwaffe''-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel.
The camp was established in March 1942 near th ...
, Sagan, where he was an active member of the escape committee. For the next 21 months, when other ranks were being transferred from Sagan to
Stalag Luft VI,
Heydekrug, Ash changed his identity and accompanied them. Under his direction a tunnel was later made for a mass escape, but the tunnel was discovered when 10 prisoners had got away. Ash continued the attempt and eventually gained his freedom. He boarded a goods train for
Kovno
Kaunas (; ) is the second-largest city in Lithuania after Vilnius, the fourth largest List of cities in the Baltic states by population, city in the Baltic States and an important centre of Lithuanian economic, academic, and cultural life. Kaun ...
, but was discovered by station guards and returned to Sagan.
His de-briefing after liberation from captivity in April 1945 records the places where he was imprisoned as
Dulag Luft (Oberusel) for about three days in June 1942, then Stalag Luft III at Sagan from June to September 1942 Oflag XXI-B (Schubin), where he was held from September 1942 to April 1943, back to Stalag Luft III for April and May 1943, and then Stalag Luft VI (Heydekrug) from May to August 1943 before return to Stalag Luft III for the period August 1943 to January 1945 and finally the naval camp Marlag Milag Nord at
Westertimke from January to April 1945.
Ash was reportedly twice sentenced to death as a spy. On one of these occasions the Luftwaffe successfully argued that they should have custody of Ash because he was an airman, thereby taking him from the
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 F ...
who had sentenced him to death.
On 17 May 1946, Ash was appointed
Member of the Order of the British Empire
The Most Excellent Order of the British Empire is a British order of chivalry, rewarding valuable service in a wide range of useful activities. It comprises five classes of awards across both civil and military divisions, the most senior two o ...
(MBE) for his escaping activities. He ended the war as a
flight lieutenant.
In Britain
Demobilised back in England at war's end, Ash discovered that the act of "
taking the King's shilling" in 1939 had robbed him of his US citizenship and that he was now a stateless person. He acquired British citizenship and went up to
Balliol College, Oxford
Balliol College () is a constituent college of the University of Oxford. Founded in 1263 by nobleman John I de Balliol, it has a claim to be the oldest college in Oxford and the English-speaking world.
With a governing body of a master and aro ...
, on a veteran's scholarship, to read
PPE.
He then joined the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
, working alongside a young
Tony Benn
Anthony Neil Wedgwood Benn (3 April 1925 – 14 March 2014), known between 1960 and 1963 as Viscount Stansgate, was a British Labour Party (UK), Labour Party politician and political activist who served as a Cabinet of the United Kingdom, Cabine ...
, who became a lifelong friend. Sent to India as the Corporation's main representative on the subcontinent, Ash was influenced by
Nehru's brand of socialism, and by the time he returned to Britain in the late 1950s his politics had solidified into a hard-boiled Marxism. He became involved in left-wing "street politics", including the post-war anti-fascist movement, but his late-blooming revolutionary tendencies eventually proved too much for the
BBC
The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...
, which fired him – though he managed to cling on to freelance employment in the radio drama department as a script reader.
Beginning in the 1960s, Ash wrote a series of novels, including ''Choice of Arms'' and ''Ride a Paper Tiger''. Politics, however, remained his chief interest. Finding him too quirky and individualistic, the
Communist Party rejected his application for membership, and he co-founded the
Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist).
He also brought his academic background to bear on the subject, publishing a study entitled ''Marxist Morality''. In later life Ash served for several years as chairman of the
Writers' Guild of Great Britain
The Writers' Guild of Great Britain (WGGB), established in 1959, is a trade union for professional writers. It is affiliated with both the Trades Union Congress (TUC) and the International Affiliation of Writers Guilds (IAWG).
History
The u ...
and helped to encourage young writers through his work as a script reader for
BBC Radio
BBC Radio is an operational business division and service of the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) which has operated in the United Kingdom under the terms of a royal charter since 1927. The service provides national radio stations cove ...
and later as literary manager at the
Soho Theatre
Soho Theatre is a theatre and registered charity in the Soho district of the City of Westminster, and Soho Theatre Walthamstow in north-east London. It produces and presents new works of theatre, together with comedy and cabaret, across three pe ...
. His book ''The Way to Write Radio Drama'' remained the best on the subject for more than 20 years.
[Obituary: William Ash](_blank)
''The Daily Telegraph'', 30 April 2014. Later, he was able to work as a freelancer for the BBC's radio drama department as a script reader.
Personal life
Ash's first marriage, in 1946 to Patricia Rambault – with whom he had a son and a daughter – was dissolved.
In 1955 he married his second wife,
Ranjana Sidhanta (1924–2015).
He died at the age of 96 in London on 26 April 2014.
Bibliography
In addition to numerous articles in Marxist journals, Ash is the author of the following books:
Fiction
* ''The Lotus in the Sky'' (1961), London: Hutchinson,
* ''Choice of Arms'' (1962), London: Hutchinson,
* ''The Longest Way Round'' (1963), London: Hutchinson,
* ''Ride a Paper Tiger'' (1969), New York: Walker,
* ''Take-Off'' (1970), New York: Walker,
* ''Incorporated'' (1980), Brighton: Harvester Press, ,
* ''Right Side Up'' (1984), London: Howard Baker, ,
* ''Bold Riot.'' G. Mann, 1992. ,
* ''What's the Big Idea'' (993), Bristol: George Mann,
* ''But My Fist is Free'' (1997), Maidstone Mann, ,
* ''Rise Like Lions'' (1998), Maidstone Mann, ,
* ''Heroes In The Evening Mist'' (2018), New Internationalist,
Non-fiction
* ''Marxism and Moral Concepts'' (1964), New York: Monthly Review Press.
* ''Pickaxe and Rifle : the Story of the Albanian People'' (1974), London: Howard Baker ,
* ''Morals and Politics : the Ethics of Revolution'' (1977), London/Boston: Routledge & Kegan Paul
* ''A Red Square, The Autobiography of an Unconventional Revolutionary'' (1978), London: Howard Baker,
* ''Marxist Morality'' (1988), London: Howard Baker Press Ltd,
* ''Under the Wire: The Wartime Memoir of a Spitfire Pilot, Legendary Escape Artist, Cooler King'' (with
Brendan Foley) (2005), hardback Bantam Press,
* ''Workers' Politics, the Ethics of Socialism'' (1998; 2007), Aakar Books, India, ,
About William Ash's novels
* Doug Nicholls, ''Class Writer, An Introduction to the Novels of William Ash'' (2002), Coventry: Bread Books,
Biographies
*
*
External links
William Ash's radio work for the BBC
References
{{DEFAULTSORT:Ash, Bill
1917 births
2014 deaths
20th-century British novelists
20th-century British autobiographers
21st-century British autobiographers
Writers from Dallas
University of Texas at Austin alumni
Royal Canadian Air Force officers
Canadian World War II pilots
World War II prisoners of war held by Germany
American emigrants to England
Naturalised citizens of the United Kingdom
Members of the Order of the British Empire
Alumni of Balliol College, Oxford
British Marxist writers
Communist Party of Britain (Marxist–Leninist) members
British male novelists
British non-fiction writers
British radio writers
BBC people
British trade union leaders
Canadian prisoners of war in World War II
Canadian escapees
British escapees
Escapees from German detention
Royal Canadian Air Force personnel of World War II
British male non-fiction writers
Hoxhaists
People who renounced United States citizenship
Canadian expatriates in England
American expatriates in England