What's Up Huntsville Lake of Bays July 2011 - Whatsupmuskoka.com

Honouring an airman killed in the Great Escape
By Allan Cook
In a small churchyard in the hamlet of
Hrabuvka in the Czech Republic stands a
memorial to two Allied airmen killed
there during the Second World War, one
of them the uncle of Port Sydney resident
Gord Kidder.
On June 12, Kidder took part in a
dedication ceremony at the memorial. It
was an emotional endpoint in a journey
that began for Kidder’s family before he
was born – one that has taken him
halfway around the world to trace his
uncle’s final days.
Kidder’s uncle, Flying Officer Gordon
Arthur Kidder, a Lieutenant in the Royal
Canadian Air Force, was shot down and
captured by the Nazis in October 1942.
A prisoner of war at Stalag Luft III
near Zagan, Poland, Lt. Kidder was one
of 76 men who made it through a narrow
102-metre hand-dug tunnel in the
mass breakout that became famously
known as The Great Escape. All but three
escapees were eventually recaptured by
the Germans. In reprisal, Hitler ordered
the execution of 50 of them before they
could be returned to camp. Gestapo
agents murdered Lt. Kidder and his
escape partner, RAF Squadron Leader
Thomas Kirby-Green, in Hrabuvka on
March 29, 1944.
Gord Kidder was born 10 months
later, named for his deceased uncle. Kidder’s
father never talked much about his
brother, though it was apparent to Kidder
that he had been deeply affected by
the loss.
When Kidder learned of a British
motorcycle club’s plans to retrace the
wartime route of many of Stalag Luft III’s
prisoners from a former RAF base in Biggin
Hill, England, through France, Belgium
and Germany to Zagan, he and his
son Andrew made arrangements to join
them.
The tour’s first Polish stop was at the
Old Garrison Cemetery in Poznan,
where the ashes of “The Fifty” have been
interred and memorialized by the Commonwealth
War Graves Commission.
Port Sydney resident Gord Kidder (sixth from left) attended a memorial service in Hrabuvka, in the Czech Republic,
for his uncle. The monument is tended to by local school children and a service is held each year.
“I still have very vivid recollections of
it,” Kidder says. “For me to see where he
is buried, in this beautiful setting, knowing
that he was there and all the things
that lead up to that . . . it was a very emotional
experience.”
The group visited the site of Stalag
Luft III, where visitors can enter a replica
of a portion of the escape tunnel and see
the route of the original outlined in stone
on the ground.
Also travelling with the group was Sqn.
Ldr. Thomas Kirby-Green’s son, Colin,
and a side trip was arranged for Kidder
and Kirby-Green to visit the memorial in
Hrabuvka for a family dedication. For
Kidder it was a chance to pay tribute to
his uncle and, with his son at his side,
recognize the role future generations will
play in preserving their memory.
“All those emotions and all those
thoughts came forward when I was actually
there,” Kidder says.
A special needs school is adjacent to
the church where the memorial marker
lies, and the assistant principal oversees
the memorial’s maintenance, teaching
the kids about the men it honours and
holding a ceremony every year on the
date of their execution. After the family
dedication on June 12, Kidder was presented
with an album of the memorial’s
history by the schoolchildren.
“It was really a very moving experience,”
Kidder says. “To see how much
care had been taken – where they were
buried and the memories preserved – you
couldn’t not be overwhelmed by it.”
Kidder was moved by the care that had
been taken to preserve his uncle’s memory
in this tiny Czech town, and believes
that it is essential to keep such stories
alive.
“There has to be a constant reminder
of how much these people sacrificed –
their lives – for us,” Kidder says. “I had to
do a speech at the memorial, and I ended
it by saying I could hardly imagine what
would happen without the memories of
our loved ones, if we didn’t honour them
all the time. It’s just so important.”
Photograph: courtesy of Gord Kidder
Gord Kidder visits his uncle’s grave, accompanied by his son Andrew Kidder.
Flying Officer Gordon Arthur was executed by the Nazis.
Photograph: courtesy of Gord Kidder
The Old Garrison Cemetery in Poland is the final resting place of 48 of the
50 escapees of Stalag Luft III who were executed by the Nazis.
Photograph: courtesy of Gord Kidder
20 July 2011 www.whatsupmuskoka.com