COMBAT AND COMPETITION.pdf - Lakes Gliding Club

COMBAT AND COMPETITION
Redoubt, fortress Norway, using all the shipping available. The fact
that the Cap Arcona, and two other prison ships, were carrying some
9,400 prisoners on Himmler s express instructions was part of a vain
attempt to destroy the evidence of mass murders by the Nazi regime.
Those letters, from eye witnesses amongst the few survivors and
British forces on the ground, told a heart rending story. The German
troops, mostly SS, had carried out Himmler's vile policy to the bitter
end, butchering as many of the survivors as possible. Two large barges,
quite independent of the prison ships which had been attacked by the
Typhoons, had arrived from Stutthof concentration camp on the Baltic
coast near Konigsberg. They were found beached at Travemunde. The
ladders had been removed, and the occupants machine gunned at close
range. Many of the children had been clubbed to death.
Shortly after seeing these appalling sights, Mills-Roberts, the
brigadier commanding 1 Commando, was faced with accepting Field
Marshal Erhard Milch's surrender. The latter was unwise enough to do
so with the words 'Heil Hitler 1 and proffered his baton which the
brigadier promptly broke over his head.
In the end it was quite clear that the atrocity was German. The
shipping strikes went ahead as a result of delays in transmitting the
latest intelligence to Air Headquarters and the Nazis did nothing to
discourage them. The question remains as to why STERN saw fit to
publish the story and there have been suggestions of Israeli
involvement following Mrs Thatcher's refusal to accept a former
leader of the Irgun terrorist organisation as Israeli Ambassador in
London.
That sad and sordid episode had a sequel. It led to a call from Dr
Conrad Wood, of the Department of Sound Records at the Imperial
War Museum.
He visited me at home to record material on the Cap Arcona and
went on to do a general fighter ground attack memoir. Which started
me thinking about writing a book. But it was lunching with Group
Captain Sandy Hunter at Strike Command Headquarters which really
got me going.
Sandy also drew my attention to the newly formed Typhoon and
Tempest Association. The major catalyst had been 197 Squadron,
which had hung together rather well since the war, thanks to the
efforts of Derek Lovell. Derek organised a squadron reunion when
Allan Smith, their CO during the second half of 1944, was over on a
visit from New Zealand. They met in the Tangmere Aviation Museum
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