POW Airlift

William Heron · Group Captain

POW Airlift

NickFenton · Corporal

William,

Sorry to jump on your thread but does this show any details on who they brought back?

Regards,

Nick

Date: Jul 11, 2007

Is it possible that Juvincourt is either an Airbase or an Operation Codename from or during which 11 flights by 11 A/C of the Sqn were carried out with ex POW on board? Your reference doesn't give dates or times to judge the length of the repatriation effort.
Dick

alexander · Wing Commander

Hello,

Juvincourt is situated in the departement of L'Aisne between Laon and Reims in
France.
It was a German airbase during the war. Different German units of the Luftwaffe stayed there like:
KG77 (1941)
II/NJG4 (1944)
II/JG11 (1944)
...etc
After the liberation the airfield received the codename A-68 and the presence of the 404 FG (1944), 439 th Troop Carrier Group (1944),...etc
A Bomber Command Advanced Emergency Airfield Unit was also created at Juvincourt in 1944.
Hope this info can help you!

Alexander

Pigeonbird · Air Commodore

Alexander, I was bombing the railroad yards at Laon the night I was shot down. There was an airfield close by called Laon-Couvron and on my escape to freedom, I walked right across the airfield. No sooner was I off the runway than a plane took off behind me; probably an ME109. It was pitch black so neither of us saw one another.

There were quite a few airports around Laon, as we found out that night. The name Jubinville is familiar, and I may have passed through it on my way to Reims.

John

William Heron · Group Captain

Sorry Nick, No details as to who the POW'S were.
To answer Dick's question regarding dates this was May 10th 1944. Eleven aircraft from 431 Sqdn. were sent to Juvincourt and 10 returned carrying 24 POW's each, the remaining one carried two crews and all landed at Westcott where the POW's and two crews were deplaned then the aircraft returned to Croft. According to the O.R.B. the trip from Juvincourt to Wescott took about 1 hr 30 plus minutes.

-- Edited by William Heron at 19:44, 2007-07-12

alexander · Wing Commander

Hello,

I was wrong about the NJG group...it's III/NJG4 instead of II/NJG4. III/NJG4 was there from Sept 1942 till August 1944.
Are you sure about the date of 10 May 1944?? That base was still operational for the Luftwaffe and this was before D-day.

Alexander

Date: Jul 13, 2007

Hi Bill
It does rather look as if it was a 0ne-off involving all the Sqn's serviceable A/C. How long afterwards did the Sqn get sent back to Canada?
Regards
Dick

Pigeonbird · Air Commodore

William, regarding the dates of the POW pickups from Jubinville, I believe you mean May of 1945. I was in the area on May of 1944 and there was still a lot of Germans in the region. They kept me hiding a lot of the time.

John

ME453 · Flight Lieutenant

http://www.467463raafsquadrons.com/TrueTales/backwardsLlanding.htm describes an emergency landing of a Lancaster from 463 squadron at Juvincourt....backwards! I was only talking to the F/E Horrie Burchett about it last night.
Regards
Max Williams
www.galgos.co.uk

William Heron · Group Captain

Hi John, Sorry to take so long to reply but I've been away on holidays, You are quite right about the year, it was 1945. but still the O.R.B records only one POW airlift from Juvincourt but the Sqdn. history shows 11 but does not detail them. Thanks Bill.

William Heron · Group Captain

Hi Dick, The Sqdn. returned to Canada in June of 1945 so not really too much time between May and June although they were not involved in combat so I suppose it is possible. I wonder where I could look for further information????. Thx. Bill

alexander · Wing Commander

Hello,

I've found this info about POW airlifts from Juvincourt:
http://www.pictureaustralia.org/apps/pictureaustralia

Alexander

William Heron · Group Captain

Thanks Alexander, I tried navigating my way around the site you suggested but was only getting pictures and could find nothing relative to POW's and Juvincourt. Can you offer any further assistance????. Thx. Bill.

alexander · Wing Commander

Hello Bill,

It seems not to work. try the search function. Type "juvincourt" and you'll find 4 pictures about POW airlifts with some comment like this one:

"Juvincourt, France. C. 1945-05. These Australian, British and New Zealand liberated prisoners of war (POWs) were repatriated on Victory in Europe (VE) day (1945-05-08) by RAAF Lancaster aircraft of No. 463 Squadron and No. 473 Squadron from Juvincourt near Rheims, having spent varying periods in German camps."

Thought this could interest you. This means there are somewhere pictures about POW airlifts...may be also in Canada??

Alexander

Simone · Aircraftsman 1st Class

Sunday, 12 October, 2008

Greetings from Australia Bill.

My late Grandfather was a RAF POW and was airlifted out. when the war had finished.

Is there a book on this by any chance listing the details of the Airlifts (time, dates, individual personnel names of POW's, etc..)

I have been trying to track this information down just for my personal research
His name was Sargeant Fred Hindle, POW Number 415, Service number 646157.

Any help would be much appreciated.

Kind regards,

Simone - Granddaughter
Australia.

Ken MacLean · Flight Sergeant

Simone,

The Operations Record Book of 463 Sqn. RAAF records several P.O.W. repatriation flights (Operation Exodus), all out of Jouvencourt between 4 - 12 May 1945. Raw numbers of P.O.W. returned are shown for each of these ops which were carried out by nine to eleven 463 Lancasters on each op, but no names or nationalities are mentioned. 463 Sqn had returned over 1100 P.O.W. when their involvement in "Exodus" was terminated after 12 May.

I would not look for names of individual men returned to the U.K. from any theatre of war in the operational records of any of the Commonwealth Airforces squadrons; it was a chaotic time and the squadrons involved had no reason to record individual names of their `passengers`.

Your Uncle`s service file is the first place you should look. Have you investigated the possibility of obtaining it from the U.K.?

Cheers, Ken

-- Edited by Ken MacLean at 12:41, 2008-10-16

Simone · Aircraftsman 1st Class

Hello Ken excuse the very late reply, im in the process of obtaining it now.

Thank you for replying this is very interesting to learn more about the war.

Best wishes.
Simone.

tiger9 · Aircraftsman 1st Class

Bill / all

I am trying to ascertain how my father Joseph Henry Hallam a PoW was repatriated from Rheims to some where in UK on 15th May 1945. In my dads diary he wrote that it was a Canadian bomber. I know that he was treated in Ashridge Hospital (Now Ashridge Business School) outside Berkhamstead. He was held captive in E265 an arbeits kommando from STALAG 8B / 344. After a terrible and horrific forced march out of Poland he was finally liberated by US forces, first at Chemnitz (11 May), then by US trucks via Gera, 12 May(delousing and particulars recorded)to Erfurt on 13 May; at Erfurt they were airlifted on 14 May by US air to Rheims.

Can anyone please identify the US air squadron and also what my dad describes as a four engined Canadian bomber - what squadron and where in UK did that asset take the PoWs?

dick_hallam@mac.com

Bill Walker · Warrant Officer

Hallam;

Several RCAF Lancaster squadrons were involved in Operation Exodus, the airlifting of former POWs from the continent back to the UK after VE Day. This included 405 Squadron (41 operations), 424 Squadron (39 operations), 427 Squadron, 428 Squadron (45 operations), 429 Squadron (45 operations), 431 Squadron (11 operations), 433 Squadron, and 434 Squadron (45 operations). Also, 435 and 436 Squadrons did similar missions with Dakotas.

tiger9 · Aircraftsman 1st Class

Thank you Bill for your informative and quick reply. I guess it is nigh on impossible to ascertain which of those squadrons actually moved my dad and to where. I suspect that there were literally 100's of 1000's of POWs and displaced persons at various air-heads including Rheims. I guess manifests were either not taken or more likely not kept in archive.

Do any photographs exist of Operation Exodus from Rheims- just to give me an idea of the scale of that part of the overall operation?

paulh · Squadron Leader

Out of interest my late fathers logbook shows 'Exodus'-Lubeck on the 10/11 May 1945-he was a w/op with 36 squadron. They later took part in operation 'Dodge' repatriating POW's from Bari in Italy back to RAF Tibbenham.