Dozens of books have been written and hundreds of stories told of individual experiences of life on a Squadron and on Operations, all of us have our own memories based on the common theme of flying on Ops. What do seem to differ are the experiences of aircrew when the flying is over and there’s some time to go before demob. What happened to you? Perhaps I could tell you what I did after leaving 214 Squadron at Oulton in April 1945.
On completion of two tours, one with Frank Savage, the second with Verner Scantleton; I was posted to Catterick to be re-mustered as a Pilot Officer to GD/Admin and, after a couple of weeks, was sent to the RAF School of Administration and Hygiene at Credenhill near Hereford. There with about thirty other redundant aircrew we had a six-week course learning Kings Regulations on how to arrange and conduct discipline interviews and all those matters which appeared appropriate to the duties of a Station Adjutant, and a Far East posting looked on the cards.
Come the day, I was posted to the British Air Force of Occupation in Germany, not too far from Hanover. After being interviewed by the Group Captain, I was told I had been sent to fill a vacancy in the Personnel Section which dealt with the postings of Officers in and out of the British zone, which meant liaising with our opposite number in the Air Ministry in London. I signed on to stay an extra year, so did this work for two and a half years as a Flight Lieutenant.
Personnel Group also had a Legal Section headed by a Wing Commander. This gentleman was a source of several historic visits I was invited to make. He obtained the invites.
I first obtained a Day Pass to the Nuremburg War Crimes Trial of the Nazi hierarchy, those that had not committed suicide. There they were: Goering, Hess, and all the rest of Hitler’s Government. I sat so near to them in the Press Box next to the dock in which they were seated. That day they were entering their pleas to the charges put to them, all of which were ‘not guilty’. Goering attempted to make a speech, but was cut short by the Prosecuting Officer and told to enter his plea, which he did and returned to his seat in the dock. Hess, who appeared quite detached from the proceedings, merely answered: ‘Yes’ to the question. The Prosecutor said he would accept it as meaning not guilty. So it continued, but I was able to see in the flesh those members of the hierarchy we had fought against.
A couple of months later, I was given a Pass to attend the Auschwitz-Belsen War Crimes Trial at Wuppertal. On trial were the Camp Commandants and some of the guards of these two concentration camps. On my visit, the Prosecutor was outlining the case against each individual and he had come to one Ima Grese, a camp guard who had served at Auschwitz before transferring to Belson. It was alleged that she was very liberal with the use of a bullwhip and of setting her Alsatian dog on women prisoners. At Auschwitz she had selected prisoners for the gas chambers, sometimes, it was alleged up to thirty a day. Details of her crimes were quite horrendous to listen to, but she sat in the dock appearing as though she had not the slightest regret. Most of the accused were ultimately found guilty and hanged. Ima had been a guard for three years and was hanged aged twenty-one on 13 December 1945.
Thousands of war crimes trials were held in Western Europe after the war, in the countries in which the crimes were committed, or of which a national was the accused. In the British zone of Western Europe some 937 Military trials or Tribunals were held, involving people accused of the murder or ill-treatment of British Forces personnel. These consisted of a court chaired by a member of the Judge Advocates staff and Military Officers who sat with the judge to hear the case reach a verdict and pass sentence. The prosecution and defence were conducted by Military Officers. I attended two of these as a member of the Tribunal sitting with a judge and an Army Captain at a court in Wuppertal. One of these was a local Mayor who failed to allow a badly burned pilot to receive medical attention in the prison with the result he died in his cell. That Mayor was sentenced to 10 years in prison. The second trial was a farm worker who used a pitch fork to kill a captured airman and disposed of his body in a manure pit. He was sentenced to be hanged.
My last visit in Germany was to RAF Gatow in Berlin where I was told to audit the accounts of the Officers’ Mess. Having done so, the Group Captain offered me his car with driver to take a tour of the zone, taking in the Brandenburg Gate and the ruined Rectag and damage done by so many raids by the RAF and USAAF. In the evening, I took the bus (a three-ton lorry fitted with wooden benches) into Berlin to enjoy the hospitality of the RAF Malcolm Club, before returning to my Quarters on the same bus, as did all personnel apart from those with cars. The following morning, I was invited to attend, with the Group Captain; a meeting with a small delegation of Russian Army Officers to discuss the logistics of removing road blocks and pill boxes. Our party was led by an AVM, and the Russians by a General. After nearly an hour, the meeting was adjourned to another day.
returned to my day job at BAFO Headquarters until November 1947 when I was recalled to the UK to be demobbed on 27 November. I returned to my civvy job with the Post Office (later British Telecom) retiring in December 1982 as an Engineering Head of Division in Central London.
I am still here to tell the tale!
Sidney Pike
This article is from the Autumn 2015 issue of Confound and Destroy
