Prisoner of War (POW)
What happened with........
Peter Balson Roy Macdonald Tom Lane George Darling
 

Introduction

The Germans had a system to concentrate POW's at certain places. POW's in the Netherlands were concentrated in Amsterdam. From Central Station they were transported by coaches to a camp. There they stayed for a while. (Roy Macdonald stayed there for a week)
 

 
Wounded men were transported to Wilhelmina Hospital in Amsterdam. Here the germans had an airforce hospital. German surgeons took care of the allied cremembers. Peter Balson ended up here after he broke his ankle. He recovered here until the end of August 1943,

Next step was a traintransport to Frankfurt am Main (Germany). Since 1941the Germans had established the Airforce Interrogation Centre in Oberursel, near Frankfurt, Main target was to receive as much information as possible about allied operations. The only information

The only information a POW was allowed to give was his name, rank and armynumber. If he refused to give that information

Als hij dit weigerde kon hij ook geen aanspraak maken op verdere privileges. Het was de vaste gewoonte van de Duitsers om krijgsgevangenen hier te ondervragen alvorens ze via een doorgangskamp naar het definitieve krijgsgevangen werden gebracht.

Wilhelmina Hospital Amsterdam
 
Na aankomst in het doorgangskamp Luft, moesten de gevangen zich ontkleden en werd hun kleding doorzocht. Daarna werden ze in aparte cellen geplaatst. Daar werden ze bezocht door een ondervragingsofficier eventueel vergezeld van een tolk. Deze officier probeerde zo veel mogelijk informatie op papier te krijgen. Soms werden de ondervragingen – afhankelijk van het karakter van de gevangenen vervolgd in de cel of in de kamer van de officier. Ondervragingen van piloten duurden soms wat langer. Vaak gebeurde dit dan twee keer per dag gedurende een dag of vier.
 

Dulag Luft in Oberursel

Stalag Luft III in Sagan.

 
The Officers (Flight Lieutenant Tom Lane, Flight Lieutenant Peter Jackson en Flying Officer Don Alexander) travelled via Amsterdam to Dulag Luft (Durchgangslager Luftwaffe) in Oberursel, from where they were transported to Stalag Luft III in Sagan. (now Poland)

Flight Sergeant Roy Macdonald and Flight Sergeant Jim Rogers travelled via Dulag Luft in Oberursel to Stalag Luft VI in Heydekrug in Lithuania.  George Darling also ended up there. During his stay there he was promoted and as a result transfered to Stalag Luft III.

Wireless operator Peter Balson was operated in the Wilhelmina Hospital in Amsterdam. After recovering he also was transported to Heydekrug.

We now return to the stories of the crewmembers. Unfortunately there are no records of Don Alexander and Jim Rogers.The contribution of Peter Jackson is very short:

Stalag Luft VI Heydekrug, Litauwe
 
" Soon an German soldier came on a motor cycle and took me into custody. I was later transferred to prison in Amsterdam and later by train to Dulag Luft near Frankfurt".
Contribution Peter Jackson, Navigator
 
The crewmembers mentioned below have a good recollection of their life as a POW. Especially the contribution of George Darling is very interesting because he kept a diary illustrated with drawings.