The Air Raid
In the latter half of 1944, the sight of American bombers in the sky over Stalag 18A was not uncommon. However, on 18th December, a group of these aircraft roared over the camp at a much lower altitude.

Eric Fearnside

"It was a lovely sunny day, with snow on the ground, but very cold. We were marched into the camp at one o'clock, having had little work to do that day. I was sitting at a table when I saw these three planes flying over the camp from corner to corner. One chap, who had been watching the planes saw the first bomb drop and shouted 'Look out!'. There was a terrific bang and we were all thrown to the floor. More explosions followed. We ran outside to discover that two of the newer barrack blocks and the little hospital had been hit. These buildings were very flimsy and had collapsed, trapping men beneath the wreckage. When we got there, the chaps were trying to lift the roof off. Half an hour later, we came across the first body. It was John McGeorge, one of the nicest men you could ever wish to meet. After a further six hours we managed to get the rest of the bodies out and I must say that we were all shedding bitter tears for our mates.

About forty-eight men were killed, including French and Russian prisoners. The Red Cross made an official complaint to the Americans about the attack. In reply, they said that they were very sorry but the navigators thought it was a German camp. We thought that this was barmy as, with four guard towers and surrounded by barbed wire, it couldn't be anything but a POW camp."

Click here for the Red Cross report on the bombing.

The following remarkable sequence of photographs were taken immediately after the air raid by S/Sgt William Eastwood. Many thanks to his son, Peter Eastwood for permission to use them.

Click on any picture for a larger image.

 


The pictures shown below were provided by ex-POW Ken O'Kennedy.

bombdamage.jpg (244924 bytes) graves.jpg (313598 bytes)
Bomb damage to the British Surgery Temporary graves by the Wolfsberg road

 

The following list is of the British & Commonwealth POWs killed in the raid.

Forename
Surname
Rank
Unit
POW
Age
Joseph Charles Hobling Chaplain RA Ch. Dep. 1118 36
Robert James Finlay Howe Capt RAMC 43713 ?
Frederick George Lee Cpl RAMC 1057 26
Sydney Percival Martin Pte AASC 3650 30
John Sydney McGeorge Dvr RASC   29
Thomas Vernon McOrmond Pte 18 Inf. Tng. Bn.   26
Daniel Joseph Nolan Gnr RA   31
Albert Reynolds Pte 2/11 Inf. Bn.   34
Arthur Frederick Shipley Sgt RAOC   27
David Frew Wood Capt RAMC 50 37

 

A darkly ironic Christmas card 'celebrating' the raid

Map of bomb damage, 18th December 1944

Bill Miles, an ex-POW has told me of the lucky escape of the prisoners in the Polish section (see map). This section of Stalag 18A was set up after the Warsaw Uprising in August - October 1944. According to Bill, the Polish prisoners were moved out of the camp on the morning of the raid. The Polish section was almost completely destroyed.


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