From: "Matthew Kruk" <[email protected]> Newsgroups: alt.obituaries Subject: Henry William Lamond, 94, Great Escape hero from World War II
http://www.theaustralian.com.au/news/world/great-escape-hero-from-world-war-ii-dies-at-94/story-e6frg6so-1225828516854 Great Escape hero from World War II dies at 94 From: AAP February 10, 2010 12:00AM WELLINGTON: A New Zealand officer who was a leader of two of the most celebrated escapes from German prisoner of war camps in World War II, including "the Great Escape", has died, aged 94. Wing Commander Henry William Lamond was one of the first three men to escape from a tunnel at Stalag Luft III, Goering's showcase camp near Sagan in Poland for captured Allied airmen -- one he claimed was escape-proof. In a tribute to the war hero whose death on January 15 came to light yesterday, Britain's Telegraph newspaper relates that in 1942 the New Zealander and two Britons were sealed into a tunnel and burrowed for 36 hours, piling the soil behind them, and breathing through air holes poked through the surface. They escaped into the woods but were recaptured a week later. Wing Commander Lamond worked on three more tunnels at the camp before the Great Escape of March 24, 1944, when he was the dispatcher who controlled the flow of prisoners into the tunnel. Just after he had sent off his 87th escaper, the tunnel was discovered: seventy-six men had broken free, of whom 50 were later murdered by the Gestapo. In January 1945, the camp was evacuated. The prisoners marched west in terrible winter weather to avoid the advancing Soviet army and were repatriated from a camp near Lubeck. Born on August 26, 1915, at Kaukapakapa, Wing Commander Lamond went to Auckland Grammar School, then served in the 1st Battalion Auckland Regiment before joining the RNZAF in 1938. He transferred to the RAF in 1939 and on arrival in England joined No 210 Squadron. In December 1940 he ferried a Sunderland flying boat to Malta, and flew it there for No 228 Squadron. When the remnants of the squadron had to leave in March 1941, he flew one of the two surviving Sunderlands to Egypt. On April 24, 1941, he was sent to Suda Bay in Crete and flew to Kalamata, where he picked up 74 men of an RAF squadron fleeing the German invasion. Ordered to fly back to Kalamata that night, without a flare path, he and three members of his crew were captured after the plane hit an obstruction. Wing Commander Lamond remained in the RAF and was an operations controller in Germany during the Berlin Air Lift of 1949. In December 1942 the King of the Hellenes awarded the New Zealander the Greek Distinguished Flying Cross. For his activities as a PoW he was mentioned in dispatches, and in 1953 he received a Queen's Commendation for Valuable Services in the Air. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "World News Now Discussion List" group. To post to this group, send email to [email protected]. To unsubscribe from this group, send email to [email protected]. For more options, visit this group at http://groups.google.com/group/wnndl?hl=en.
