I have received your letter for which many thanks. Thank you also for the description and friendly greetings. It is very interesting after 30 odd years to reconstruct the events of that night and I am certainly ready and willing to make any contribution I can towards assembling the book – which would be nice to accomplish.

We flew a Heinkel III, the crew consisted of the following:

Pilot                                     Lt. Julius Tengler

Observer                              Gefr. Wolfgang Earle

Wireless Operator               V.O. Hubert Faber

Flight Mechanic                  Gefr. Franz Reitmayr

One other airman flew with us that night V.O Zander. So far as I can remember I was the last to leave the aircraft. As I came down through the air suspended below my parachute, I saw the open parachutes of my comrades and the crashing, burning aircraft under me. I landed on a pasture or field. My parachute was caught in the branches of a small tree or bush and I remained hanging. I had been wounded in the left leg by a phosphorus bullet – incendiary bullet, and I was also lightly wounded in the hands. I was able to free myself and I hobbled to where I thought my comrades would be. Unfortunately I couldn’t find anyone. I decided to return to where I had left my parachute. On the way there by a hedge I was taken prisoner by Home Guards – they were armed civilians. They took me to a nearby village. In the village there were many people on the roads. I was put into a car the guards did not put their weapons into the car; they opened the side windows and pointed their guns through from the running board. So we journeyed through the darkness of the night. When I got out I was handed over to soldiers. One of these was a Pole He had a great hatred against the Germans and he expressed this. I was taken into a room – there were two of my comrades there already. One was Lt. Tengler who had internal wounds. He lay rolling about on the ground. It seems that he had knocked himself against the aircraft tail as he bailed out.  The other was Franz Reitmayr. He had a wounded left arm and had lost a lot of blood and was very weak. I could not grasp why all the people in the room were so mad to get hold of souvenirs; as I took of my flying suit they came at me from all sides with scissors and so on to cut off my shoulder epaulettes, collar tabs and all my other badges markings and orders and took them all off. After that and only then were our wounds provided for and we were taken to an ambulance and on to a hospital. There I lay a long time with Reitmayr in the same room. Afterwards we received medical attention and were taken to separate rooms. As I asked after my comrades it was said to me that they are here no more but have been taken to a special hospital. Whilst I was there I had many visits from an interrogation officer, an Austrian. As there were things he wanted to know, I received only short replies to my personal private questions.

My unit was the 3^rd group of Kamp;geschwaden 26 – the Lion Geschwaden. It was a special group with special orders. It flew on a directional beam whereby we were also guided from home over the target and received a signal to drop the bombs.

The security re the aiming points regarding this system was very great. We flew in advance of other units (pathfinders).

Our bomb bays were loaded with incendiary bombs to mark the target, usually with one heavy bomb as well so that the following aircraft knew when and where to drop their bombs. Over this system the officer interrogating asked various questions of me. My seemingly plausible statements did not seem to satisfy him. One day he was with me he said the doctor would be coming soon and would be coming to see my wounds and it would not hurt as I would get an injection. Afterwards when I became fully awake and established my whereabouts I realised that I was still wearing the old bandage – it had not been changed. I did not see the interrogating officer again. During my residence in the hospital I was also visited by the R.A.F. Fighter pilot who had knocked me down. As my wounds started to heal and I was capable of being transported so I was taken to the military hospital at Knutsford near Manchester. I was astonished when I met Franz Reitmayr there. We travelled by train together to Manchester. From a platform in Manchester we were taken in an ambulance to the military hospital. The reception in Manchester railway station and the journey through the town was very unnerving. The night before there had been an air attack on Manchester and the civilian population were still very shocked as, of course, I can well understand. Today I am only too thankful that there was with us a body of uniformed troops to protect us. Behind the cordon the civilians threatened us – calls like ‘kill him’ were shouted at us. In the military hospital we were again with German P.O.W.s – brought together. There came new wounded prisoners of the Air Force and of the Navy – some from the Bismarck and they brought us the latest national news with them. Reitmayr went from here to an exchange camp and was later repatriated on an exchange basis. I came after my convalescence to the P.O.W. camp at Bury. It was a former old textile factory and here we began to get the feeling that we were P.O.W.s. The food was not very good, something we could understand, the English civilians had the same. The guards were variable – the Scots have their special peculiarities. I know not whether they valued such or lay any value on such individuality but I will therefore in catch words drive away (Can’t get that bit!). On 22.12.41 I was with the greater part of the camp and transferred to Canada. The journey by train, the ship a freighter the journey across the water in a convoy and again a railway journey to another camp was very interesting, it was a small new camp which we ourselves beautified – it contained 800 prisoners. The difficulties were made lighter not least of all through the help of the Y.M.C.A. I willingly went to work in E…….as a lumberjack – it made a pleasant change. After residence in the woods as a lumberjack I was taken to another camp at Medicine Hat and Lethbridge – these were in the province of Alberta. Each camp numbered about 10,000. I can only say looking back that in Canada we had a good time to the end of the war. In 1946 we were transported to England. There, there were two possibilities, we could go to work in a work camp or we could go to a camp in Scotland. I declared myself ready to work and was sent to Wales. From the camp we were sent to farms. I worked in the area of Tenby, Pembroke and Carmarthen. At the end of 1946 I was prepared for my release and in December 1946 I commenced my journey home from Hull. In Germany I was in 3 camps but with patience at last, on 5.1.1947 I was released from imprisonment.

It was not easy for me – I had been imprisoned for six years – to find myself a free man without a home in a destroyed Germany.

A guest post by Nikola Pelentrides and Sapphire Lynch, work experience students from Marriotts School, Stevenage

Hi, we’re Nikola & Sapphire, and as part of our time doing work experience at The North Herts Museum, we have been asked to share what we believe to be one of our favourite exhibits that spiked our interest during our time here. We hope you will enjoy it as much as we do!

Within the museum, there is a display of the original Perks & Llewellyn’s Apothecary (1783-1961) including the shelving, products in their original containers, an alligator jaw hanging from the ceiling, and even the real door and counter.

Nikola and Sapphire in the Perks & Llewellyn Pharmacy

Originally owned by the Meers family, it was then later taken over by Mr John Perks and his assistant Charles Llewellyn. This apothecary was a staple of the Hitchin community in its prime, standing on 8 High Street. The apothecary helped many who couldn’t afford the price of doctors/surgeons by assisting in minor medical practices like bleeding by leeches, draining blisters and/or tooth extractions, like that of barber surgeons of the Medieval Era.

The collection features products from the time, such as our favourites:

• Arsenic
  Arsenic was a common poison used in killing rats and was also, more sinisterly, for humans too. The Arsenic Act of 1851 restricted its sale due to its use in murder attempts.
• Carbolic soaps and toothpowder
  These products were made with carbolic acid which can be considered toxic in large quantities and cause severe burns, respiratory issues and vomiting blood.
• And most notably lavender water
  This chemist’s lavender products, formulated by Edward Perks (the son of John Perks). With fields all over Hitchin, the range of lavender products produced by Perks began to expand. By 1851, the lavender produced in the city was so popular that Queen Victoria went to Hitchin Station to pick up a bottle of essential oil. She was at the station for only a few minutes. Perks used lavender to produce shaving soap, toilet soap, toothpowder, bath powder, bath crystals as well as lavender water. In 1871 Samuel Perks – brother of William Perks – bought the business for £3,500. In 1876, Samuel owned 35-acre lavender fields across the country, which could produce 2,000 gallons of lavender water.

After the deaths of Perks and Llewellyn in 1890 and 1893, respectively, the business was taken over by Anne Sarah Llewellyn. This saw a succession of different owners of the business, none of whom were able to reach the heights of the 1870s.
In the 1960s, a combination of competition from French lavender, higher taxes forcing higher lavender prices, and the location of lavender fields sought for housing development, saw the death of lavender after 180 years.