SEVERELY wounded by the flak burst which killed his navigator “Sammy” Sampson, Ian McRitchie awoke in a Dieppe hospital to which German troops had taken him, and later he was moved to Amiens for treatment in a military hospital not far from the prison.
There he was told that several of the delayed-action bombs had gone clean through the prison wall, one exploding in a field, another skidding into the hospital grounds where it exploded and killed a number of German soldiers. It was later found that the ancient walls had been built dry-stone, without mortar, and therefore offered far less resistance to impact than a cement-bound masonry structure. This is why the wall was not breached despite the accuracy of the bombing.
Seventy-five years later, Ian’s daughter Anne tells me that although her father rarely talked about the war as she was growing up, in later years he told her that when he was flying at night and there was no action, he would pass the time practising flight with one arm and one leg. Without this practice it was doubtful whether he would have been able to make a successful crash landing given the extent of his injuries, which would affect him for the rest of his life.
When he was well enough, Ian was placed in solitary confinement and interrogated for 42 days, an ordeal in itself. He then spent another six or seven weeks in Dulag Luft at Oberusel, the Luftwaffe’s transit camp for allied British and US aircrew before they were assigned to a POW camp. After more fruitless interrogations he was dispatched to Stalag Luft 1 at Barth to see out the war.
Stalag Luft 1 was ‘home’ for around 7000 Americans and 850 British and Commonwealth airmen. Although at first his injured arm was of little use, Ian soon joined the camp’s escape organisation where his skill in heat-treating metals led to a wire cutter ‘factory’ being set up under his supervision. One might wonder why charities should send POWs a gift of ice skates, but Ian immediately saw the possibilities in hardened steel blades to produce efficient wire cutters which it is believed were used in escape attempts as well as raids on German stores.
But one of the most significent events of his captivity was his meeting with Sqn Ldr Ken Watts, RAAF, whose P40 Kittyhawk had been shot down over Italy. Ken Watts later recalled that they had never met until then, but they had been mates ever since.
“Over the years bits of shrapnel from the flak and plywood from the Mosquito used to emerge from his right arm, and the RAF uniform which he was wearing in the camp had many flak holes in the sleeve. I have never met a man with such enterprise and such a wide knowledge of all sorts of matters. He read well and copiously. While guests of the Third Reich, one section of Kriegies [prisoners] called him ‘Fixer’ and the others called him ‘Professor’. He was equally at ease with both.”
Early in May 1945, the camp was liberated by Russian troops, and within a fortnight the prisoners were repatriated to England. Ian and many thousands of colleagues were free again. He would never fly a Mosquito again, but his flying days were far from over.