http://bourneendauctionrooms.co.uk/arti ... /index.htmAt 00:07 hours on the night of the 10/11th of October 1941, Wellington bomber Mk 1C, No. R1219 of 101 Squadron took off from RAF Oakington in Cambridgshire on a mission code-named Operation Cologne. At the controls of R1219 was Pilot Officer Gerald A.D. Imeson. Accompanying him were five other members of crew. They were one of sixty nine aircraft, from various RAF bases, sent to bomb the industrial region of Cologne. Eight out of the nine Wellingtons that flew from Oakington that night returned safely to base but one was reported missing. Having successfully completed the first part of the mission, R1219 was on its return journey when it was hit by flak. With one engine out and the other iced up, it crashed into the sea near Blankenberge, off the coast of Belgium. All the crew but one (the tail gunner) survived the crash and managed to scramble into a dinghy. Cold and wet, they drifted in the North Sea for the rest of the night. Just after dawn, at the point of being rescued by a member of the Belgian resistance* who swam out to assist them, they were spotted by a German patrol, towed ashore and arrested.
P/O Imeson had suffered a badly broken ankle in the crash and was taken to a hospital in Germany for treatment. After a period of recuperation, he was sent to POW camp Stalag Luft III at Sagan, in the East of Germany, along with his Navigator from R1219, Pilot Officer R.C. Carroll. There they were given POW numbers 650 and 643 respectively. As for the other three surviving members of R1219, one was sent to Stalag 344 at Lamsdorf and two were sent to Stalag 357 at Kopernikus. For all of them, “the war was over”!
Upon capture, RAF personnel had many of their military issue possessions confiscated, including their watches. Aware of this, Hans Wilsdorf, head of Rolex, made it known that they would supply British POWs with a replacement watch, allowing payment to be deferred until after the war had ended. Although a prisoner in Stalag Luft III, P/O Imeson was able to order the latest model Oyster Chronograph from Rolex in Geneva. His new Rolex, Ref No. 3525, s/n 186052 was sent to him at the camp at Sagan via the International Red Cross.
During his time in captivity, he was promoted firstly to Flying Officer and then to Flight Lieutenant. Whilst in Stalag Luft III, he was involved with the preparations for what became known as the “Great Escape”. His duties included being one of the “Penguins”, as they were called, who dispersed the soil that was dug from the tunnels through specially enlarged pockets in their trousers, whilst they exercised in the compound. As the planned escape date approached, he was allocated number 172 to go out through tunnel ‘Harry’, whose entrance was in hut 104. His friend and fellow POW, Ken ‘Shag’ Rees, with whom he kept in contact after the war, had been in the tunnel awaiting his turn to exit at the moment it was detected by the German guards. (Flying Officer Ken Rees was the pilot of Wellington No. BK309 of 150 Squadron shot down over Norway in October 1942. His Navigator, Gwyn Martin wrote in his book “Up and Under”, published in 1989, that he shared a hut with Imeson when they were in the East compound of Stalag Luft 3 in late 1942, before they were moved to the North compound).
It is well documented that nearly 80 POWs escaped through the tunnel before it was discovered. All but three escapees were recaptured. Reprisals by the SS and Gestapo resulted in the execution of 50 of the allied officers, a war crime that was pursued at Nuremberg after the war.
In late January 1945, as Soviet forces were approaching, the German authorities decided to evacuate the POW camps in the East. Fl/Lt Imeson and his fellow POWs were ordered to leave the camp on what was later dubbed “the Long March”. In extreme winter conditions, without adequate food or protection, they were force-marched many miles to other POW camps deeper inside Germany. Many did not survive this ordeal but Fl/Lt Imeson was one of the luckier ones. It is not known for certain where he ended up, (probably Bremen) but he and his surviving co-prisoners were liberated in May 1945 when allied tanks bulldozed the perimeter fence of the POW camp where they were being held. Free at last, they were soon to return home.
After repatriation, Gerald Imeson set about re-adjusting to a normal life and finally settled his account with Rolex for the watch that had stayed with him throughout his ordeal and which he treasured for the rest of his life. He hardly ever spoke of his time in captivity.
Flight Lieutenant Gerald A. D. Imeson died in 2003 aged 85; his friend and colleague from Stalag Luft III, F/O Ken Rees, came from Wales to be present at his funeral.
* At 7:00am on the morning of the 11th October, a renowned Belgian National and International swimmer, Jan Guilini, saw the dinghy with the allied airmen being tossed about by the waves. He entered the cold water and, after several attempts, managed to cross the rolling surf. With great difficulty he swam to the raft and found its occupants cold, wet and in a state of shock. He was hoping to get the dinghy back to the beach without being seen by the occupying forces. Unfortunately, he was spotted by a German coastal patrol, who threw him a rope and towed them ashore. His heroic efforts were apparently reported by the BBC a few days later. The following year, along with other members of the Belgian resistance, Jan was arrested by the Gestapo. On 22nd May 1944, he and some of his resistance colleagues were executed in a German prison; a sad end for a Belgian hero. A swimming pool in Bruges and a footpath in Blankenberge were named in his memory.
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