St Edward's Rhubarb 2018

ST EDWARD’S r h u b a r b

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Bader soon wore out the patience of his German guards at Sagan. Leslie Frith observed that ‘we lost track of the number of times we heard a commotion coming from that direction and there seemed to be a continual to-ing and fro-ing of heavily armed guards in the officers’ compound.’ Although admired for his outstanding and morale-boosting courage, Bader’s attitude of defiance, which included baiting the German guards and other aggressive behaviour, drew

for some of his activities was extended to the whole camp while Bader, a celebrity prisoner, who was often photographed and given VIP treatment, usually got off lightly. Collective retribution by the Germans could include extending the length of the parades attended by the POWs, delaying or stopping the distribution of mail and of Red Cross parcels, which were a vital supplement to the inadequate camp rations, and withholding other privileges. Although the Germans respected him and put up with a lot more from him than they would from any other prisoner, the problem was that Bader sometimes went too far and brought down their wrath on all the POWs. As a result, as another RAF prisoner later put it diplomatically, his continued presence in the camp did not receive ‘an unalloyed welcome from all’. The patience of his German captors finally snapped in July 1942 and Bader was transferred from Sagan to a huge camp for British Army officers at Lamsdorf. As one observer noted in his diary (IWM, Private Papers of Squadron Leader C.N.S. Campbell, 86/35/1), ‘the remainder of the camp annoyed the Germans exceedingly by turning out to say Cheerio to Doug and to offer free advice on how to manage a cripple.’ Some of those who saw him leave, however, were secretly rather pleased to see the back of such a disruptive influence. For example, Leslie Frith later recorded that ‘to tell the truth it was a relief to everybody, friend and foe to see him go.’ Many of the prisoners had rather mixed feelings about Bader; missing him, yet relieved that they could settle down to a more relaxed atmosphere in which they could prepare to escape without the constant risk of their plans being discovered by the Germans reacting to Bader’s provocations. While at Lamsdorf Bader continued to be active in planning escapes. Sapper John Andrew remembered in his memoir (IWM, Private Papers of J J Andrew, 10/5/1) that ‘Bader wanted to get to Lamsdorf airfield where he would take a German plane.’ Bader proposed to take six men with him but although he was able to escape by joining a work party leaving the camp he was soon re-captured. Eventually Bader was again transferred to Colditz Castle in August 1942 where he remained until liberated by American forces in April 1945 near the end of the war, frustrated by his inability to escape and to participate in the war.

F E AT U R E S

a rather ambivalent response from his fellow prisoners of war. This was especially the case when German retaliation