Acknowledgements
I would like to proffer my sincere and heartfelt gratitude to the following for providing the information and
photographic records to enable this article to be produced:-
1. A posthumous thank you to my Dad, Bill who wouldn’t talk about it but provided a written account of
the shooting down and recorded the chronology of their movements from PoW camp to PoW camp in
his log.
2. A huge posthumous thank you to Sid for keeping Dad sane in camp.
3. Thanks also to Sid’s son, Dr Ken Addison for sharing his information on Sid and transcripts from Birch’s
log. Ken was born after the war and became Dad’s Godson.
4. A posthumous thank you to Harry “Ginger” Parkes for his account of the “Run-Up-the-Road-Gang” as
published in the Derby Evening Telegraph in 1982. He should also be recognised as the landlord who
allowed me to join the lock-ups in the Park Farm Hotel where I learned possibly more about Dad’s
PoW exploits than from Dad himself. My school-mates would gather around me in the Pothole for a
chance to move upstairs after closing time but Harry would allow only myself and one other.
5. Ralph Barker’s book the Ship Busters provided historically accurate information on 42 Squadron
generally and specifically AW373’s missions in the Channel Dash and the ill-fated Prinz Eugen attack.
Ged Barnett