| Warrant Officer
Arnold Brown
was serving as Observer on board Blenheim Mk. IV Z5794 when it
departed Wattisham for an
operation to Cologne on December 10/11, 1940. The aircraft failed to
return and its crew became prisoners of war. The
crew consisted of:
|
Name |
Service |
Trade |
| P/O
W. H. Culling - POW |
RAFVR |
Pilot |
|
W/O Arnold
Brown - POW |
RAFVR |
Observer |
|
Sergeant E .
T.
Perry- POW |
RAFVR |
W/OP/AG |
Sergeant Brown, became a POW in camps L1/L6 and 357. After
liberation, Arnold and his fellow POW’s were moved from the camp
during the coldest winter months of the twentieth century with
blizzards and sub zero temperatures and force marched. Already weak
from the years in the camp on meagre prison rations and suffering
from frost bite and hunger, many succumbed to disease and starvation
along the route. On reaching the village of Gresse,15 kilometres
north-east of Lauenburg, on the 19th April 1945, six
Royal Air Force Typhoons opened fire with rockets and bombs on the
POW column as they walked along a narrow country road amidst open
fields, accidentally mistaking them for retreating columns of German
troops. Sixty allied POW’s were killed and many including Arnold
were wounded. Tragically, Arnold died of his injuries on 20th
April 1945 in Boisenburg Krankenhaus Hospital.
Pilot Officer Culling was in camp#L3,while Sergeant Perry was
taken to Camp L1,L6,357.
Warrant Officer Brown is buried in the Berlin 1939-45 War
Cemetery.
|
|
|
107 Squadron
Crest |
Warrant Officer
Arnold Brown was the son of Cyril and Edith Brown, eldest brother of
Jack, Dennis and Eric and husband of Miriam of Northamptonshire.
Arnold owned a Wireless shop in Marefair, Northampton before the
war. He enlisted in March 1939 and was 34 years old at the time of
his death. |
