Sowter, Jack/Richardson, Ian Bomber Crew Escaper

One Wartime Airman's Story of Baling Out, Capture, Imprisonment and Escape

Sergeant Jack Sowter had joined the RAF in October 1941originally as an aspiring wireless operator. Later, he retrained as a navigator and became part of the crew of a Handley Page Halifax with the 78th Squadron. On the night of July 2728, 1943, Jacks aircraftJD 148was among the 787 bombers tasked with attacking the port of Hamburg as part of "Operation Gomorrah." After successfully dropping his deadly payload over the German city, Jacks commander, Sergeant Les Maidment, set a course for home. However, Maidment could escape neither the piercing beams of the German searchlights nor the enemy flak. As his aircraft sustained repeated hits, Maidment ordered his crew to bail out. Four of the seven crew members survived and were taken prisoner of war. One of them was Jack Sowter. Despite a severe ankle injury, he managed to evade searching enemy patrols for two days before being captured. Like many captured Allied airmen, Jack was initially taken to "Dulag Luft"a transit and interrogation camp. There, he was reunited with the three other surviving members of his crew. Eventually, he ended up at "Stalag Luft VI B," the northernmost of the POW camps within the Reich. It was not until 1944 that Jack finally found his first real opportunity to escapeyet this brief taste of freedom did not last long. Nevertheless, just eight days after being returned to Stalag Luft VI B, Jack was once again at the very top of the escape list. This time, he and three other prisoners successfully escaped from a work detail; at a railway station, they stumbled upon a freight car marked "Geneva." However, this dream of neutrality and freedom quickly shattered when it turned out that the only railway car they could board bore the inscription "Hannover." At least this location was closer to home than Stalag Luft VI B. Unfortunately, their journey ended in the hands of the German police. Jack seized every opportunity that arose to escape his captors. This developed into a veritable obsession, and his story is replete with ingenious schemes, hidden saw blades, and ineffective wire cutters. Jack recounts his experiences with his fellow prisoners and describes life in captivity. His memoirs culminate in the day the prisoners awoke to discover that their guards had vanishedand how, on that occasion, his final bid for freedom proved to be the definitive one.