Harold Milford

Harold Milford was born in Streatham in south-west London, the son of William John Milford a railway worker and his wife Ada Frances and grew up in Medora Road in the Tulse Hill area with his parents and two sisters.[1] In the spring of 1940 he married Marion Heather in Lambeth, London.

At the height of the Battle of Britain he enlisted in the Royal Air Force in the summer of 1940 as an aircraftman aircrew candidate with the service number 1375447.[2] On completion of flight training, as a leading aircraftman he was commissioned as pilot officer on 9 August 1941.[3]

From final stage training at Operational Training Unit Milford joined No. 226 Squadron RAF flying the Douglas Boston medium bomber on daylight precision bombing operations from RAF Swanton Morley against industrial targets and power stations. The medium bombers were invariably met by Luftwaffe day fighters often from the ace Jagdgeschwader 26. He was promoted to flying officer on 9 August 1942 1942.[4]

Douglas Boston in RAF service in 1942.

At 10:50 on the morning of 22 September 1942 he took off in Douglas Boston (serial number "AL743") squadron codes MQ-F flown by Sergeant Maurice Collins, the third member of the crew was wireless operator/air gunner Sergeant GA Nicolls. They were part of a force tasked to bomb the power station at Chocques. The bombers were met by the Luftwaffes JG 26 and Klaus Mietusch shot one of the bombers down, the other (serial number "AL685") was also lost nearby. One is believed to have been the victim of Mietusch and the other possibly due to battle damage.[5]

Milford's crew bailed out, the pilot headed off alone and evaded capture to make it home while Milford and Nicholls were captured in a haystack. He was sent to Stalag Luft III in the province of Lower Silesia near the town of Sagan (now Żagań in Poland) where he quickly met Johnny Williams who he'd known earlier in his service and made friends with Tony Hayter who lived in the same accommodation block.[6]

Model of Stalag Luft III prison camp.

Milford was one of the 76 men who escaped the prison camp on the night of 24–25 March 1944, in the escape now famous as "the Great Escape".[7] Milford escaped from the exposed tunnel mouth into the woods with Sandy Gunn and John F Williams,[8] although on the afternoon of 27 March 1944 after surviving the freezing temperatures and blizzards they were recaptured in the vicinity of Żagań and taken to the local civil prison. On 28 March they were moved to Görlitz prison. Milford's cell occupants were Cyril Swain, Mike Casey, Tom Leigh, Jack Grisman, Ian Cross, Sandy Gunn, Patrick Langford and George Wiley.[9] Over the next few days the cells filled up as more and more escapers were recaptured and then groups of prisoners began to be removed and the numbers thinned out rapidly. While being interrogated Milford was told that his wife would never see him again.[10][11] Early on the morning of 6 April 1944 Tony Bethell heard a truck arrive at the prison and then six names being called out,[12][13] Denys Street, Neville McGarr, Jack Grisman, Sandy Gunn, Harold Milford and John F Williams were taken away.[14][15] They were murdered by the Breslau Gestapo.[16]

His body was cremated in Breslau's crematorium.[17] He was one of the 50 escapers executed and murdered by the Gestapo.[18][19] Originally cremated and buried at Sagan, he is now buried in part of the Poznan Old Garrison Cemetery.[20]

Milford's name was amongst those in the list of the murdered prisoners which was published when news broke on or about 20 May 1944.[21]

Memorial to "The Fifty" down the road toward Żagań (Brettell is near top left)

Mentioned in despatches recognizing his conspicuous bravery as a prisoner because none of the other relevant decorations then available could be awarded posthumously. It was published in a supplement to the London Gazette on 8 June 1944.[22]

See Stalag Luft III murders

The Gestapo executed a group of 50 of the recaptured prisoners representing almost all of the nationalities involved in the escape. Post-war investigations saw a number of those guilty of the murders tracked down, arrested and tried for their crimes.[23][24][25][26]

Nationalities of the 50 executed

21 British

6 Canadian

6 Polish

5 Australian

3 South African

2 New Zealanders

2 Norwegian

1 Belgian

1 Czechoslovak

1 Frenchman

1 Greek

1 Lithuanian

Notes

Bibliography

• William R Chorley (1992). RAF Bomber Command Losses, Volume 3. Midland Counties. ISBN 0-904597-89-X.
• Ted Barris (2014). The Great Escape. Dundurn Publishing. ISBN 978-1459728448.
• Simon Read (2012). Human Game. Constable. ISBN 978-1-4721-1262-0.
• Sean Feast (2015). The Last of the 39-ers. Grub Street. ISBN 978-1909166158.
• Jonathan F Vance (2000). A Gallant Company. Pacifica Military. ISBN 978-0-935-55347-5.
• William Ash; Brendan Foley (2005). Under the Wire: The Wartime Memoir of a Spitfire Pilot, Legendary Escape Artist and 'cooler King'. Bantam. ISBN 978-0-593-05408-6.
• Paul Brickhill (2004). The Great Escape. W.W. Norton & Company. ISBN 978-0-393-32579-9.
• Norman L R Franks (1992). The Greatest Air Battle, Dieppe 19th August 1942. Grub Street. ISBN 978-0948817588.
• Alan Burgess (1990). The Longest Tunnel: The True Story of World War II's Great Escape. Naval Institute Press. ISBN 978-1-59114-097-9.
• Albert P. Clark (2005). 33 Months as a POW in Stalag Luft III: A World War II Airman Tells His Story. Fulcrum Pub. ISBN 978-1-55591-536-0.
• Arthur A. Durand (1 January 1989). Stalag Luft III: The Secret Story. Patrick Stephens Limited. ISBN 978-1-85260-248-2.
• Allen Andrews (1976). Exemplary Justice. Harrap. ISBN 0-245-52775-3.
• Tom Carroll (July 2005). The Great Escapers. Mainstream Publishing. ISBN 1840189045.

• Project Lessons from the Great Escape (Stalag Luft III), by Mark Kozak-Holland. The prisoners formally structured their work as a project. This book analyses their efforts using modern project management methods.
• Brettell's awards, other pertinent information and photographs