229770 F/Sgt. Albert Buckell Royal Air Force My father, F/Sgt. Albert Buckell, RAF, was a prisoner in Stalag 8B/344, Lamsdorf. He talked about a fellow prisoner, a Canadian airman called Vernon Bastable, whose courage he admired. The two of them changed places with army privates in order to go out on a working party. However, Bastable's true identity was discovered by the guards who said he would be returned to the camp the next day. The prisoners levered up one of the bars on the window to allow hom to escape, but he was recaptured shortly afterwards. He is listed in the book "Footprints in the Sands of Time" by Oliver Clutton-Brock. Does anyone have any news or information about him?
Update
Flight Officer Vernon Bastable died in 1949. He is listed on the Canadian Veterans' website. He had a brother Gerald who was a Sgt in the Dragoons, who was killed in 1944 and one surviving brother, Harold, also a Flight Officer who was a navigator in Bomber Command. Harold was shot down the day after D-day and captured by Gestapo and spent 101 days in a concentration camp. (Al Blondin)
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