Notebook of Thomas Joseph Lynch, 1944-1945 - Part 3

(33)

from loss of blood & he was

given water to help make blood,

but no matter how I tried to

make him drink it, he would

not even taste it. I felt a bit

of a heel but there was only one

thing to do with it under

the circumstances. It had to be

got rid of and I think it did me

a lot of good.

During the next few weeks

we became great friends & the pros

and cons of flying were discussed.

The merits of our two great Air

Forces. Albert had not operated from

England & did not realise the [[volume?]]

of the combined R.A.F. & American

raids from that country. The big

mosquitos were operated from

Africa and Southern Italy.

(34)

As I had been in both theatres

of war I had experienced the

terrific difference in size and battery

power of these operational

theatres. Shortly after D.DAY

11,000 A/C went out over France

& Germany from bases in England

during 24 hrs. I hope there were

no concealed microphones in the

walls to record our conversation

but the writing was there so that

did not matter, at that period of the

war.

About this time our

number in the enemy ward had

been increased to three, but we did not

know of the arrival of any new case

before hand. Albert had been moved

across the room so the he new

arrival was brought in and

35

& placed next to me. It was hard

to judge from appearances what

nationality he was other than he

must be an ally seeing he was

brought into the enemy ward. My opening

remark was "I am an Australian, how

are you, my name is Tom Lynch".

He replied "I am an Australian also"

I asked him what sqd he was from

in England and he said "460". This was

my sqd so I was interested to know

more about him. He then told me his

name was Ted [[Jefferson]] and he was

a navigator. The pilot of his a/c was

"Boy" Crosby. I knew Boy but could

not remember Ted, but this was not

surprising when one realises that

crews were always coming and going

fr to & from the sqd. They xxxxxx

usually went one night & were

(36)

missing from their usual place in

the mess next day. I remember the

operation from which this crew

did not return - Danzig. We lost three

crews from 460 that night, 21 boys.

I was on that raid too & the

German fighters were out in full

strength that night. The morning

after the Danzig raid several well

known & popular faces were missing.

Ted [[?Suffield?]], Brig Crosby, Ted [[?McKinnon]]

Jerry Fitzgerald & many more. When

you walked into the officers' mess

you would see these boys in

their usual places, before getting ready

for the nights operation. Maybe

it will be Berlin, Leipzig, Essen, Cologne

or any other German City. Some

would be playing shove half penny,

others darts, or maybe just waiting

37

for the Daily Mission to be thrown

into the mess by the steward, who

would have to be smart to move

out of the way, for there always

would be a wild rush to see

who would be the lucky airman

to [[ace?]] the popular "Jane" in

the Mission. Rank did not count

as this [[?]] often a lowly Pilot

Officer would just manage to make

it by a touch from the C.O.

[[?]] W/C. Hughie Edwards 

VC DSO DFC.

It was a wonderful mess & lots

of good "do's" took place from

time to time.

During the next few

days I got the following story

from Ted, while Albert listened

across the room.

38

It was only a small

operation as far as Lancaster xxxx

operations went at that time of the war

about 600 A/C on Danzig Bay. I

was on that night so I remembered

incidents which Ted mentioned in

his often interrupted & broken story which

might continue next day when the pain

had eased from the wires through

both his hips from which his weight

was suspended. The crew had no

trouble on the outward flight to the target

& flew over Sweden where the

brilliant [[?low sunset]] could be

distinguished & the large cities

Goteborg & Stockholm easily discernible.

What a different sight conditions to England &

Germany & other countries at war.

Ack Ack was coming up but the

gunners were firing in the opposite

(39)

direction to where 
the main force of

bombers were, probably
 as instructed.

Coming to the target the flack

was fairly heavy & 
accurate but nothing

out of the ordinary. It was on

the way back to England for 1000
miles, five hrs of it that we had

to fight our way through belts

of fighters. Combat between fighters

& bombers took place at 20,000 ft

& along the entire length of the flight

home to our bases in northern

England. It was over Denmark were

Ted was shot down by German

fighters after several attacks. The a/c

was on fire & F/LT Crosby gave

orders to jump. Ted saw the pilot

collapse over the controls & then

he left the Flying 
a/c y the front escape

hatch, but 
he had waited too long

(40)

& his parachute had not properly

opened when he hit the ground.

Some time later he heard voices

& and a search party found him &

told him they were Danes & where

his friends. He thought he was

dying & asked for a paper &

pencil that he might write a

message to his people in Australia.

The Danes took him to a

hospital & the Doctors were

examining him to find out the

extent of his injuries when the

gestapo make their appearance &

gave instructions that the English

flyer had th to be transported

immediately to a German Army

Hospital. A rumour circulated

next day that an English flyer

had been killed on the

(42)

operating table by the Gestapo. To

contradict the fake rumour, the

Germans had Ted photographed

& the photo inserted in the daily

papers. Ted had a cutting when

he arrived at the Frankfurt

Hospital. During the four months

he was in the German Hospital

in Denmark he xxxxx had no

medical treatment for his wounds

etc & he was always guarded by

at least one guard day and night.

He was put on a wooden

stretcher - sent down to Frankfurt

by train - his journey must have

been a terrible nightmare in

the condition he was in. In

the three cases my own, Albert's, &

Teds no medical papers were sent

with us & no information was

(42)

known of previous treatment.

Language again was the difficulty

when the doctors at Frankfurt were

examining Ted after arrival. In

all three cases, the medical staff

at Frankfurt did everything for us

but in Ted's case it was to

no avail for he later died after

months of terrible agony. His

injuries consisted of two broken

hips, a large hole at the base of

the spine, an open wound in the

[[blades]] & his left foot was withered

& no feeling in it except after

massaging for several minutes.

The medical officers made plans

for his treatment & workmen

inserted four iron poles from each

corner of the bed & two bars

length ways along the top, on which

(43)

were two small pullies. He was

taken to the operating theatre

& after about two hours came

back with wire through both

his hips. The ends of those

wires were taken through

both pullies & two weights

were suspended at each end

of the wires. The idea of this

was to suspend him by the hips

& thereby no weight was taken

on the wounded back. The wires

were also intended to set his

broken hips in place again. When

he wanted to move his bowels he

would pull his body up with

the aid of two straps attached

above his head & the weights would

[[thereby?]] drop & the 

was in Ted never the 

(44)

& curse in this chamber of horrors.

Ted tried to make love to the

nurse while he was still under

the influence of the anaesthetic. She

said you can never be sure of

men under any conditions.

For the next two or

three months the allies ward

caused a lot of interest & the

guinea pigs had lots of interesting

visitors. Ted was the one which

who caused most interest to the ^people
passing by, owing to the unusual

position in which he was placed.

Some times he would joke about it,

when he was not suffering too much.

We often discussed what

we would do after we returned to

our homes in Australia-America.

Albert was going into a business

(45)

with his wife. He would tell me what

a great girl she was & he would

lay back and think of her and home.

Ted was keen to fly again,

Mosquitoes for preference. This was

the ^best A/C of the war years as far

as he was concerned.

About this time we

had some allied visitors. We got

very little information from the outside

world & we would not know that there

was a war on, if it had not been

for the sound of the American A/c

going over by day, and the RAF by

night. The only good thing was

being on the underground ward was

that you were not disturbed at night

during air raids by our Lancasters

& we felt more or less safe from

the "[[Chicago ?]]" as the Americans

(46)

were called & the "Terror Flyers" as

the R.A.F. was known. Our visitors

came from a POW camp near

Frankfurt. There was another American

boy in the hospital who we did not

know of previously. He had had his eyes

covered & now that he was O.K.

was to be sent to a POW camp.

A few days later another

American arrived for skin grafting

treatment. He had been burned

about the face rather badly & the

German doctors were trying to do

something about his eye lids which

had been burnt. xxx The flying goggles

generally protect your eyes when you

are burned about the face, but this

pilot had pulled his off. He had

been a member of the famous

American Eagle Sqd which had

(47)

operated in 
England during the Battle

of Britain. Before 
the Americans came

into the war, he had married an

English girl & that 
was his chief worry

to get back
 to England to see her.

She would 
see a different face to

the one she knew.

The workers in the

hospital were
 chiefly Russian girls &

their
duties included washing out the

wards each morning & often beautiful

fruit from the [[Rhine?]] found its

way into our ward in a bucket

or some other such method. Most

of these girls were from Stalingrad.

The xxxx state of the

allied ward at that time was that,

Ted was not improving & if anything

worse, still in his bed of torture.                                                              

   (48)

Alberts leg was still badly
infected & he did not have much

hope that he would leave the

hospital alive. I was the only one

of the three improving. So much

so that one morning a pair of

crutches were brought in & I was

told that they were for me & the

orderly told me to try & use them.

They seemed to be too small

for me but I had a try. I put my

left foot on the floor for the first

time for many months. Only a few

weeks before that I had been lifted

out of bed by a [[frail?]] nurse &

placed on a weighing machine

which had been brought into

the ward. My all up weight

including night shirt, was 75 lbs.

The orderly assisted me to put the

crutches under my 
armpits & to stand

(49)

next & here came the great [[thrill?]]

to walk again. It more or less

supported me for a few steps

away from the bed & back again

& I was very proud of the 

performance.

I was looking forward to more

practice next morning, on the

sticks. I was able to go across the

room and sit on Albert's bed & when

I had regained my power I would

[[trot?]] across to poor old Ted. They

were both as thrilled as I was

& I was able to give them a

few hints about the care of

the crutches which might come in

handy to them when they were

as active as myself. I found

a brisk walk once or twice

around the small ward was quite

enough for me at that stage.

(50)

For the next few days

I practiced on these two very

useful pieces of wood. I had

never given 
these things any thought

or consideration before 27th April 1944

but they definitely are very useful

as we proved, in the next

12 months in England where we

would come down for breakfast

at the Strand Palace Hotel & find

a long queue lined up. The head

waiter would ask the people at

the head of the line to stand

aside & a table would be

ready for us inevitably.

I was very soon to

leave Ted & Albert in Frankfurt.

We had all been through a lot

together & it was hard to part

from them. I later met

(51)
Albert at [[?]] but Ted was
never to leave Frankfurt. He died
a few months later. The doctor
& staff at the Frankfurt Luftwaffe
Hospital did everything possible
for us & it could have easily been
three instead of one.
To [[Obermassfeld?]] [[?]]
Hospital was [[?]] all Allied
POW who were not able to go
to organised camps, such as
[[?]] from were a big [[mass?]]
[[escape?]] took place in April 1944
Fifty officers were shot
after being recaptured. There we
had our own doctors who were
POW & had been captured in
the North African campaign at
Tobruk [[D]] etc. [[?]] to be
[[seen?]] some of the worst cases
(52)
of the war. Burns, Amputations &
burns of all descriptions. From
here the boys would either be
sent home on exchange for
German P.O.W. or to [[Bayer?]]
Four exchanges took place during
the war. There were some [[queer?]]
sights [[?]] by first I [[?]]
the worst cases ^those were burns. 
There
were a lot of these poor boys
& [[?]] to those of us who were
hardened with our own particular
bad luck, these burn cases in some
instances were too much for us,
and it was hard to converse with
some of these boys without letting
them seeing you [[failing?]] & 
they would
know what you were thinking.
It was sometimes hard to act
normally when speaking 
to these boys