The Murder of Five Captured RAF Officers. Warning: Graphic Images

Hello all.

I've decided to join the forum after reading this fantastic post (great work), as I have a vested interest in this story, I'm FS Norman J Bradley's grandson.
I'm not sure if I can be of much help, as much of what I know has already been told and the rest of it is new information to me.
I'm in the process of contacting relatives to see what info, pictures, etc, they might have, as I've nothing from his time with 214 squadron, but if I can be any help at all I will.

Thanks. M@

 

Welcome aboard M@bou!

 

M,

Hello and welcome to the forum.

Regards
Tom

 

Wow what a great thread!! Have you posted it on RAF commands forum too?

 

Welcome to the forum M@.

This is an incredible thread and glad that you have found it.

Lee

 

Wow what a great thread!! Have you posted it on RAF commands forum too?

Nope

 

I have some new topography pictures.

This is a historical air picture dated september 44 of Huchenfeld.

 

Hello Polluxs,
You have quite an amazing collection of historical information.
Enjoyed your postings very much-fascinating. Thank you.

peaceful

 

This is the mapsector of the scene in Dillweißenstein. I post a bigger photo that everything can be seen. The photo is an airpicture of September 44.
The green cross here is the footballfield from where the boys Jourdan, Dettling and Kolbe came when they got involved in the beating and killing of James Vinall.

I will make a more detailled plan of the picture above with comments of two places which are important.

 

This is the historical murderscene.

 

I have investigated some other places which are named in the trial.

 

You have taken a lot of time and trouble to examine the scenes and provide maps and you should be commended for your effort, more especially as the site will soon be redeveloped and the history of the past lost forever.

You have the makings of an excellent Museum / Historical document and I only hope that your tireless work will be rewarded by an exhibition of your findings.

Regards
Tom

 

I'd like to second Toms post, Pollux5. Excellent work and it should be exhibited.

 

Hello M@
Great that you joined this board.

@ mods
I have some detailled exhumation photos.
Shall I publish them here whith the photos of the airmen alive or do you think that would be to tacky?

 

No, published as a book and filmed!
It would make a fascinating documentary



I'd like to second Toms post, Pollux5. Excellent work and it should be exhibited.

 

Not sure on that one, Pollux,
especially as we now have a
relative reading the thread...

only my opinion

I have some detailled exhumation photos.
Shall I publish them here with the photos of the airmen alive or do you think that would be to tacky?

 

No, published as a book and filmed!
It would make a fascinating documentary



Hi At Home Dad
There is one thing which would make a television documentary very interesting.

There must exist somewhere some recorded files.
Cpt. Conner often speaks about that he recorded the accused or that he made records.
But I don´t know where to search for them.

There are also some parts of the story missing.
I have nearly nothing about the airmen. And there also must exist photos of the trial.
And I look forward to get a diary of one of the accused which was written by him during his imprisonment.

*edit*
I investigated in german archives and found in the SS file of Max Köchlin his wedding file. Is someone interested in the file?
Then I would publish them here. Unfortunately they are in german.

 

All the documents that you have in English are in the public domain and can be viewed by anyone at the National Archives.

We had a brief debate a few years ago on here about posting pictures of the dead and dying during WW2 and it was pretty much the opinion of most that pictures should be posted as we are all interested in one way or another in WW2, warts and all that goes with it.

Whilst at least one of the pictures is quite graphic and I did feel uncomfortable when I first saw them, there is a warning on the title that this thread does contain graphic images. As I have said before, post them, I think they deserve to be seen mate as war is not what its like in the movies and they do show the true horror of war.

Keep up the excellent work, its been a honour to have been part of your journey with this project !

Regards
Andy

 

All the documents that you have in English are in the public domain and can be viewed by anyone at the National Archives.
If there exist some records made by Capt. Conner, would they be in the WO files?
I already mentioned that the investigation files of capt. Conner are missing or are somewhere else. The archivists also made some mistakes when they organized the files new.
For example...WO 235/236 where all the exhibits are included after which I was looking for quite a long time is known as

Defendend Alfred Mehr: Place of trial Jugesheim

That can be easily explained but it lasted a while for me till I found out.

Alfred Mehr is infact Alfred Mohr. Alfred Mohr was a SA man from Dillweißenstein. Maybe the extraction papers are named after him cause he is the first alphabetic Person.

Place of trial Jugesheim....
I first was confused cause the Jugesheim trials had nothing to do with the Pforzheim incidents, cause the pforzheim case I. trial was held in Essen-Steele, till I got the "Spruchkammer files" of one of the accused.

->Spruchkammer files:
The Spruchkammerfiles are maybe known in England as the denazification trials. After the war, every person in germany had to go through such a denazification trial, and if you had a lot of guilt the property of you and your family could be confiscated. If someone was found guilty in a war crime trial, he automatically was also guilty in a Spruchkammer trial. And when Hölzer died of cancer 47 in prison his widdow had to prove his innocence infront of a Spruchkammer that she would not lose her widow's pension.
And she put the whole correspondence with the lawyer of Hölzer to the Spruchkammer and there the lawyer wrote.

(translation)
"I defended your husband in a war crimes trial held in Essen-Steele in the Jugendheim (youth hostel), Fürstinstraße."

That is why the Pforzheim trials are sometimes wrong assigned to the Jugesheim trials.

Well, I don´t know the english archiv system quite well. Are all files, sound and filmdocuments centralized in one archiv?

Keep up the excellent work, its been a honour to have been part of your journey with this project !


And thanks a lot to you Andi. Without your fantastic help I would not have had the possibility to investigate