Search results for ""Author M S Morgan""

Tucked away in the archives of the Museum for Transport and Technology in Berlin is an old photograph of a Hawker Hurricane on public display. The image must have been taken before the night of 23/24 November 1943, when the museum and the greater part of its collection – including the Hurricane – were destroyed in a RAF bombing raid. The aircraft in the photograph bore a squadron commander’s pennant under the cockpit, had broken propellor blades and carried the squadron markings PA-A on its fuselage, as well as the serial number W9147. Intrigued by what he had seen, the picture launched the author on an investigation that uncovered an incredible story of wartime treachery and betrayal. That tale concerns one man in particular – Augustin Přeučil. Also known to his family and friends as Gustav Přeučil, it was Augustin who had been the Hurricane’s last RAF pilot. A 26-year-old aviator from Czechoslovakia, on first appearances Přeučil had fled his homeland after Nazi Germany took control and created the Reich Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia – part of Hitler’s Greater Germany. Having initially travelled to Poland, he then escaped to France and, from there, ultimately reached Britain, where he joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve. Augustin Přeučil seemed to be just like many of the men who had arrived in the UK to continue the fight against Hitler. He appeared to be settled and even married an English girl in July 1941. But on 18 September of that year, he was posted missing, believed killed, while undertaking a training flight off the coast of Sunderland and Hartlepool. Přeučil’s body was never recovered and nothing more was heard of him. His young wife received a war widow’s pension; he was just another sad statistic of the war. However, Augustin Přeučil was far from dead. Having landed the ‘stolen’ Hurricane near Bastogne in Belgium, he was treated by local people as a downed Allied pilot, sheltered and then passed into the care of the local Resistance group. Přeučil repaid their trust by handing himself into the Gestapo – and revealing all he knew. The Gestapo’s response was swift and brutal. For Přeučil, this marked the start of a new career as an undercover agent for the Gestapo, principally in Czechoslovakia. As the author reveals, how he ended up serving Hitler’s Third Reich and betraying his homeland, his adopted country and a new wife, is a story that while strange is completely true. It is also one that ended with his death. Found guilty of High Treason, Přeučil was hanged by the Czech authorities in April 1947.

Read more less

During the Second World War over 200,000 British prisoners of war were detained by the Third Reich. A large proportion of these PoWs were members of the Royal Air Force, or airmen who served in it. A number of them have been immortalised in the many books and movies that have portrayed their valiant exploits and escapes, none more so than the events surrounding the Great Escape in 1944. The names of camps such as Stalag Luft III, at Sagan, and Colditz Castle are well known to the general public, the prisoners incarcerated there often being held in high regard. But there were a few PoWs whose loyalty to the cause and their fellow prisoners might not have been as strong. The names of Pilot Officer Railton Freeman, Sergeant Jack Alcock and Sergeant Raymond Hughes are among those found in that inglorious group of alleged traitors, for all three men betrayed their colleagues and the nation. The trio assisted the Nazi regime in making radio broadcasts, or even joining the British Frei Ko

Read more less