A
collection of stories, photos, art and information on Stalag Luft I
If you are a former Prisoner of War or a next of
kin of a POW, we invite you to sign and leave your email address so others that
come may find you. Please mention camp, compound, barracks and room numbers if
possible.
Lt.
Col. Luther H. Richmond
Commanding Officer of the 486th Fighter Squad
- 352nd Fighter Group
Stalag Luft I, Barth, Germany - April 15th, 1944, through May
1945.
Downed by flak while attacking anti-aircraft position.
As a relatively high ranking officer in the camp, Luther was afforded a view of the
proceedings denied many of the other 9,000 inhabitants of the camp. Here
he shares with us narratives of his final mission and his thirteen-month stay as a
POW at Stalag Luft I.
The following articles were written by Marc L. Hamel in collaboration
with Maj. Gen. Luther H. Richmond (USAF Ret.).
"Jackpot" over Vechta - "His
tracers looked like red golf balls coming up, and normally I would have
zigged and zagged a bit so that he would miss. On that day however, the
temptation was too great and I held my aim steady as I could see my
tracers hitting the flak site. I felt the ship get hit, and almost
immediately a tongue of flame licked back from around my feet and burned
my hands quite badly. ‘You're on fire Colonel!’ my element
leader radioed." On April 15th, 1944, Lt. Colonel Luther H. Richmond
made a jarring switch from Squadron Leader to Prisoner of War. Commanding
the 486th Fighter Squadron (FS) of the 352nd Fighter Group (FG), Luther
led his men in a carefully orchestrated strafing attack of the German
airfield at Vechta that day. Though the squadron destroyed 8 of the German
planes caught in the air, it was at the cost of their respected leader who
dueled with a flak position and had to bail out of his flaming Mustang “PZ-R”.
The Great Escape (Almost) -
“The rest of us peered through
cracks in the blackout shutters and saw the head digger begin to emerge. About
that time, the guard in the tower 50 feet from the barracks began playing his
searchlight up and down the fence line. As he reversed it, the beam swept across
our man just as he stood up. The light wavered past him, then came back and
fully caught him…”
The Coming of the Russians
- In April, 1945, we
awakened every morning to a tremendous, though distant, artillery barrage to the
East and Southeast of Barth. We knew that Marshall Rokassofsy’s First
Ukrainian Army was attacking across Northern Germany and was getting closer by
the day. Our spirits rose at the prospect of being liberated soon.The German guards were increasingly nervous,
and a bit more friendly than they had been.
Richmond qualified in over 78 types of aircraft during
his career, beginning with the P-12 fighter and continuing through
contemporary jets.
Luther and William Chamberlain, a squadron CO in
the 388th Bomb Group visiting at Bodney. They were friends
stateside, and Chamberlain flew in the visible B-17 for a visit in
early April 1944.
POST-WAR SERVICE:
- Nov. 45-July 46, Director of
Training, Selfridge Field, MI (P-47s and B-26s)
- July 1946-July 1947, Commander 8th FG, Ashiya, Japan (P-51s)
- July 1947-June 1949, Deputy A-3 of HQ 5th AF, Nagoya, Japan
- July 1949-May 1953, Action Officer in War Plans, HQ USAF then Exec
Officer to the DCS Plans and Ops, HQ USAF, Gen Thomas D. White
- May 1953-March 1955, Base Commander and C.O. 564th Air Defense Group,
Otis AFB, first Jet Checkout in T-33 and F-94C
- March 1955-June 1958, Chief of the Air Force Section, MAAG Germany in
the American Embassy, Bonn, Germany, mission to rebuild the German
Luftwaffe
- June 1958-June 1959, Attended National War College, Washington
- June 1959-June 1963, HQ USAF, Deputy Director of Plans for War Plans
- June 1963-Oct 1963, Plans Officer, HQ SHAPE in Paris
- Oct. 63-March 65, Inspector General, HQ USAFE, Wiesbaden
- March 65-March 66, Deputy Commander 17th AF, Ramstein, Germany
- March 1966-March 1967, Commander 19th AF, Seymour Johnson AFB,
Goldsboro, NC
- March 67-May 1970, Director of Plans, J-5, US Strike Command, MacDill
AFB
