Foss Henry Boulton

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CANADIAN FLYERS RELENTLESSLY
SEEK OUT TRAINS, LOCOMOTIVES
"Train-Busting" Raids Get Tougher as Enemy
Now Carries Flak Guns on Cars behind Engines

(Written for The Canadian Press by PO. Bob Francis)
London, March 19, 1943 — Striking proof that air attacks on trains and other transportation facilities in German-occupied France are playing havoc with the enemy's movement of troops and war materials is shown in their recent action in placing anti-aircraft or machine-gun posts on the trains themselves.

Increasing Opposition
Fighter pilots returning from low-level attacks on trains and other objectives inside the French coast report increasing opposition from gun posts set up on open cars and drawn by the very locomotive they are attacking.
When "train-busting" was originated, the enemy was taken by surprise. Few if any trains sported protective facilities.
Under those circumstances, fighter pilots often could make a second attack on an engine if their first sweep had not put it out of action.
They found as a rule, however, that one ground-level attack on an engine, involving several seconds of shattering fire from two cannon and four machine-guns, was enough to do the job. Scores of railway engines were put out of action in this manner, seriously hampering the movement facilities throughout the area in which the operations were carried out.

Strike Fast
Pilots of a Canadian fighter wing, flying Spitfire fighters, have a big role in these widespread operations, striking fast and accurately and keeping the enemy constantly on edge. The Canadians combine their sorties against trains with quick jabs at gunposts, barges, army camps, "flak" towers and army road transports.
Flying sometimes singly, sometimes in formation, Canadians in their Spits go in at a selected point over the French coast, seek out railway lines, watching for the telltale plume of white smoke which tells them where there is a locomotive, and go down almost to ground level to attack at tremendous speed.
From the front or side, depending on such factors as the height of the track and the position of buildings and trees adjacent to the engine, the pilot guides his aircraft towards the train.
Then he presses the trigger button and a stream of steel and lead, some explosive, some armor piercing, pours from the six weapons in his wings.
The cumulative effect of a few seconds of such fire smashing into the belly of the engine will often tear out enough machinery and piping to put the machine out of service for several months, if not for good.

Claim Damage Only
But — as in the case of aircraft which they have attacked — pilots are careful about their claims when they return to base and talk over their "do" with the intelligence officer. A claim of having damaged an engine, rather than having destroyed it, is the usual routine after a "train-busting" foray, since a close look to determine the exact condition of the engine is impossible.
One Canadian pilot particularly, PO. L. W. (Pipsqueak) Powell, of Edmonton, who recently was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his exploits, has made a name for himself as an exponent on the art of "train-busting."
In a score of low-flying sorties over France he has attacked and damaged many railway engines, as well as numerous gun posts, army lorries and other objectives.
Often he has been shot at — by coastal gun posts as he reached the other side of the Channel, by ground defences as he sought out targets, and by "flak" cars on the trains themselves. He’s come back with bullets in his plane.
Many other Canadians have taken part in the raids, which have come to require more and more skill and care. With guns placed on many trains operating in the area where the attacks are made, pilots have had their difficulties increased but have, nevertheless, continued to exact their toll.
Co-operation between pilots in the single-seater fighters has been the answer to a part of the problem, with engine and gun post attacked simultaneously.
This technique was demonstrated recently during an attack carried out on a number of trains.
As one pilot, Flight-Lieut. R. A. Buckham, of Vancouver, went in on a train, a "flak" post on a car some distance behind the engine prepared to fire on him.
Buckham's squadron leader, F. H. Boulton, of Coleman, Alta., whipped his plane into position several hundred yards from the train and poured a long burst into the gun and its crew, wiping it out as his flight commander took care of the engine.
That is how Canadians are dealing, with enemy transport, relentlessly seeking it out, banging it where they find it, and going on for more.

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OTTAWA OFFICER NOW COMMMDING ACTION STATION
Wing – Cmdr. MacBrien Moves From Training Post in Dominion
IS WITH CANADIANS

With the R.C.A.F., Somewhere in England, March 29, 1943 — (CP) — Mess room chatter :
Wing Cmdr. W. R. MacBrien, of Ottawa, formerly commanding officer of the R.C.A.F. Service Flying Training School at Uplands in Ottawa, has been placed in command of an operational station in Britain at which part of the Canadian fighter wing is based. He succeeds Wing-Cmdr. F.F. Barrett, of the R.A.F.
Wing-Cmdr. MacBrien was chief flying instructor at No. 4 S.F.T.S. at Saskatoon in the fall of 1940 and later he was C.F.I., then station commander, at Uplands.
CO. of a fighter squadron operating from MacBrien's station is Sqdn.-Ldr. F. H. Boulton, of Coleman, Alta. Leads the City of Oshawa squadron formerly commanded by Sqdn.-Ldr. Lloyd V. Chadburn, D.F.C., of Aurora, Ont.

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R.C.A.F. BLASTS ESSEN PLANTS, DOWN JERRIES
Toronto Fliers Win Many Dogfights While Bombers on Way Home

London, April 4, 1943 - (AP) - Tons of explosives dropped by Canadian airmen blasted the mammoth Krupp armament works Saturday night as the R.A.F. and R.C.A.F. proceeded methodically with their plan to wipe out the factories which cover hundreds of acres around Essen and supply the Axis with much vital equipment.
Forming a part of the large force attacking the great German industrial city were three R.C.A.F. Halifax squadrons as well as scores of Canadians in the R.A.F. who fly in such giants as Lancasters. Of 21 bombers lost, five were from the Canadian bomber group.
Saturday night's action by the R.C.A.F, followed afternoon sweeps over Nazi-held France in which a Canadian Spitfire wing destroyed five German fighters and damaged and probably destroyed others. The action, one of the most successful in weeks for the R.C.A.F. pilots, came when the wing supported fighter-bombers on an attack on Abbeville, on the French coast. One Spitfire was lost.
The Canadian squadrons on the Essen raid were led by Wing Commanders W. D. Ferris of Edmonton, A. C. P. Clayton, Vancouver, and M. M. Flemming, Ottawa. Antiaircraft fire and searchlights were plentiful, but only a few Canadians reported sighting night fighters.
Confident, that further extensive damage was inflicted in the 54th raid on Essen, the Canadian airmen told of one particularly large explosion, concentrated fires extending over a large area and dense columns of smoke.
Sgt. A. S. Sutton of 176 Erskine Ave., Toronto, reported a tremendous blast in the heart of the target area and Sgt. T. W. Dimma of Ottawa added facetiously that "I expect Krupps have a lot of stuff that might go off."
"There were two smaller explosions and then right beside them a big one," Sutton said. "Flame poured up and then mushroomed and stayed there in an orange blaze for at least 10 seconds."
Sgt. B. D. Kirkham of Saltcoats, Sask., reported smoke poured up in such great, thick clouds that the fires were blotted out. Twenty-five miles from the target all he could see was the reflected glow.
Pieces of flak glanced off the shoulders of PO. Arnold Rollings of Allenford, Ont., a veteran Canadian bushpilot who was navigator of a Lancaster. Rollings was unhurt.
A motor of the big aircraft cutout over the target and the English pilot dived 11,000 feet toward the searchlights while gunners poured bullets at the lights. Eight flicked out as the bomber swooped to within 400 yards of the ground.
Sgt. Duncan McMillan of Landis, Sask., was a mighty tired airman when he reached base. The elevator trimmers of his aircraft froze en route to Essen and it was a great physical effort to control the bomber. However, it went on to bomb the target although it was unable to weave as searchlights scoured the sky.
Flt. Sgt. Johnny Carrere of Cochrane, celebrated his commissioning – word of which reached him just before the take-off - by bombing Essen.
Other Canadians on the raid included Sgt. C. E. Willis, Peterborough, Ont., and Ken Emmons, Elgin, Ont., whose wife lives at 244 Rushholme Road, Toronto. Also in the big attack were Flt. Sgt. Harold Huether of Kitchener, PO. Bill Hilton, Brantford, and Ross Webb of Glenavon, Sask.
In Saturday afternoon's impressive sweep by the Canadian fighters, four Canadians and their English wing commander each shot down a Focke-Wulf 190, a Toronto sharpshooter damaged another and two British Columbia youths shared a probable. The five pilots who each added a Nazi plane to his total were Sqdn. Ldr. S.L. Ford, D.F.C. and Bar, of Liverpool, N.S.; Flt. Lt. C. M. Magwood of 414 Dovercourt Road, Toronto; FO. H. D. MacDonald of 30 Craydon Avenue, Toronto; Sqdn. Ldr. S. H. Boulton of Coleman, Alta., and Wing Cmdr. J. E. Johnson, D.F.C. and Bar, an Englishman.
FO. J. A. Rae of Toronto damaged one and Flt. Lt. R. A. Buckham of Vancouver and FO. N. A. Keene of White Rock, B.C., shared a probable. Keene was last in the news when he scored hits on a German fighter over France Feb 16.
Johnson said the wing pounced on about 20 enemy fighters which came up after bombs had been dropped on objectives at Abbeville.

Jerries Fell in Pieces
"They were about 3,000 feet below us and I think we took them by surprise," he said. "There were a good many combats at about 24,000 feet."
Magwood's victory was the most spectacular. His victim blew up in the air.
"I started firing at about 150 yards,"Magwood said. "The blast lifted my kite with quite a bump." Ford said his victim turned over when shells and bullets struck, then went into a dive with smoke pouring out. Several other squadron pilots reported seeing it in flames at a low level.
MacDonald roared in with guns blazing and saw a wheel of a FW-190 come down, then the cockpit cover blew off and the Nazi pilot bail out.
Boulton attacked a fighter from underneath and observed strikes that blew off pieces from the enemy aircraft.
"The bullets seemed to go into the body of the plane and then I should think into the cockpit and the engine because he started to give out smoke," Boulton said. "Then the enemy machine tipped forward on its nose and went straight down." Both firing, Keene and Buckham attacked their victim from the rear. "We could see chunks flying from the hood and side of the cockpit and he started to go down with smoke coming out," Keene said.
Rae poured a long burst into an enemy fighter from an angle and observed many hits, but "there was another Hun circling, so I did not stop to see what happened."

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R.C.A.F. UNITS ARE NOW USING NEW SPITFIRES
Front Line Squadron Overseas Fly Faster, Heavier Fighting Ships

Ottawa, April 30, 1943 - (CP) - R.C.A.F. headquarters said today in a press release that pilots of a front-line fighter squadron of the R.C.A.F. in Britain recently switched aircraft and now are flying in "the improved type of Spitfire."
A few members of the squadron had flown the aircraft before while serving with other squadrons, but for most it was their first experience with the heavier, faster model.
"This Spit is the design which carries the Merlin 61 engine and a four-bladed propeller, and was taken off the secret list some months ago," the Air Force said.
The squadron, commanded by Sqdn.-Ldr. F. H. Boulton of Coleman, Alta., had been flying with a slightly earlier mode Spitfire.
Pilots in the squadron come from all parts of Canada, from PO. H. MacDonald of Sydney Mines, N.S., to FO. Norman A. Keene of White Rock, B.C. Keene recently joined the squadron after a period of operational flying in another Canadian fighter unit led by Sqdn. Ldr. Bud Malloy, D.F.C., of Halifax.
Other pilots who joined the Squadron recently are Flt. Lt. R. M. (Dick) Stayner of Saskatoon; Flt. Lt. W. S. Quint of Calgary; Sgt. G. Gall of Keene, Ont., and Sgt. Lou Woloschuk who played amateur hockey in Western Canada before he joined the RCAF.

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British and Canadian Fliers Sweep France, Netherlands

London, May 3, 1943 - (AP) - The R.A.F. and R.C.A.F. made two extensive sweeps over Northern France and Holland today at a cost of 11 bombers and two fighters missing, the heaviest loss in recent daylight raids.
Among the targets attacked was the power station at Ijmuiden, Holland, on which bombs were seen to burst, an Air Ministry communiqué said tonight.
The attack force encountered enemy fighters in considerable numbers. Five were shot down, two by Sqdn. Ldr. F. H. Boulton of Coleman, Alt and Flt. Lt. R. A. Buckham of Vancouver, B.C., members of the R.C.A.F. "City of Oshawa" squadron.
It was the second raid in two days on Ijmuiden, a Netherlands coastal city
Today's heavy loss of aircraft, coupled with other recent announced losses, indicated a tightening of Nazi defenses against both night and day air raids.
R.A.F. fighters and bombers shot their way through strong fighter opposition in raiding Ijmuiden yesterday; knocking down six enemy craft, but lost four of their own fighters. Seven American bombers were lost Saturday night in an attack in force on the Nazi submarine base at St. Nazaire, France.
Thirteen British planes were reported missing after the R.A.F. assault on Essen Friday night.
A 19-year-old R.A.F. pilot who shot down two of three FW190's destroyed in the Ijmuiden raid said: "The Huns pounced on us from behind in great numbers and made for both fighters and bombers. There was fierce scrapping."

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BEHIND THE LINES
Naval Auxiliary Will Help Solve Social Problems
of Men in the R.C.N.V.R.

15 May 1943 - Railway men, who have been contributing dimes and quarters to a Spitfire fund, got a report at Montreal back from the battlefront on what their two planes have been doing.
They learned that Canadian Pacific I and Canadian Pacific II have accounted for seven enemy planes, have damaged nine others, chalked up two probables, and some of the pilots have won decorations.
Pilots of the two planes at various times have been: F/L G. B. Murray, D.F.C, of Halifax; S/L L. S. Ford, D.F.C. and bar, of Liverpool, N.S.; F/O Ken Marshall, of Milton, Ont; W/C E. E. Morrow, D.F.C, of Toronto; S/L Norman Bretz, D.F.C., of Toronto; S/L D. F. (Bud) Malloy, D.F.C, of Halifax, and S/L Foss Boulton, of Coleman, Alta.

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BOULTON, S/L Foss Henry (C1090) - Distinguished Flying Cross - No.416 Squadron
Award effective 22 May 1943 as per London Gazette dated 4 June 1943 and
AFRO 1187/43 dated 25 June 1943.

"This officer has taken part in a large number of sorties, including many low level attacks on targets in northern France. He has invariably displayed great skill and courage and has destroyed at least four enemy aircraft."

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Western Flyer Awarded D.F.C. Ottawa, June 3, 1943 - (CP) - Air Fore Headquarters tonight announce award of the Distinguished Flying Cross to Sqdn. Ldr. F. H. Boulton of Coleman, Alta., who is now reported missing. He is serving with the R.C.A.F. overseas. The announcement said Sqdn. Ldr. Boulton was in command of the City of Oshawa Spitfire Squadron overseas, having taken over command from Sqdn. Ldr. Lloyd Chadburn, D.F.C., several months ago. S/L Boulton

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Air Force Casualties

Ottawa. June 20, 1943 - (CP) - The R.C.A.F., in its 606th casualty list of the war containing a total of 59 names, today reported 48 men missing on active service overseas after air operations — the heaviest toll in missing reported for many days. No casualties in Canada were listed. Following is the latest list of casualties with next-of-kin (in part):
BOULTON, Foss Henry, Sqdn. Ldr., missing after air operations overseas. J. H. Boulton (father), Coleman, Alta.
FIGHTER, Kenneth Franklin, Sgt., missing after air operations overseas. K. F. Fighter (wife), Vernon, B.C.

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Air Casualties

Ottawa, Aug. 12, 1943 - (CP) - The R.C. A.F. reported tonight in its 652nd casualty list of the war, containing 33 names, that six men were killed on active service overseas, one was killed accidentally, and 10 are missing on active service after air operations overseas. Following is the latest list of casualties, with next of kin (in part):
BOULTON, Foss Henry, D.F.C., Sqdn. Ldr. Previously reported missing on active service overseas; now reported prisoner of war (Germany). J. H. Boulton (father), Coleman, Alta

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37 Canadians Homeward Bound on Gripsholm;
11 Others Among Repatriates Reaching U.K.

Liverpool, May 28, 1944 - (CP) - Six hundred and twenty-seven British repatriated prisoners of war arrived in Liverpool tonight from Belfast; where they had been brought by the Swedish diplomatic exchange liner Gripsholm. Eleven Canadians, bound for destinations in the United Kingdom, also arrived here. The Gripsholm has sailed from Belfast with Canadian and American contingents.

By MARGARET ECKER
Belfast, May 28 - (CP) - You don't interview homecoming prisoners of war — they interview you.
Reporters brought to this Irish port by plane with all their questions ready found British military police waiting to pounce on any correspondent who so much as laid a pencil to paper even before the graceful repatriation liner Gripsholm had her last hawser tied to the dock.
Reporters ordered by their editors to "get names and home towns" were practically out of luck.
But, anyway, the British, Canadian, American and South American boys who leaned over the rails didn't want to talk about Stalag 7B, a soup diet or the Gestapo.

News From Back Home
The boys from Canada wanted to know how Vancouver was, if there was any beer left in Toronto, and did I know their girl friend in Moncton, N.B. They wanted to talk to a Canadian girl again.
Lieut. Charles Counsell of Ancaster, Ont., put the feeling of the repatriates in a nutshell:
"We could te1l you stories. We could ta1k about the camp and about the situation in Germany, but the boys we had to leave behind are the ones who would get it in “the neck."
There are 48 Canadians among the 900 sick and wounded prisoners of war and repatriated Allied civilians aboard the ship. All but 11 of the Canadians remained aboard to make the transatlantic trip with the Americans. The 11 who disembarked with British repatriates here have destinations in the United Kingdom.

Lump to the Throat
Arrival of the repatriates would have brought a lump to the throat of even the toughest hombre when the Gripsholm maneuvered in to her dock late Saturday. The people, mostly in khaki uniforms who lined the ship's rail, were the kind who knew what it was like to lose their liberty.
Stretcher patients and boys in white gowns were helped to the railings by friends: Sprinkled among the men were the faces of American and South American women who were being repatriated.
At the barrier outside the dock, into which only a handful of official documents could get you, people of Belfast pressed against the pickets and an old woman with a black shawl over her head wiped her eyes.
Naval men and Wrens on British ships near by gave three hearty cheers. A band played bravely the National Anthems of the boys on the ship who cheered until they were hoarse.

Freedom and Victory
The reception was a complicated affair. Officials addressed the ship and a message from Gen. Dwight D. Eisenhower, Allied invasion commander, was read. They all said the same thing - the things every one was thinking about - freedom, victory, and about home.
Then, while a band played nostalgic music and the boys sang in snatches, officials went aboard and the boys at the railings concentrated on whistling at the girls on the dock — American Red Cross workers, Irish girl volunteer workers, British A.T.S. Wrens and W.A.A.F.S.
There were shouts enough for a while and then the boys couldn't hold back their joy any longer. They went to cabins for oranges, apples and cigarettes they had been given in Algiers and pelted them down on the gals who fought for them on the dock.
Stretcher cases came off the ship first. Pallid boys flung off their weaknesses to raise their heads and look about and smile until their faces seemed to crack. The Americans and most of the Canadians were closely guarded from the press, and remained aboard the Gripsholm for the Atlantic Crossing.

Sugar Saved for Cake
They got ashore only long enough for a hearty tea served by jolly Irish women who had saved their sugar for weeks to make chocolate cake.
British repatriates and 11 Canadians who were due to enter hospitals in England transferred to another ship.
When the show started, the press representatives were corralled into a little enclosure but they soon broke their way into the exclusive little party at the quayside.
The Duke of Abercorn, Governor of Northern Ireland, and the Duchess of Abercorn and Prime Minister and Lady Brooke were there to wave at the boys. Sqdn. Ldr. C. E. Rockingham of Moncton, N.B., an R.C.A.F. padre, was there to meet five R.C.A.F. men and with him was Wing Cmdr. H. L. Wright of Hamilton and Supervisor R. Cheesman of Toronto, a Canadian Legion worker. Lt. Col. D. A. Clarke, a British officer, represented the Canadian Army.

Vincent Massey's Son
On the dock before the ship tied up was Canadian High Commissioner Vincent Massey. He was smiling from ear to ear and wandering about as if he couldn't wait. The moment the gangplank was secured and the official party had gone on board he went after them to find his son, Capt. Lionel Massey, who had been in a German prison camp since Crete.
The Gripsholm story is one of those great big stories you will never be able to write. As I wandered up and down the dock having cups of tea with good Irish chocolate cake with soldiers here and R.C.A.F. boys there, I couldn't help hearing stories.
They're good stories, full of humor and blood and thunder, but they will never be written until the end of the war because every boy pleaded with me as Charlie Counsell did — "Remember the other guys, the boys we left behind us, behind barbed wire. Please don't repeat anything that will hurt them."
He hadn't much to say about prison life.

Cramped Space Hurts
"It's the confinement that gets you," he said. "Having people climb over you in the cramped space. All the boys want is to be alone some place."
He developed a great deal of tolerance.
"You couldn't get me into an argument now," he said. "I've had to learn to live with people."
Much-decorated Sqdn. Ldr. Foss Boulton could have talked. You could tell from the hints he dropped of his adventures since his fighter plane was shot down over France about a year ago. What he said was
"I learned to be a good housewife. Six of us lived, slept, read and studied in a room 12 feet by 12. We learned to cook what rations we had on the stove to keep the place tidy so it would be bearable.

His Fiancée a Nurse
Chiefly Boulton wanted to talk about his fiancée, Sheila Devine, who is a nurse in St. Paul's Hospital in Vancouver.
Foss had a tough time, but he's broad and healthy again now.
"Sure I lost weight in Germany," he said. "But the Gripsholm food put me back on my feet again."
Capt. Bob Harnealt of Montreal lost a leg and an arm at Dieppe.
"I'd do the game thing over again," he said and grinned happily while talking to his cousin, Capt. John Lebeuf of Montreal, who rushed to Belfast for the landing.
The people of France interested Harnealt.
"They sure are on our side," he said: "I was in a French camp for 13 months and I got a chance to talk to some of the people of the bombed areas.

In Good Spirit
"Their spirit is good, they're sure the Allies will free them, and when the bombings come they try to laugh about it. They said 'We can take it. It's got to come for victory. "
None of the boys will come out and say so, but all seemed to indicate morale was low in civilian Germany, that the people accept the fact the war is lost and want to get it over as quickly as possible.
WO. Doug Castling of New Westminster, B.C., interviewed this reporter.
"Just talk about British Columbia," he said. "Go ahead, tell me about it. What's happening, what are people talking about? Getting home is an obsession with me.”
Like all the boys, Doug is having a hard time getting used to being a free man again.

Prison Psychology
"I keep expecting to have a German guard tell me to move along every few minutes," he said. "It's hard to get over the prison psychology."
WO. John Sommerville, R.C.A.F., of Barrie, said he wasn't sorry to be in England for a while.
"I want to go home, but I want to get accustomed to being a free man again before the folks see me,” he said.
FO. Eric Pridham of Toronto said: "It's good to hear people talk and not have to keep watching for guards.”

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RETURNED ACE SAYS HUN HAS LOT TO ANSWER FOR

A Canadian Fighter Airfield in Britain, June 1, 1944 - (CP) - In two short comprehensive assertions today, Sqdn. Ldr. Foss Boulton, D.F.C., 25-year-old Coleman, Alta., Spitfire ace, summarized his experiences during a year in German hands after being shot down over Amiens May 13, 1943.
Sitting in a mess tent shared by his old City of Oshawa Squadron and two other Canadian fighter units, Boulton, who was repatriated last weekend, said:
"The Germans have a hell of a lot to answer for" and "Red Cross parcels are the salvation of prison camps in Germany."
His statement about the Germans having a lot to answer for referred particularly to Stalag Luft III, where he was a prisoner when 47 Allied air officers; including six Canadians, were slain by the Germans last March after a mass escape. Boulton was at that camp from last Nov. 28 until April 11, when he left to be repatriated.

Silent on Camp
The airman was not allowed to talk about the camp but it was obvious from what little he did say that he could tell a dramatic story. On his left arm he wore an inch-square patch of black cloth, worn by prisoners there in memory of their slain comrades.
Boulton pictured Germany as a country gloomy but not yet desperate.
"You hardly see a smiling face," he said. "Many are waiting for the end, but the Gestapo makes sure they never express their feelings. Germany is not completely shattered and it still will be a tough fight. The German front line is strong, but general morale of the people at home has been shattered by bombing. The Russians are getting nearer and the thought of that is practically terrifying the Germans."
The food situation in Germany, "is pretty grim but they are used to it," he said, adding the country was not short of food although prewar luxuries were lacking.
As for the men in the prison camps, they are "full of spirit, enjoying games and sunshine," he said.
"They feel that Allied bombing raids, especially daylight raids on Berlin, herald the beginning of the end.
"The big snag is personal confinement and lack of female companionship."
Boulton said the prisoners have three showers a week and there is a theatre at which a good show is seen at least twice a month. The last play Boulton saw was the humorous murder mystery Arsenic and Old Lace.
There also was a communal library with reference and fiction books and an opportunity to study languages.

Parcels are Godsends
Boulton considered Red Cross parcels the main event in prison-camp life. Prisoners got one a week and the Canadian parcel was the most popular, with that from the British Red Cross second and the American organization third.
Prisoners complained of the lack of news from home said Boulton, who suggested relatives and friends in Canada should write more often.
"Send the kids letters," he invited. "If people don't know the prisoner's address, they can send the mail to the international Red Cross at Geneva, where it will be re-addressed. It takes a little longer but the boys get it eventually."

Will Write to Relatives
Boulton told of meeting many Canadians and said he planned writing their relatives to tell about the camp and the menu.
Among Canadians he mentioned were: Scruffy Weir, Toronto; Hunk Sprague, whose home he believed to be Toronto. FO. Jimmy Lago, Timmins, Ont.; PO. Jimmy Abbotts, Owen Sound, Ont.
Boulton said Abbotts was shot down last August or September and gave him "all the gen."
Making a short visit to his old outfit, Boulton looked extremely fit in his new battle dress, with the D.F.C. ribbon, the 1939-43 Star, ribbons to show he had volunteered and a gold wound stripe. He was welcomed like a hero when he reached the air station last night and one of the first to greet him was Group Capt. W. R. MacBrien of Ottawa, commanding officer of a Canadian fighter sector, who instructed him at Camp Borden after Boulton joined the R.C.A.F. in 1939.

Can't Fight Again
"When, I first met the boys in camp here I thought I was dreaming," Boulton said. "But after the first night's party I knew I was back."
He could go on a sweep immediately if it was possible but under terms of the repatriation agreement he is not allowed a combatant role again.
Boulton is completely recovered from head wounds suffered when he was shot down, but he still doesn't know whether it was an enemy fighter or anti-aircraft that got his plane.
He is en route to Canada where he probably will be an instructor and is looking forward to seeing his parents and his fiancée Sheila Devine, a Vancouver nurse.

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RETURNED ACE SAYS ALLIED AIRMEN DELIBERATELY SHOT
Squadron Leader Boulton in Camp At Time Ill-Fated Break Was Made

Ottawa, June 26, 1944 - (CP) - Sqdn.-Ldr. F. H. Boulton, D.F.C., of Coleman, Alta., one of a group of repatriated R.C.A.F. personnel, said yesterday that 50 Allied flyers were "deliberately shot" after the mass break from the German prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III. Six Canadian airmen were among those shot.

Ridiculous Claim
Sqdn. Ldr. Boulton, a prisoner in the camp at the time the break was made, said the claim that a second attempt to escape was made was "ridiculous and impossible."
"The men were exhausted when recaptured and they were in Gorlitz prison, one of the most closely-guarded spots in Germany," he added. Boulton was shot down over Amiens while leading a Spitfire squadron protecting Flying Fortresses on a bombing flight over Germany.
He suffered serious head wounds and after treatment in two German hospitals was removed to Stalag Luft III and placed in the east compound with some 1,400 prisoners. It was from this compound that the mass escape was made.
"I knew all the fellows in the escape attempt," Boulton said. "The six Canadians who were shot were particular friends of mine. There were some 6,000 prisoners in the camp, including Canadian, British and United States airmen. About 400 Canadian officers were prisoners. In all there are some 1,200 Canadian air force officers prisoners in Germany. Many are also at Stalag Luft I on the Baltic coast."
He said the break from Stalag Luft III was "well planned" and that the participants worked on it for 16 months before they were finally ready, braving "most elaborate" guard precautions in the attempt to get away.

Gestapo Action
"'Eighty prisoners went out. Four of them were recaptured almost at once. The others got away. The Germans turned more than 2,000 guards out to search the countryside; the air was full of radio instructions.
"Finally a group was recaptured and removed to Gestapo headquarters near Dresden. They were interrogated for hours. Then came the word that 47 of the boys had been shot. It's nonsense to say it was a second attempt to escape. It as impossible and no one would have tried it.
“... Guards were doubled around our camp. We were locked in our huts at 7:15 nightly. Guards with dogs patrolled the wire. Finally the German commandant told Group Capt. H. M. Massey, Commandant, of the shooting.
"Even he seemed to know it was deliberate, for he told Group Capt. Massey it was a Gestapo action and the German air force would take no responsibility for it. The German army and air force themselves are in terror of the Gestapo.
"Our men were deliberately shot. There is no doubt about it in mind and there was no doubt in the minds of other men in the prison camp. Perhaps the Gestapo did it to impose fear on added escape attempts. But it was deliberate and it was murder."

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Escape Plan, For Which 50 Fliers Died, A Masterpiece
FLIERS GESTAPO KILLED DID MAGNIFICENT JOB
Tunneled 16 Months and Even Had Passage Lit Up — Bold Bid for Freedom by Canadians and Others Described by Airman Who Was There

(Winner of the D.F.C. for exploits incidental to running up a record of six enemy planes destroyed, four more probable and three damaged, while a member of the City of Oshawa squadron, Sqdn Ldr. Foss H. Boulton of Coleman Alta.. was recently repatriated from Stalag III, the German prison camp from which 80 airmen escaped, of whom 50 were subsequently killed by Gestapo gunmen.)

By SQDN. LDR. FOSS H. BOULTON, D.F.C.
The news that 50 of our boys had been shot down by enemy guns was received by the rest of us in Stalag III with deathly silence. We were numbed by the shock of the news but gradually that numbness gave way to a kind of terrible fury, The Germans said they were killed when they tried to re-escape after being interrogated at Gurlitz, near Dresden — an explanation which no person in his right mind would even consider.

Step Out, See France
When I was shot down on the afternoon of May 13, 1943, while escorting a group of Flying Fortresses in an attack on the rail junction at Amiens, I certainly could not have imagined the string of events ahead of me which would finally culminate in a first-hand view of one of the most enterprising prison escapes of this war. We were flying at about 25,000 feet when my 2 called to me over the RT, "I've been hit."
I strung my plane to see how he was making out. Smoke was pouring from his starboard exhaust and I shouted back to him "All right boy, I'll get you out." That's about the last thing 1 remember Flak or machine-gun fire from a German I hadn't seen struck my left wing, ripped into my engine and hit me in the head and back.
The control stick went dead in my hands and oil gushed all over my hood. I could not see. I decided to step out and see France. I remember thinking — "so this is it — after 80 sweeps without a bad break."
I just stepped out. Maybe because of lack of oxygen. I went "out" and I don't remember pulling my cord. The next thing I knew I was about 200 feet from the ground. My head was hurting and I realized I had been hit. I landed in a little field near some French peasants.
They did not have much chance to help me. I couldn't get up but in a few minutes some Germans came along with a car and I was taken to a hospital north of Amiens. There, German air force doctors, one of them a graduate of Cambridge university, worked on me, taking out 10 or 11 pieces from my back and out of four wounds in my head.

Lauds Red Cross Food
I was sent to St. Omer hospital and later Capt. Cullen, of Boston, Sgt. Cockaday of London, Ont., and myself were sent by rail into Germany. We came into the outskirts of Cologne at night during an air raid.
For a week we were interrogated, and the food was vastly superior to what we had received at St. Omer. I thought it was a propaganda stunt but found out soon afterward that it was food supplied by the Red Cross. You can't say enough for the Red Cross. They've done a wonderful job for the boys in prisons.
At Obermasfeld, near Kassel, in central Germany, I was treated by a British doctor. Maj. Henderson, to whom I feel I owe my life. I apparently had an abscess starting on my brain and he got it out. Even the Germans admitted he was one of the best men on that kind of work in the world. He had previously been in the Leeds Infirmary.
In November I was sent to Stalag III and lodged in the East Compound. To better understand the magnitude of the escape plan, let me explain that the compound is about a quarter mile square, surrounded by a warning wire, outside of which are two lines of barbed wire six feet in width and about 12 feet high.
The interior space is given over to huts and buildings, each hut housing about 90 men and well equipped with showers, theatre, lecture rooms, etc. An idea of how difficult it would be to get out of the compound may be gained from the fact that 20 foot high machine-gun towers are spaced along all four sides, every eighth of a mile. They are equipped with telephone communication, machine-guns, sten guns searchlights and warning signals of many types.

Tunneled 16 Months
So here's what our boys did: For 16 months they worked by night digging a tunnel. The entrance shaft, which went down 20 feet vertically, was under one of the huts. Some of the boys had worked in Canadian mines - others had been in the mines of South Africa. To them fell the task of engineering the tunnel proper which would run 100 yards or more through sandy soil, to emerge in a forest beyond the roadway which ran across one end of the compound, outside the wire.
The tunnel was to be about four feet square — when they finally turned it upward to the surface, out in the forest, they found they had hit within six feet of their first calculations. That was a real engineering feat. But more they tapped the electric power lines of the hut under which the job started, and strung electric lighting right through that tunnel !
Not only that but they rigged up an air pump out of some old cans to force oxygen into the tunnel to help the men breathe while they worked. Then they fashioned a crude wood railway and built little four-wheel dirt carts to run on it, and so that these carts could pass, while the men worked, "manholes" were gouged out of the sides of the tunnel into which a man could duck. The sandy soil was a problem but the boys overcame that difficulty by bracing the whole interior of the tunnel with wood cribbing, just like in a mine.
I reached Stalag III when the tunnel was about three-quarters finished. The secrecy with which the whole enterprise was shrouded, was beyond anything you've ever read about. The Germans regularly sent their "ferrets" into the huts to check up on facilities and generally see how we were behaving. Also, every week we were herded out on to the sports fields, clearing all the huts while the camp guards made a thorough search for just such escape signs.

Suspense Was Agonizing
The tension on these occasions was terrific and I don't know how all the boys managed to conceal their anxiety so well. But believe it or not, in all these inspections, the Germans never once uncovered a give-away sign of any kind, so skillfully had our men concealed the mouth of the tunnel under that hut !
Finally came the night of March 24. It was a clear evening with about a half moon and no wind. It was quiet — almost too quiet. The boys who were to make the break had been selected by a draw from a hat Men not so "fortunate," who happened to be lodged in that particular hut, moved quietly into other huts while the escapees took their places.
At 9 o'clock the signal was given. In little groups our men wormed through to the tunnel exit — made their breaks into the forest. Having previously been tagged for repatriation, I naturally was not one of those selected to make the break, but I'll never forget the awful tension of that night.
Minutes passed like hours — hours like years — every nerve keyed for the dreaded alarm siren that would signal defeat after all these months of meticulous preparation. We lay in the darkness and waited — l0 o'clock, 11— midnight. Still all was quiet above ground — while down in the tunnel our buddies edged forward, ready for freedom, or death from a machine-gun bullet.

80 Attempted Break
At 5 o'clock in the morning it happened. A lone sentry, patrolling the forest with his dog, heard something. In no time at all sirens began wailing, searchlights sweeping away the blackness of the forest. Machine-guns rattled. Some of the boys who had been last to leave the tunnel's mouth were caught almost immediately and led back to the jail within the compound. We had no chance to speak with them. Others of the 80 who made the break were picked up farther afield. As the days went by, all were moved from local jails to Gurlitz near Dresden, for questioning by the Gestapo.
We who had remained back in the compound could only wait numbly and hope for the best. I cannot describe the state of mind of our prison guards and the German camp commandant. They were simply stunned by the magnitude of the escape plans now revealed. But as days went by and no word came, life began to resume its usual course. Until Thursday, April 4 — the day before Good Friday.

Gestapo — Not Luftwaffe
That day the German commandant called our senior officer Grp.-Capt. Massey (since repatriated son of Vincent Massey) and told him that 47 of our boys had been killed. He inferred to Grp.-Capt. Massey that it was the Gestapo who had done the shooting, and not the Luftwaffe, as was later confirmed. The news was received by our boys in deathly silence. All sports in the compound just automatically ceased. We called that day "Black Thursday" and I guess it will always be just that for us.
On Good Friday we had our own memorial parade and an impressive service following roll call parade. I remember one of the German camp officers who had always called the roll and knew many of the dead boys personally as a result. He told us he just couldn't believe the shooting had happened. He was simply dumbfounded. Most of the Germans were shaken almost as badly as we were.
Apparently the shootings had occurred about March 31 — but no one among us will ever accept the explanation that it was necessary because our lads tried to re-escape. I'll never forget the spirit of those boys — some had even joked when they prepared to enter the tunnel — grinned and told us "we'll he sending you boys letters before long.

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SLAVES IN REICH HELP FLIERS FLEE

Madrid, July 4, 1944 — (AP) — The German newspaper Deutsche Allgemeine Zeitung said in a recent issue that foreign workers in Germany are helping Allied airmen escape by providing them with civilian clothing, food and even their own credentials.
So frequently has this happened that an official notice has been issued warning the public that unauthorized persons approaching fallen planes and parachutes will be shot.

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NOTE: Clipping in biographical file has his remarks to Rotary Club in Ottawa in which he praised Red Cross for food parcels to POWs. "He had a taste of the German black bread which he called 'solidified sawdust'."

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--- Canadian Aces ---

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