Sean Feast discusses 'Airman, Prisoner, Saviour Spy' with TRE's Giles Brown

Stanley Booker volunteered for aircrew at the age of 18 and qualified as an observer, flying operations with 10 Squadron in the summer of 1944. Shot down just before D-Day, he was betrayed to the Gestapo and imprisoned in Fresnes, the notorious gaol on the outskirts of Paris, where he was subjected to a brutal interrogation and torture at the hands of the SS. His experiences troubled him for the rest of his life. Rather than being treated as a prisoner of war, Stanley was one of 168 airmen transported to Buchenwald Concentration camp to await execution as ‘Terror Flyers’, only to be saved at the eleventh house by the intervention of the Luftwaffe. On his ultimate return to England no-one wanted to believe where he had been or what he had seen. So began an 80-year battle with the authorities to prove what had happened, and to receive the recognition which he and his fellow prisoners were due, as well as ensuring those servicemen who had died or were murdered in the camp were properly commemorated.Catch Giles live - 'Let's Talk' - Monday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday - from 10.00CET...on tre.radio