James Alexander Graham "Dixie" Deans MBE (25 January 1914 – 18 February 1989) was a

Royal Air Force The Royal Air Force (RAF) is the Air force, air and space force of the United Kingdom, British Overseas Territories and Crown Dependencies. It was formed towards the end of the World War I, First World War on 1 April 1918, on the merger of t ...

sergeant and

Second World War World War II or the Second World War (1 September 1939 – 2 September 1945) was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War II, Allies and the Axis powers. World War II by country, Nearly all of the wo ...

bomber pilot shot down in 1940 who became a renowned

prisoner of war A prisoner of war (POW) is a person held captive by a belligerent power during or immediately after an armed conflict. The earliest recorded usage of the phrase "prisoner of war" dates back to 1610. Belligerents hold prisoners of war for a ...

(POW) camp leader. Deans spoke perfect German and when captured commanded his fellow POWs as the elected camp leader, gaining the respect and trust of both prisoners and German captors alike. In 1945, he guided 2,000 Allied POWs across Europe in what was known as the 'Long March'. On 10 September 1940, Deans (of 77 Squadron) took off from Linton-on-Ouse in a Whitley bomber to attack

Bremen Bremen (Low German also: ''Breem'' or ''Bräm''), officially the City Municipality of Bremen (, ), is the capital of the States of Germany, German state of the Bremen (state), Free Hanseatic City of Bremen (), a two-city-state consisting of the c ...

. His aircraft was hit by flak and crash-landed at Venebrugge (Overijssel), east north-east of

Zwolle Zwolle () is a List of cities in the Netherlands by province, city and Municipalities of the Netherlands, municipality in the Northeastern Netherlands. It is the Capital city, capital of the Provinces of the Netherlands, province of Overijssel ...

, Holland. Deans was imprisoned first at

Stalag Luft I Stalag Luft I was a German World War II prisoner-of-war (POW) camp near Barth, Western Pomerania, Germany, for captured Allied airmen. The presence of the prison camp is said to have shielded the town of Barth from Allied bombing. About 9,000 ...

, then moved to

Stalag Luft III Stalag Luft III (; literally "Main Camp, Air, III"; SL III) was a ''Luftwaffe''-run prisoner-of-war (POW) camp during the Second World War, which held captured Western Allied air force personnel. The camp was established in March 1942 near th ...

, where as camp leader he held meetings with the Germans on behalf of the NCO POWs. He was then transferred to

Stalag Luft VI Macikai POW and GULAG Camps is the complex of prisoner-of-war camp and forced labor camps located near the village og Macikai (Matzicken) in German-occupied Lithuania and later, the Lithuanian SSR. The camp was opened and operated by Nazi German ...

at Heydekrug in Memelland, now

Lithuania Lithuania, officially the Republic of Lithuania, is a country in the Baltic region of Europe. It is one of three Baltic states and lies on the eastern shore of the Baltic Sea, bordered by Latvia to the north, Belarus to the east and south, P ...

. As at his previous camps, he set up covert intelligence gathering networks and the use of radios built in the camps obtained through bribery of selected guards. This enabled the POWs to keep up to date with events from the

BBC The British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) is a British public service broadcaster headquartered at Broadcasting House in London, England. Originally established in 1922 as the British Broadcasting Company, it evolved into its current sta ...

. He was also responsible for helping to organise the passing of secret information to

MI9 MI9, the British Directorate of Military Intelligence Section 9, was a secret department of the War Office between 1939 and 1945. During World War II it had two principal tasks: assisting in the escape of Allied prisoners of war (POWs) held b ...

via specially coded letters. In March 1945, Deans took charge of 2,000 POWs on a month-long march across Poland and Germany in what became known as one of the 'Long Marches' to

Stalag XI-B Stalag XI-B and Stalag XI-D / 357 were two German World War II prisoner-of-war camps ('' Stammlager'') located just to the east of the town of Fallingbostel in Lower Saxony, in north-western Germany. The camps housed Polish, French, Belgian, So ...

Fallingbostel Bad Fallingbostel (Northern Low Saxon: ''Bad Fambossel'') is the district town (''Kreisstadt'') of the Heidekreis, Heidekreis district in the Germany, German state of Lower Saxony. Since 1976 the town has had a state-recognised Kneipp spa and ha ...

. From there, Deans and the thousands of POWs were marched north-east towards

Lübeck Lübeck (; or ; Latin: ), officially the Hanseatic League, Hanseatic City of Lübeck (), is a city in Northern Germany. With around 220,000 inhabitants, it is the second-largest city on the German Baltic Sea, Baltic coast and the second-larg ...

. Deans took charge of the daily details of survival on the march and bullied the Germans left in charge for food, transport for the sick, and for better overnight accommodation. He also demanded that the German commandant, Oberst Ostmann, allow him to set off to warn the approaching British armies of the POW columns ahead. He made contact with the British Army and on returning guided his men to safety where he accepted Oberst Ostmann's surrender.The Last Escape – John Nichol, Tony Rennell – 2002 Penguin UK
When Deans returned home to England, he found work as an executive officer at the

London School of Economics The London School of Economics and Political Science (LSE), established in 1895, is a public research university in London, England, and a member institution of the University of London. The school specialises in the social sciences. Founded ...

, until he retired in 1977. Shortly after the war, Deans was diagnosed with

multiple sclerosis Multiple sclerosis (MS) is an autoimmune disease resulting in damage to myelinthe insulating covers of nerve cellsin the brain and spinal cord. As a demyelinating disease, MS disrupts the nervous system's ability to Action potential, transmit ...

, which he fought for the rest of his life. Deans was awarded the MBE. Deans was a founder member and first president of the RAF Ex-POW Association; he is also listed as a contributor to

Cornelius Ryan Cornelius Ryan (5 June 1920 – 23 November 1974) was an Irish journalist and author known mainly for writing popular military history. He was especially known for his histories of World War II events: '' The Longest Day: 6 June 1944 D-Day'' (19 ...

's book ''

The Last Battle ''The Last Battle'' is a portal fantasy novel written by British author C. S. Lewis, published by The Bodley Head in 1956. It was the seventh and final novel in ''The Chronicles of Narnia'' (1950–1956). Like the other novels in the series, ...

''.

References

External links

POW life Stalag VIEvacuation of Fallinbostel POW camp – April 1945
{{DEFAULTSORT:Deans, James 1914 births 1989 deaths Royal Air Force personnel of World War II British World War II pilots British World War II bomber pilots English aviators Members of the Order of the British Empire World War II prisoners of war held by Germany Shot-down aviators

See also

References

Further reading

External links