Stalag Luft III

10/09/2023

🇳🇿WWII uncovered: In Memoriam: Honouring the Life and Service of Phyllis "Pippa" Latour Heroine of the SOE

It is with deepest sadness that we have learned of the passing of Phyllis "Pippa" Latour Doyle at the age of 102 years old.

Born in South Africa on 8 April 1921, Phyllis "Pippa" Latour was an orphan by the age of 3 years old. Adopted by her French father's cousin, Pippa relocated to England in 1939 to finish her education. In November of 1941 she joined the Women’s Auxiliary Air Force (WAAF) as a flight mechanic for airframes.

"They took a group of about 20 of us away for training. It was unusual training – not what I expected, and very hard. It wasn't until after my first round of training that they told me they wanted me to become a member of the SOE. They said I could have three days to think about it. I told them I didn't need three days to make a decision - I'd take the job now." - Phyllis "Pippa" Latour Doyle - Stuff New Zealand November 25, 2014 interview

Latour officially joined the Special Operations Executive on 1 November 1943 and was commissioned as an Honorary Section Officer.

According to the New Zealand Army News: "She parachuted into Orne, Normandy on 1 May 1944 to operate as part of the Scientist circuit, using the codename Genevieve. Pippa worked as a wireless operator with Resistance member Claude de Baissac, or “Denis,” who was also a southern-African, and of Mauritian origin, and his sister Lisé de Baissac (the courier). Denis had to plug gaps in the SOE’s northern France operations caused by double agents and lay the groundwork for an anticipated Allied landing. For Pippa’s cover story, De Baissac had forged papers showing she had left Paris to study painting. Within days of dropping into France, Latour made contact with London, using a safe house belonging to a doctor, before shifting to de Baissac’s farmhouse headquarters."

"Word got back to the network that an informer was among the resistance group who collected Pippa and that the Germans had discovered her parachute. Forced to move, Pippa, who by now was working closely with de Baissac’s sister Lise, known as “Odile,” fled on a bicycle and set up in a barn. Using radio sets hidden round the countryside, Latour sent a stream of coded reports to London." - Squadron Leader Beryl E. Escott, Mission Improbable: A salute to the RAF women of SOE in wartime France

"Small of stature, Latour, who was fluent in French, posed as a teenage girl whose family had moved to the region to escape the Allied bombing. She rode bicycles around the area, selling soap and chatting with German soldiers. When she obtained any military intelligence, she encoded it for transmitting using one-time codes that were hidden on a piece of silk that she used to tie up her hair. At one point, she was brought in for questioning, but the German authorities did not think to examine her hair tie, and she was released." (Beryl E. Escott et. al)

Following the war, Phyllis married Patrick Doyle, an Australian engineer. The couple relocated to Kenya, then Fiji, Australia and eventually settling in Auckland New Zealand. Pippa and Patrick had four children.

A highly decorated veteran of World War II, Phyllis Latour Doyle was honored with the Member of the Order of the British Empire, Croix de Guerre 1939–1945, France and Germany Star, Defense Medal and on 25 November 2014 she was awarded the Legion of Honor, France’s highest military honor.

Please join us in honouring Section Officer Phyllis Latour Doyle for a lifetime of dedicated service. Lest We Forget.



WWII uncovered©️ description and photos sourced by New Zealand Army News, Squadron Leader Beryl E. Escott, Mission Improbable: A salute to the RAF women of SOE in wartime France, London, Patrick Stevens Limited, 1991 and Stuff New Zealand November 25, 2014 interview. (Fair Use Photos)

10/08/2023

Black Week, October 8-14 must have been hell for US airmen. The losses were so great, it must have forced the men to wonder if their trial as airmen was simply a blood bath, because no one was safe in the skies over Germany. Over a thousand men were lost. Some killed in action, many became POWs and others made the stressful and dangerous journey home as evadees. The Mighty Eighth lost so many aircraft, the had to rebuild, due to their losses. We must never forget their courage and strength to do the impossible against and over N**i Germany.

09/21/2019

For the last few weeks I have compiled a database of some 600 men that flew 60 airplanes that went down on the second mission to bomb Schweinfurt and the ball bearing factory there on 14 October 1943. Just finished most of the research. And need to finish up research on the evadees.

08/27/2019

Presently, my work is building an exhibit on the 14 October 1943, the 2nd mission to Schweinfurt. Some 60 B-17,s went down that day taking about 600 men with them. Some evaded, others were KIA and approximately 594 became POWs.

01/03/2018

As the war turned against the Germans, the conditions for the prisoners was dire. The Fuhrer’s emphatic statement, “No prisoners of war would fall into the hands of the enemy, the Allies,” was an earnest proclamation.

On the morning of January 27th Hi**er ordered, "the prisoners would not be moved." Later that evening, the order was repealed. Around seven o’clock that evening, the men were told to ready themselves for evacuation.

At eleven o’clock, the forced march of South Compound, out of Stalag Luft III, began. Some 2,000 prisoners broke trail for the 8,000 that followed in the next seven hours. Below freezing temperatures, blowing snow on top of the six-to-ten inches made the 27-hour forced march oppressive.

In the weeks that followed January of 1945, an estimated two hundred forty thousand prisoners marched away from their camps with the advance of the Allies – the Russian onslaught in the east and the British and American assault on west.

These forced marches in the brutal winter months of 1945 found Allied prisoners marching countless miles without food and shelter, and with the potential of being strafed by their own Air Force. When finally the Third and Last Reich foundered in a cloud of putrid dust, some 250,000 British, Commonwealth and American prisoners marched briskly out of the ruins.

–The Last Escape / Stalag Luft III, The Secret Story.

11/17/2017

Hal Halstead/Ed Kasner/Leland Karpe
With the Wars’ Voices work, many serendipitous, or some would say divine intervention occurs. At a Stalag Luft III reunion in Kansas City, we invited a couple to dine with us. It was their first reunion. Hal Halstead and his wife, Marie, Tom Thomas and myself, and our new friends Ed Kasner and his wife joined us.

Hal being curious asked, Ed, what bomb group were you with? The 95th, he replied. So was I, said Hal. What day were you shot down? August 16, 1944, Ed stated. Hal retorted, So was I. Then Hal asked Ed, Who was your co-pilot? Lee Karpe, he answered. Hal and Marie’s faces contorted and they looked back and forth at each other in astonishment. Lee was Hal’s best friend and was killed that day. For years he spoke about Lee to Marie. The research continues.

This photo represents Hal's crew on August 16, 1944, on a mission to Seitz when they were shot down. The co-pilot, this was his second mission. The nine crew members are:
Pilot: 2nd Lt. Donald Severson
Co-pilot: 2nd Lt. Hal Halstead
Navigator: 2nd Lt. James Gregory
Bombardier: 2nd Lt. Irving Hurst
Top turret gunner/engineer: Sgt. James Kelley
Radio operator: Sgt. Robert Miguet
Ball turret gunner: Sgt. Michael Massinello
Waist gunner: Sgt. Leonard Livoti
Tail gunner: Sgt. Edward Yursky

This photo is from - http://95thbg.org/j3migr/

11/07/2017

My dear friend Jack Kappmeyer had short duty with the 306th BG, 367th Bomb Squadron. He arrived in England in July of 1943, and departed on October 14, 1943 on the second Schweinfurt mission, a strategic bombing raid on the ball bearing factories. Called Black Thursday, 60 US aircraft went down that day, taking some six hundred men with them. Captured in a farmer’s field outside of Wurtzburg, Jack was drug by his chute, hitting a wagon then pulled underneath. Captured by German soldiers, Jack was told to kneel in a ditch with his hands behind his head. They intended to kill him. In a nearby field, a farmer started yelled something at the soldiers because he had a young child with him. The boy would have witnessed Jack’s ex*****on. Instead the soldiers slapped the farmer around, and marched him, at gunpoint, down the roadway, leaving the child crying in the field.

09/16/2017

Today my writings brought to mind the many life lessons learned from the men and women that served during this worldwide conflict. How many of you are grateful for what you learned from these folks? Please share your lessons.

09/15/2017

For the last months my work has been writing about men held at this camp. The recordings of these men provide me with a great deal of information and then it must be confirmed. The most difficult part is when you learn from another source just how remarkably difficult this journey was for them.

08/02/2017

For many years, I have been affiliated with men from Stalag Luft III, the Great Escape camp of WWII fame, and am an honorary member of that organization, for the oral histories that I have completed with these men. Stalag Luft III is combining efforts with the 100th Bomb Group for a reunion on October 19-22, 2017 in Herndon, Virginia. Please visit: https://100thbg.com/ for information about the reunion.

A registration packet can be downloaded from the 100th BG Foundation website listed above. Please look at the program and schedule as it is full of interesting opportunities for learning. Also, please share this information with anyone you feel may be interested in attending. Thanks!

The site search at the top of each main page searches articles, photos, videos, crew information pages, etc. The site search does not search the database. Use the site search to find general information that is not included in the database.

11/11/2015

Thanking all Veteran's for your service.