Remarkable story of WWII RAF Pocklington navigator told by his son
The remarkable story of an RAF Pocklington navigator shot down over Germany; becoming a POW, escaping then recaptured twice, and finally surviving the 1945 ‘Death March’; was told poignantly by his son when the 102 Squadron Association came together for its annual reunion.
Harry Barratt was a young sergeant navigator from Staffordshire.
He trained in Canada and Scotland, then was posted for active service in Yorkshire.
Returning from an RAF Pocklington night-time mission in 1943, his 102 Halifax bomber was hit by enemy fire.
Harry and two colleagues parachuted to safety, but the four other crew members did not get out alive.
Harry was taken prisoner and spent two years at Stalag Luft I, VI and IV, escaping twice and being recaptured.
Then at the end of the war he came through the ‘Death March’ – a forced trek of hundreds of miles across a frozen German landscape in atrocious conditions.
Harry only told his son a little of his experiences, good and bad; but Martin Barratt’s 25 years of meticulous research, including speaking to over 40 of his father’s wartime associates, prompted a well-written, intriguing and moving book describing how resilience and luck saw some survive the conflict while so many perished.
A spokesperson said: “102 Squadron Association, the organisation that continues to keep alive the memory of the RAF Pocklington base squadron, held another busy annual reunion weekend in Pocklington.
“The association’s core membership is now families of those who operated from Pocklington 1942-45; but a special tribute was paid to veteran Arnold Bell, a 102 squadron air gunner who died a few weeks ago in Northumberland aged 101.
“Association members attended squadron memorials at Pocklington's Beckside medical centre, the town cemetery and at Wolds Gliding Club; plus visited Driffield where 102 was based before it moved to Pocklington in 1942. They also went to church at Barmby Moor and laid a wreath at the Commonwealth War Graves in the churchyard afterward.
“The association also held its annual dinner on Saturday evening when Martin Barratt used his father’s story relate the wider part that Bomber Command played in World War II, the extreme perils of serving in the RAF, and the treatment endured by thousands prisoners of war.”
Martin Barratt’s book – The Greatest Escape, A Bomber Command Navigator's Story of Survival in Nazi Germany – is published by Pen & Sword Books, £25, and available via: https://www.pen-and-sword.co.uk/The-Greatest-Escape-Hardback/p/23128