Orders, Decorations, Medals and Militaria

A superb Second War escaper’s M.C. group of four awarded to Warrant Officer S. K. Gordon-Powell, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, who, on the occasion that his Halifax was shot down by Germany’s top scoring night-fighter ace, Leutnant Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer, over Belgium in June 1943, was fortunate to survive - evading capture until betrayed in Paris and imprisoned in Stalag IVB. After five escape attempts and the threat of execution if caught once more, he immediately began plans for his sixth - a successful bid for freedom via Berlin and occupied Denmark in March 1945

Military Cross, G.VI.R., reverse officially dated ‘1946’, and additionally engraved ‘W/O 1332785 S. K. Gordon Powell 35 Sqdn RAF’, in Royal Mint case of issue; 1939-45 Star; Air Crew Europe Star; War Medal 1939-45; together with the related miniature awards, good very fine (4) £1,800-£2,200

Just 68 Military Crosses (and one Second Award Bar) were awarded to Royal Air Force personnel in the Second World War.

M.C. London Gazette 8 March 1946:
‘On the night of 28th June, 1943, Warrant Officer Gordon-Powell was the navigator of a bomber aircraft that was shot down over Liege. He at once took steps to evade capture and joined up with some members of an underground movement who attempted to take him to Bordeaux. Whilst passing through Paris, the party was ambushed and Warrant Officer Gordon-Powell was arrested by the Gestapo and sent to Stalag IVB. During his captivity, covering a period of nearly two years, he made several attempts to escape. On four occasions he managed to travel some miles from the camp and only by experiencing bad luck was he recaptured. His fifth effort was made in company with another prisoner in January, 1945. Both managed to reach Berlin, having secured civilian clothing and, posing as French workers, they ultimately reached the Danish frontier where, owing to a dense blizzard, they inadvertently walked into a German customs guard who arrested them. Warrant Officer Gordon-Powell was sent back to Stalag IVB where he was told that if he attempted to escape again he would be shot. In spite of this threat, he made a sixth effort on 21st March, 1945. With the same companion who accompanied him on the previous attempt, he again reached Berlin. Here the two escapers made contact with a Dutch doctor who fed and hid them for two days. Both subsequently travelled by train to the Danish frontier which they crossed by wading through a swamp which almost enveloped them. After walking some miles into Denmark they sought refuge with a resistance movement the members of which facilitated their passage to Sweden. Both reached Helsingborg where they were met by the Danish Vice-Consul who arranged for their journey to Stockholm in April, 1945.’

Stanley Kiran Gordon-Powell was born in Foxford, County Mayo, Ireland in 1923, of an Irish mother and an English Father, who was awarded an M.C. at Gallipoli with the Royal Artillery. Educated at Stonyhurst College, he enlisted in the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve on 3 February 1941 and was posted to Canada and, subsequently, Maxwell Field, Alabama where he qualified as an Air Navigator on 27 September 1942. He joined No. 10 Squadron, based at R.A.F. Melbourne, Yorkshire, in the rank of Flight Sergeant, on 24 March 1943, completing eleven sorties over Germany as a Navigator before being transferred in June 1943, with his crew, to No. 35 (Madras Presidency) Squadron, a Pathfinder unit. After completing a further four successful bombing raids with his new squadron, Gordon-Powell departed from R.A.F. Graveley in Cambridgeshire on the night of 28 June 1943, in Halifax HR812, detailed to bomb and drop marking flares on Cologne. Shot down, 7km north-east of Liege, by German night fighter ace Leutnant Heinz-Wolfgang Schnaufer’s Messerschmidt Bf 110, he managed to bale out at an altitude of almost 10000ft. Gordon-Powell was one of three out of a crew of seven to survive.

Schnaufer was the highest scoring night fighter ace, not only of the Second World War, but in the whole history of aerial warfare. This was his 16th victory of the War. He ended up with 121 confirmed victories, nine of which were achieved in a single night, and was awarded the Knight’s Cross with Oak leaves, swords, and diamonds.

Gordon-Powell linked up with a resistance unit and evaded capture for two months until betrayed and captured by the Gestapo in Paris on 15 July 1943. After being held at Fresnes for a month, he was interrogated at Dalas Luft in September and from there was sent to Stalag Luft IVB. Between September 1943 and January 1945, he made five escape attempts, the last of these, in the company of Private Alfred A.M Kuhn, 1st South African Brigade. Making it as far as the Danish border, in a severe blizzard, they stumbled into a German guard, were arrested and returned to Stalag IVB. Now classed as ‘dangerous’, Gordon-Powell was threatened with being shot if caught escaping again. Nonetheless, after completing his customary spell in solitary confinement, he and Private Kuhn immediately set about planning their next escape attempt, a remarkable story told by Tony Vercoe in Survival at Stalag IVB:
‘New sets of papers were supplied by Sergeant Joe Seddon of the escape committee and their battledress was exchanged for civilian cloth­ing acquired from two Polish internees from Warsaw. They then joined a Dutch work group sent outside the camp. The date was 21 March, 1945.
Leipzig via Riesa was chosen as the route, since Dresden had been severely bombed. At Bitterfeld near Leipzig they were able to spend the night at a French Arbeitslager and received chocolate, raisins and cigarettes from some British prisoners also working there. With help from the French and some good luck they were able to reach a hospital at Berlin where friendly Dutch doctors found both accommodation and Berlin police passes for them.
Colonel R. Sutton-Pratt, then British Military Attaché in Stockholm, recorded their stories for the official records: "These passes did not suffice to get them out of Berlin, however, and before being allowed to buy a ticket for Flensburg, a special pass from the railway police was necessary. After getting to the head of the long queue they were refused, but in the next queue they were successful, although outside there were hundreds of bombed-out people who had been refused and were trying to force their way into the office.
"They bought a ticket direct to Flensburg and travelled via Hamburg­-Neumünster. When they arrived in Flensburg they hoped to make a good contact and found a German Catholic railway worker, who put them up in his house and said he would help them. After trying for two days to board a goods train they left him to find help elsewhere."

Now without food coupons, having eaten nothing for two days and suffering from malnutrition, Kuhn and Gordon-Powell tried their luck first with a German Catholic priest and later with other German people, but all were too afraid to help. They had no option now but to try to cross the frontier with Denmark. Near Niehaus they found this and four other places too heavily guarded, but eventually came to a marshy area, through which after a long struggle they reached a river. They were able to wade this, though it was dark and the water was up to their shoulders. They hoped their wet clothes would not prove a disadvantage next day. They continued walking and by 6 a.m. knew they were in Denmark. Seeing several farms and, tired wet and hungry as they were, they decided to seek help at the nearest.

Colonel Sutton-Pratt: "As they were about to enter the first farm they met the milkman, who looked rather surprised to see them. Kuhn told him they were English, and he pulled them away and told them that the farms but one were owned by Nazis (Volksdeutscher) .
"He showed them the Danish farm, and there they were received with the three words: 'Wash-Eat-Sleep!"' They were given such a breakfast as they had not seen for years, and then went to bed.
"Later in the day a doctor arrived and told them to get ready to leave. They were given Danish identity cards (they had passport photos taken in Berlin) and that night they left on bicycles to Renkeness, where they spent six days on a farm and were received with the greatest kindness. Their ‘rations’ consisted of 10 eggs a day and as much meat, butter, milk and cream as they wanted.”

A difficult and dangerous part of the journey for Gordon-Powell and Kuhn and no less for their helpers, was about to begin. Another doctor called to inform them that arrangements were underway to get them to Copenhagen. Their guides now were two Danes who had apparently escaped from a concentration camp. They had to cross Fyn and take two ferries, on the second of which, between Fyn and Zealand, they passed successfully through a German control check.

Colonel Sutton-Pratt: "In Copenhagen they were told that the underground were making preparations to get them into Sweden. At 6 a.m. on 17 April they went to the harbour and were taken aboard a small craft. They were hidden, together with six Danes, between a double partition in front of the engine.”
"Just before they left, some Germans came on board to search with dogs. Luckily the skipper had washed the decks with ammonia to spoil their sense of smell. The search lasted three-quarters of an hour and they even lifted the floorboards, but even then did not find the escapers.”
"One hour after they left a German patrol boat signalled to them to stop, and a naval officer came on board, had a look round and left. They were then met by a fast motorboat flying the Swedish flag, but manned by Danes, off the Swedish coast near the port of Landskrona. From there they continued their journey in the motorboat along the coast in a northerly direction to Halsingborg, where they landed and shortly afterwards were met by the British Consul who came to the police station where they were interrogated."

Stanley Gordon-Powell: "The whole success of the trip is due to Private Kuhn whose five languages made this trip possible. He employed French, German, Dutch and Italian, all without accent. His fluent German pulled us out of many a tight corner."’

After repatriation, Gordon-Powell was advanced to Warrant Officer on 27 September 1945 and awarded the Military Cross for his evasion and persistent, and ultimately successful, escaping. Released on 10 October 1946, he went on to become a successful businessman with manufacturing interests in West Africa which allowed him to also indulge his passion of race horse ownership; his stable producing over 100 winners on the flat and National Hunt.

Sold together with the recipient’s Navigator’s uniform brevet, Warrant Officer’s sleeve insignia, R.A.F. eagle cap badge and miniature compass; a typed copy of ‘The Frontier Dogs Barked’ by Squadron Leader William Simpson - an unpublished 227 page account of the recipient’s evading and escaping adventures; a quantity of letters written by the recipient and his wife, sent from Nigeria to a Mr and Mrs G R. Cook of Burgess Hill, Sussex; 3 original silk evader’s maps; copied service history and squadron operations records; a quantity of photographs including an original group photograph featuring the recipient; 4 Orders of Service from the recipient’s funeral held in April 2000; and various articles and newspaper cuttings relating to the recipient and other copied research.