The day Arthur's war was over

To mark the diamond anniversary, he will be reunited with another surviving member of the aircrew, Arne Storm. Remarkably, it will be the first time they have met since they were in a German prisoner of war camp.

The pair were part of an RAF Pathfinder crew. The Pathfinders were an elite group of airmen who went ahead of the bombers to drop flares and markers on the targets.

It was a hugely dangerous undertaking. The riskiest job of all was to be primary marker, the very first in. On the fateful December night, wireless operator Arthur's crew were the primary markers for a raid on Berlin.

This was their 21st op, an impressive feat. The average for Pathfinder crews was fewer than half a dozen sorties.

"The funny thing was, before going on an op I never felt it was going to be my last," Arthur said.

They set off in their Halifax from the base of 35 Squadron, Graveley in Cambridgeshire, at 16.53hrs. As they approached Osnabruck he felt the aircraft shudder violently as it was hit by flak.

"Next thing, I am looking out of the starboard window, and there are flames coming out of the engine."

He went up to the pilot, a Norwegian called Olly Hoverstadt. Olly had already spotted the flames. Flight engineer Arne, another Norwegian, lifted the hatch of the bomb bay and was immediately engulfed in smoke.

"I said to Olly, 'I'm going to go'," Arthur recalled. "I went down, but I couldn't budge the hatch. I had to chop it open. "Arne had gone. He had seen what had happened and buggered off before I did."

The next moment Arthur was falling through the night air. "I saw the aircraft going down and down out of sight." He knew that Olly had pledged to stay with the plane and aim it at a German target if it were hit.

As Arthur drifted on his parachute towards an unknown destiny, he tore up his money and anything else that would identify him as English then he "hit the ground with a crack".

"I roared like a kid for a few minutes. I moved one arm then another, and then my legs and I realised I hadn't broken anything. Then I had a cigarette."

By chance, Arthur met up with another member of his aircrew on the ground. They made a valiant attempt to avoid capture, but were forced to give themselves up because his friend was too badly injured to go on.

Arthur was taken to Stalag Luft in Frankfurt. He spent both Christmas Day and his birthday during a 21-day spell in solitary confinement. When he was brought before a German officer for interrogation, it was almost a relief to have someone to talk to, although Arthur gave away no more than his name, rank and serial number.

"He could speak perfect English," Arthur said. "He knew all about York - more than I did. And I got a few cigarettes."

Finally he was transferred to a prisoner of war camp, Stalag IVB, not far from Dresden. It was to be his home from January 1944 to May 1945.

"The first three months are the worst. You are a bit lonely and a bit depressed.

"But there was plenty to do. You could go to the library, learn languages, all sorts of courses you could do. There were social events: men dressed as women doing plays in the huts."

Prisoners were also kept abreast of the news. Hidden somewhere in the camp was a wireless, and every night a senior allied officer would visit each hut and brief everyone on the latest developments in the war.

Various escape attempts were made, but no one was out for long. A tunnel was discovered and filled in. One man was smuggled through the gates hidden under a cart-load of tins; and Arthur's friend Arne ran off from a party of inmates chopping wood. Both were recaptured.

Eventually the surviving prisoners were liberated by the Russian army.

Even then, it was a difficult and protracted journey home. But in May 1945 he was back in York. Arthur Briggs' war was over.

It had begun soon after hostilities were declared, when he had volunteered to join the RAF, enticed by the glamour of airmen he met in the Punch Bowl and Star pubs in Stonegate, York. His training had taken him to 76 Squadron at RAF Holme-on-Spalding-Moor before he was selected for the Pathfinders.

Nine days after being repatriated, Arthur married his sweetheart, Eve. They are still together, living in the Rawcliffe Lane area of the city.

Theirs was a remarkable courtship. But that is another story. It is told in full as part of a compelling biography of Mr Briggs entitled Flightpath to Stalag IVB. The author, Audrey James, was also responsible for putting Arthur and Arne back in touch. For several years, every December 2 the former comrades have toasted each other and absent friends with a whisky over the phone.

Audrey, who had already written a biography of her father-in-law, Ernie James, took on Arthur's story when she met his daughter Vanda who ran the Red Lion in Knapton.

That is the venue for tomorrow night's amazing reunion, when 85-year-old Arne will see his old comrade and friend Arthur again for the first time in nearly six decades. Finally they can conduct their toast in person.

Audrey has written a wonderfully evocative account of wartime joy and heartache, courage and tragedy. She was as astonished by Arthur's war story as readers will be. "I still can't get over the fact that this gentle, unassuming man had a past like this," she said.

His adventures will also be news to the many friends Arthur and Eve made during their 35-year stint running the Bay Horse, Marygate, from 1951. He had kept most of his memories to himself before Audrey coaxed them from him.

Arthur is amazed at how much he remembered, both of the nightmare of war and the remarkable friendships it forged. "You were one big happy family," he said.

Flightpath To Stalag IVB: the story of WO Arthur Briggs, RAF by Audrey James costs £9.95. It is on sale at the Red Lion, Knapton, York, at the Yorkshire Air Museum, Elvington, via the website www.flightpathtostalag4b.com or by telephoning (01904) 792767; p&p is £2

Updated: 09:46 Monday, December 01, 2003