Captured!

Interviewer: What was your impression of those German soldiers that took you into custody? Well, I had never seen one like that before and surprisingly enough, one of them spoke very good English. So, they came over to me anyway and I stood up and they had fired a couple shots over my head but all I had was that little dinky revolver, so I didn't even draw it. And I put my hands up and they came over and one fellow pulled the revolver out of my holster and opened it up and there were no bullets in it! They laughed. That kind of broke the ice. I think I was their friend from then on. So they were pretty good to me. They were, this was part of the Herman Goring Panzer Division. So they weren't bad, but they gave me something to eat that night and drove around in a truck. The next day, they apologized. They turned me over to the Italians, who were doing a lot of menial chores out there, like guarding prisoners and driving trucks. And I was put in with a bunch of, oh 50 or more, prisoners that they had picked up. I guess at the time, I was maybe the only air force one, the rest were all army guys. Interviewer: What was your impression of the Italians? Oh they were...they weren't cruel, but they were lackadaisical. They'd go around singing at night and that's the first time I heard that Lili Marleen song was sung by an Italian guard one night , wandering around. And they, they had us sitting around for a day or two in the dessert and we had no water and no food, and eventually.... They had told me when I was captured, the Germans said "What's your rank?" I just had a shirt on, I had no badges or rank or anything, no pay book. I didn't have anything on me and I said, "I'm a sergeant." "Oh, no." he said ."A man that hunts alone, he's, he's a flying officer," he said. Anyways, I didn't argue with him. After sitting in the dessert for a couple of days, a couple of trucks came along and they said, "Officers on the truck, Other ranks will walk." So I decided they were right, I was an officer. From then on, I stayed an officer right through prison camp. But anyway, you didn't take, you didn't have to be too bright to figure that out, so.

Mr. Spear recollects being picked up by German soldiers after a belly landing in the desert, and being turned over to the Italians to be interned.

Allen Maxwell Spear

Mr. Spear lived in Sussex, New Brunswick, before attending Business College in Saint John - he worked in Bathurst, New Brunswick, for a number of years before joining up. Mr. Spear had not enjoyed his Army camp experience in high school and was attracted to joining the Air Force, particularly as a fighter pilot, because of the recognition the Air Force was receiving in the Battle of Britain. He joined as soon as the Air Force lowered the education requirements to high school which allowed him to qualify. After much basic and initial flight training, Mr. Spear was excited to begin Spitfire training in England in fall 1941. In early 1942, he was stationed to North Africa. The camp locations changed often as the RAF and German Air Forces leapfrogged back and forth across the desert. A few months later (July 1, 1942), his engine gave out during a mission. He landed his plane behind German lines, was captured as a POW, and was shipped to Sulmona, Italy for internment. In September 1943, when the Italians capitulated, the POWs at the Sulmona camp escaped. Mr. Spear, along with two other Canadian POWs managed to escape by travelling along the mountains, avoiding the valleys where they were more likely to run into Germans, until they met up with other Canadian troops in November 1943. After being shipped back to England, Mr. Spear was returned to Canada to serve as a Staff Pilot at a Bombing and Gunnery School in Mountainview, Ontario. A post he held until the end of the War, at which time he was discharged.