FLYETS NAVIGATØR, Sgt. J. H. Paton.

Et halvt år senere, november 1999, kom der ganske uventet oplysninger om flyets navigatør, Sgt J. H. Paton, fra Søren Flensted. Doris Paton, Toronto i Canada, enke efter John Herbert Paton, havde sendt et brev med fotos og forskellige oplysninger, som Flensted stillede til rådighed. Doris Paton har senere givet mange oplysninger.

Materialet indeholdt kopier af breve fra Ida Agersted, enke efter politimester A. Agersted, Aabenraa, et fotografi af F/O J. H. Paton, og billeder fra Stalag Luft III, samt en beretning om hans oplevelser. Beretningen er skrevet af præsten i familiens sogn i Toronto. Den er skrevet til fortælling for menighedens børn ved kirkens årlige Remembrance Day den 3. november 1993. Præsten viste samtidig børnene udløserhåndtaget til den faldskærm, der reddede Sgt. J. H. Paton den 24. april 1942.

Beretningen, som præsten har skrevet, lyder således:

Det, I ser her, er et håndtag, som man bruger, når man skal åbne en faldskærm. En faldskærm er en slags paraply, som man bruger, når man skal springe ud fra et fly. Faldskærmen tager farten af faldet, så man kan nå uskadt ned på jorden. Dette håndtag har tilhørt John. Hans enke, Doris, har lånt mig det, så jeg kunne vise jer det og fortælle jer hans historie.

For mange år siden var der her i Toronto en dreng, der hed John. Da han var en ung mand, blev der en stor krig, som man kalder Anden Verdenskrig. John meldte sig frivilligt til Det Canadiske Flyvevåben RCAF. Det betød, at han skulle rejse langt bort fra Toronto til fjerne lande på den anden side af Atlanterhavet.

John blev flyver. Da han engang var på togt over Danmark, blev hans fly beskudt af fjenden. Det blev slemt beskadiget, og John var klar over, at de ville styrte ned. Men inden styrtet nåede John at springe ud med sin faldskærm. Med dette håndtag åbnede John faldskærmen, og han slap uskadt ned på jorden i fjendeland.

John skyndte sig at skjule sin faldskærm. Han håbede, at ingen skulle opdage ham. Han skilte sig også af med alt andet, som kunne afsløre ham. Af en eller anden grund beholdt han dette håndtag. John havde et landkort på sig, så han kunne se, hvor han var i Danmark. Men han havde ingen mad. I tre nætter gik han i ly af mørket. Om dagen gemte han sig i grøfter og buskadser. Han blev mere og mere sulten, og til sidst måtte han give op. Han søgte hjælp på en gård.

Gårdmanden og hans kone og deres børn tog godt imod John. Børnene var meget glade for at have John i deres hjem. Canadiske soldater var højt ansete og respekterede i lande, som var besat af Tyskerne. Selv om de virkelig gerne ville have talt sammen, kunne det ikke lade sig gøre, fordi John ikke kunne tale dansk, og bonden og hans kone og børn kunne ikke tale engelsk. Men børnenes lærer i skolen kunne tale engelsk. Med hans hjælp talte de sammen og hørte om hinanden.

Alt imens dette skete, søgte tyskerne efter John. De havde fundet vraget af hans nedstyrtede fly, men da de ikke fandt liget af John i vraget, vidste de, at han måtte være i live. Tyskerne regnede med, at nogle danskere gemte ham et eller andet sted i området. De gennemsøgte gårde og huse og afhørte folk. Derfor turde familien ikke beholde ham. De underrettede det danske politi, og politimesteren hentede John.

John gav politimesteren håndtaget til sin faldskærm, og politimesteren lovede John, at når krigen var forbi, og der igen var fred i verden, skulle politimesteren sende håndtaget til John. Politimesteren gemte håndtaget ved at grave det ned i sin have. Hvad John ikke vidste, var, at politimesteren var ved at oprette en rute, så man i skjul kunne hjælpe allierede flyvere til England. Da tyskerne havde en stor eftersøgning i gang efter John, turde han ikke hjælpe John med at flygte.

John blev krigsfange hos tyskerne; men alt, hvad hans familie vidste, var, at hans fly var blevet skudt ned over fjendtligt område, og at han var savnet, som det hed. Det var i april 1942. Da krigen tre år senere var forbi, fik familien pludselig et telegram, der meddelte, at flyverløjtnant John Herbert Paton, der havde været krigsfange, var blevet befriet og den 10. maj var nået uskadt tilbage til England.

John meddelte sine ”krigsvenner” i Danmark, at han var nået hjem i god behold. Et stykke tid efter modtog han en pakke fra Danmark. I pakken var dette håndtag og et brev fra politimesterens kone.

Her er, hvad fru Ida Agersted skrev i sit brev til John:

”Her sender jeg dig det håndtag, der reddede dit liv, da du styrtede ned her i Sønderjylland for tre et halvt år siden. Jeg er glad for, at du er kommet tilbage til England fra fangelejren i Tyskland.

Min mand, politimester A. Agersted, som lovede at sende håndtaget til dig, når krigen var forbi, blev arresteret af tyskerne i maj 1944. Han var fængslet her i Danmark indtil september 1944. Så blev han sendt til en koncentrationslejr i Tyskland. Der døde han af den tortur og dårlige behandling, han blev udsat for. Det er en stor sorg for os, men vi - min søn og jeg - er stolte over det store arbejde, han udførte for vort land som patriot og modstandsmand.

Han gravede håndtaget ned i vor have for at skjule det for tyskerne. Vi sender det til dig som et minde, nu da krigen er forbi, og jeg vil være glad for at høre fra dig, når du har modtaget det.

Tak til dig og alle allierede for den indsats, I har gjort for vor frihed!”

”Det er præstens version af Johns oplevelser”, skriver Doris Paton, og hun fortsætter: ”John blev budt med ind i klassen på skolen, hvor Lærer Ratzer præsenterede ham for børnene, inden han blev udleveret til tyskerne”.

Landbetjent H. C. Brodersen, Rødekro, skriver i sin rapport, at gårdejer Christian Nielsen, Immervad, ringede og anmeldte, at der hos hans nabo, Marius Christensen, Kogager,    befandt sig en mandsperson, muligvis en engelsk flyver. Da Brodersen ankom, sad flyveren ved bordet i køkkenet. Han var ved at rulle sig en cigaret af avispapir og grovtobak, hvilket dog mislykkedes. Flyveren blev ved at gentage: ”I will be shot!” Han fulgte dog med uden at gøre modstand. Brodersen huskede sin egen tilfangetagelse som tysk soldat i Første Verdenskrig, og han besluttede at opmuntre flyveren lidt. Han kørte derfor til Rise Hjarup skole, idet han vidste, at lærer Ratzer var god til at tale engelsk. Flyveren røg to-tre cerutter, mens de opholdt sig i skolen.

Magnus Christensen, Over Jerstal, fortæller om John H. Paton.

”Vi var færdige med morgenmaden, og far var taget på arbejde. Pludselig så vi en mand komme ind på gårdspladsen. Han så meget forkommen ud, og mor gik ud og hentede ham ind. Han blev anbragt i fars stol for bordenden, og mor satte alt det bedste, hun havde, på bordet til ham. Vi kunne jo ikke tale sammen, men vi klarede os med tegnsprog. Mor sendte en at mine søskende over til naboen med besked om at ringe til politiet. Da politibilen kørte ind på gårdspladsen, dukkede flyveren sig; men så satte han sig op, og han fulgte godvilligt med, da politi Brodersen kom ind i køkkenet for at hente ham. Efter krigen hørte vi, at flyveren var kommet godt hjem efter fangenskabet”.

Viggo Andresen, Hovslund, der var elev i klassen og dengang 12 år, fortæller:

”Lærer Ratzer kom ind til os i klassen med John Paton og politi Brodersen fra Rødekro. Flyveren var en høj flot fyr i blå uniform. Vi stod ret ved vore borde og sang ”Der er et yndigt land” for ham. Han fortalte, at han var blevet skudt ned på vej tilbage til England. Vi stod ude i skolegården og råbte hurra for ham, da politi Brodersen kørte med ham. Bagefter skrev nogle af os stil om begivenheden. Vi brændte kladderne og stilene i kakkelovnen. Lærer Ratzer sagde, at det ikke var så godt at have for meget liggende om den slags. Vi skulle heller ikke snakke om det, sagde han”.

Lærer Andreas Ratzer var førstelærer ved Rise Hjarup skole.

Andreas Ratzer har skrevet en beretning om begivenheden. Han fortæller:

”Skolen begyndte kl. 7. Midt i timen bankede det på døren. Det var politibetjent Brodersen fra Rødekro med en canadisk flyver, som han af tyskerne havde fået ordre til at hente. Han ville gerne have lidt at vide af ham, før vi afleverede ham til tyskerne. Derfor kom Brodersen med ham. Jeg skulle være tolk.

Jeg hentede landkort fra skolen ind i vor stue, og Brodersen viste John, hvor de andre flyvere var blevet fanget. Deres fly var skudt i brand over Tyskland. Da de ikke turde flyve ud over havet til England, prøvede de at flyve til Sverige, men branden blev for slem. John fik ordre til at springe som nummer to. Han landede i en mose nær Bolderslev, hvor han pakkede sin faldskærm sammen og gemte den under en busk. Så vandrede han nordpå efter Sverige om natten og gemte sig i skovene om dagen. Han fulgte jernbanelinjen. Da han så nåede til Immervad, var hans levnedsmidler sluppet op, og han gik ind til en landmand. Han var imidlertid så uheldig at komme til én af de få tyskere, vi har på denne egn Landmanden ringede straks til Gestapo, der så sendte Brodersen ud for at hente ham. Han var jo meget sulten og havde spist 13 stykker rugbrød der. Han var bange for, at han skulle blive skudt, men vi trøstede ham med, at det blev han ikke, men at han ville møde sine kammerater i Aabenraa. Han var ellers meget tavs og ville intet røbe. Det havde de streng ordre til. Men da jeg fortalte ham om al den familie, jeg har i USA, og at vi var danskere, der holdt med de allierede, tøede han op. Jeg takkede ham for hans indsats for at befri os, men han sagde, at hans indsats ikke var så stor, for det var hans første flyvetogt. ”Hvis du har noget, som tyskerne ikke skal have, så kan du give det til lærer Ratzer”, sagde Brodersen til John. Så gav han mig et landkort på silke med Danmark på den ene side og Frankrig på den anden. Da han forlod os, råbte skolebørnene hurra for ham”.

Efter besøget i skolen blev John Paton afleveret på politistationen i Aabenraa. Her mødte han politimester A. Agersted, som han gav udløserhåndtaget til faldskærmen. Ligesom sine kammerater blev han udleveret til tyskerne på Ortskommandanturen i Aabenraa. Herfra gik turen til Dulag Luft ved Frankfurt. Efter afhøringerne der blev han anbragt i Stalag Luft III. Han overlevede dødsmarchen mod vest foran de fremrykkende russiske tropper fra januar 1945 til befrielsen ved Lübeck i begyndelsen af maj. Han var tilbage i England den 10. maj 1945. Den 10. juni 1945 vendte han hjem til Toronto i Canada.

Doris Paton fortæller til slut, at hun og John blev gift den 10. juni 1946. John var uddannet som bankmand. Han vendte tilbage til sit civile job. I 1979 blev han pensioneret som bankdirektør efter et alvorligt hjertetilfælde. Han fik syv gode år som pensionist, inden han døde i en alder af 67 år i 1987.

Fru Agersted blev efter sin mands død boende i Aabenraa. Hun gjorde et stort arbejde for Dansk Røde Kors. I dette arbejde hjalp hun Karen og Jacob Hollender med at efterlyse Sgt. Ian Hamilton. I 106. eskadrilles arkiver i England ligger kopien af et brev, som piloten Harry Stoffers mor har skrevet til fru Agersted med en tak for den omsorg, fru Agersted har vist hendes søns grav på kirkegården i Aabenraa. Fru Agersted flyttede i 1960 til København. Hun døde i 1996 i en alder af næsten 100 år.

Sgt John H. Paton fotograferet mellem to politifolk bag politistationen i Aabenraa om formiddagen den 25. april 1942. Umiddelbart efter blev han udleveret til tyskerne på Ortskommandanturen, der lå på Storetorv i Aabenraa.

Patons faldskærmshåndtag, som politimester A. Agersted gravede ned i sin have for, at tyskerne ikke skulle få fat i det. Doris Paton fotograferede det til denne beretning den 2. februar 2002. Det blankpudsede håndtag er et familieklenodie.

Dette billede er taget i 1946. Som krigsfange var man stadig i tjeneste og under kommando af egne officerer. John H. Paton blev i løbet af tiden i fangelejren udnævnt til P/O, Pilot Officer, hvilket svarer til sekondløjtnant. På billedet er han avanceret til F/O, Flying Officer, der svarer til premierløjtnant.

Summary.

The navigator, Sgt. J. H. Paton.

In November 1999 I got a copy of a letter from Mrs. Doris Paton, Toronto, Canada, with information about her late husband, John Herbert Paton.

(The letter was sent to a Dane researching another crash in Denmark and asking POW associations about information of an airman with the same name. He knew of my research about ZN-S from No. 106 Squadron and gave the letter to me. Mrs. Doris Paton has been so kind to give me all the information, I have asked for).

I got a copy of a letter from Mrs. Ida Agersted to John H. Paton and photos of him taken in Stalag Luft III and one photo taken after the war. Enclosed, too, was copy of a story made by the minister of the local church to tell the children on the Remembrance Day the 3^rd of November 1992. The minister showed the handle from John Paton’s parachute to the children and told them about John and his experiences in WW II.

Here is what the minister told:

“This is a parachute handle. A parachute is like a large umbrella that keeps you from falling to the ground too quickly. This parachute handle belonged to John. His widow, Doris, lent it to me so that I could tell you the story about it.

Several years ago, there was a boy named John who lived in Toronto. When he was a young man, there was a world war, and John joined the Royal Canadian Air Force. That meant that he had to go far away from Toronto, to countries across the Atlantic Ocean.

John became a pilot. One time, during one of his flying missions over Denmark, the enemy shot at his plane and damaged it. John knew that the plane was going to crash, but before that happened, he jumped out. With this handle, John pulled the parachute open. Gradually, he fell to the ground, and was unhurt.

Immediately, John started to bury the parachute because he wanted to keep his location a secret from them. For some reason, John kept the handle, but got rid of all the other evidence of his presence.

In his pack, John had some maps to show him where he was in Denmark, but he had no food. For three nights, he travelled under the cover of darkness, and he hid in the bushes during the days. Eventually, he became so hungry that he gave himself up at a farmer’s house.

The farmer’s children were delighted to have a Canadian in their home because Canadian soldiers were highly respected in the countries which had been occupied by the Nazis. Even though everyone wanted to talk, there was not much conversation because John couldn’t speak Danish , and the farmer’s children could not speak English. However, the school teacher understood both languages, and serving as an interpreter, helped them to learn about each other.

All the while that was happening, the enemy was searching for John. They had found the crashed plane, but not his body. They knew he was alive somewhere. When they suspected that some of the Danes in South Jutland had this pilot hidden away, they began to question and interrogate the people. Soon the local people were forced to turn John over to the Nazis.

Before John was taken as a prisoner of war, the Chief of Police took his parachute handle, and buried it in the garden, with the promise that one day, when the war was over and the world was at peace, he would send it to John.

What John didn’t know at that time was that Mr. Agersted, Chief of Police, was also head of an underground escape route for prisoners of war held by the Nazis. Since John’s capture had been surrounded by so much publicity, it was going to be too risky to attempt an escape.

So John was imprisoned by the Nazis, but all that his family knew was that his plane had been shot down in enemy territory, and that he was missing. Almost three years later, word came by telegraph, that Flight Lieutenant John Herbert Paton, previously prisoner of war, had been liberated and had arrived safely in the United Kingdom on May 10^th 1945. Later that month, the Ottawa newspaper listed the names of 119 Ontario fliers who had been freed from Nazi prisons.

John notified his “war friends” in Denmark of his good fortune, and eventually, he received from them the parachute handle. This is what Mrs. Agersted wrote in her letter to John:

“Here I send you the handle which saved your life when you went down here in South Jutland three and a half years ago. I am glad you have come back to England from the prisoners’ camp in Germany

My husband, Commissioner of Police, A. Agersted, who promised to send you the handle when the war was over, was arrested by the Germans in May, 1944. He was in prison here in Denmark until September, 1944, and then he was sent to a concentration camp, where he died of the torture and malnutrition he was exposed to. It is a great sorrow for us, but we (my son and I) are proud of his great work as a patriot for his country.

The handle has been moated in our garden, to hide it from the Germans. We send it to you as a remembrance, now that the war is over, and I will be glad to hear when you receive it.

Thanks to you and all the Allies for the contribution for our freedom!”

.

“That is the minister’s version of John’s story”, Doris Paton writes.” The school teacher, Mr. Ratzer, took John into the classroom and introduced the “Canadian flyer” to the pupils before he was turned over to the Germans”.

In his rapport the policeman writes that the flyer was sitting at the table in the kitchen when he arrived to the farm. He was trying to make a cigarette from a newspaper and some coarse tobacco, but he did not succeed. “I will be shot,” he said, but he followed the policeman without resistance. Remembering the day in WW I, when he himself became a POW, the policeman made up his mind to cheer up the flyer and drove to the school. The flyer smoked two or three cheroots during the stay there, the policeman writes.

Viggo Andresen, Hovslund, - in 1942 a pupil in the class and 12 years old - tells:

“Mr. Ratzer came into the classroom with John Paton and Policeman Brodersen from Rødekro. The flyer was a tall, good-looking man in blue uniform. Vi stood up at our school tables and sang the national song to his honour. He told us, that they had been shot down on return flight to England. In the schoolyard we gave him a HURRA as Policeman Brodersen drove off in his car with him. We asked for Mr. Ratzer’s permission to write an essay about the event. Afterwards we burned the drafts and essays in the stove. “It is no good to leave too much about such matters round us”, Mr. Ratzer said, and he told us not to do much talking about the visit, too”.

Mr. Ratzer has written an account about the event. He tells:

“The school started at 7 o’clock. In the middle of the first lesson someone knocked at the door. In came Policeman Brodersen from Rødekro with a Canadian flyer. The Germans had ordered him to arrest the flyer. Before he turned over the flyer to the Germans, he wanted to get some information from the flyer. I was asked to act as interpreter.

From the classroom I took some cards to our living room, and Brodersen showed John where the other flyers had been arrested. Their aircraft had been shot on fire over Germany. As they did not dare to fly over the sea to England they tried to reach Sweden. But the fire increased rapidly. John was ordered to bale out as no. two (after Nickolas Pollock). He came down in a moor. After hiding his parachute under a bush he went north in the hope to come to Sweden. He went by night and hid in woods by day. He followed the railway. As he came to Immervad he had no more food. He had to go to a farm. The owner of the farm unfortunately is one of the few German minded we have in this area. The farmer at once called the Gestapo, who ordered Brodersen to arrest the flyer. (German secret police. The farmer’s neighbour called the Danish police. JJ). Of course the flyer was very hungry, and he ate 13 pieces of bread! John was afraid that he would be shot, but we comforted him, and said that he would not be shot but meet his friends at Aabenraa. He remained very silent and would not tell anything. So he was strictly ordered. As I told him of all my family in USA, and that we were Danes and sided to the allied, he “thawed out”. I thanked him for what he had done also to our freedom, but he said that he had not done much. It was his first operational mission. “If you have something you don’t want to give the Germans, you can give it to Mr. Ratzer”, Brodersen said to John. Then he gave me a silk map with Denmark on one side and France on the other.

As he left us the schoolchildren gave him a “HURRA”!”

From the school they drove to the police at Aabenraa. Here he gave the handle from his parachute to Chief Police Officer A. Agersted. Like his friends he was turned over to the Germans at the “Ortskommandantur” at Aabenraa. After a stay at Dulag Luft near Frankfurt for interrogation he was sent to Stalag Luft III. He survived the “Death March” to the West ahead of the Russian forcers from January 1945 to liberation near Lübeck early in May. He was back in England the 10^th of May 1945. The 10^th of June he arrived back in Toronto in Canada.

Doris Paton tells that she and John married the 10^th of June 1946. He left the Air

Force and returned to his civil job. In 1979 John retired as Manager of Bank Premises, Ontario Division, after a serious heart attack in 1978. He had seven very good years and died in 1987 in the age of 67.

After her husband had died Mrs. Ida Agersted stayed in Aabenraa. She made a good work for the Danish Red Cross. In this work she gave much help to the Hollender family in the research to find “their flyer”, wireless operator Sgt. Ian Hamilton. In the archive of No 106 Squadron is the copy of a letter written to Ida Agersted by the pilot Harry Stoffer’s mother thanking her for all she has done to take care of her son’s grave at the cemetery of Aabenraa. In 1960 she moved to Copenhagen. She died in 1996 nearly 100 years old.

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