230798 Flt.Sgt. Frank Henry Andrews Royal Air Force Bomber Command 158 Sqdn. from:Lisset, Yorkshire Flight Sergeant Frank Henry Andrews was serving with 158 Squadron when his Halifax Mark II No LW298 was shot down over Tongeren (Belgium) on 3rd/4th November 1943, when it was returning from a Dusseldorf raid. He was found by a local farmer, who contacted Comet Line to send him back to the UK. He was discovered by the Gestapo, together with Rear Gunner Ronald Stokes, on 5th December 1943 in the home of Robert Goffaux and his niece Jeanne Macintosh. All were arrested. Robert Goffaux was sentenced to hard labour, Jeanne (being a British national) was sentenced to death. Frank was sent to Stalag Luft 3 (IVB) on 13th January 1944.
Frank was released by Cossacks in April 1945 and exchanged with Americans for Soviet POWs as part of the Yalta Agreement. He watched the Soviets begging for their lives as they were loaded onto trains - they knew they would be shot or sent to a Gulag. He remained deeply shocked at Soviet POW treatment - they were left to die of starvation and typhus. They begged the Brits to scrape out the remains of empty Red Cross food tins.
When Frank returned to the UK he saw a story about Jeanne Macintosh in the Sunday Times and contacted her. In August 1944, following her death sentence, she was transported to Germany - as the Allies raced to liberate Brussels ten days later. She spent the rest of the war in prison until released from Waldheim Fortress in May 1945 by US troops.
Frank and Jeanne met again, fell in love and were married in September 1945. I was one of the baby boomers, born July 1946.
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