Flt.Sgt. Robert E. Toomey
Royal Canadian Air Force 428 Squadron
from:Ottawa, Canada
Flight engineer, Flt.Sgt. Robert Toomey was returning from a bombing raid of the port area of Stettin Germany on 16th/17th August 1944 when the aircraft was shot down into the Baltic Sea off the coast of the Island of Sejero, Denmark. It was his fifth sortie. The aircraft was coded KB751.
He was the only survivor of the crew of seven, and helped to bury his pilot two days later. He was captured, interrogated for three days while suffering from tonsillitis, then transported by train to a prison camp in Bankau (Bakow), Poland.
Conditions in the POW camp were horrible, with little food or medical care. After five months, the prisoners were forced to walk over 250 km in a snow blizzard and below freezing temperatures with very little food, sleeping in barns and factories as the Russians were closing in. This became known as the Long March, Central Route. Of 1,550 on his route only 720 survived the walk. Many passed away from starvation, fatigue and illness. Soldiers were told they would be shot if they didn't keep up. They arrived at another POW camp at Luckenwalde, just south of Berlin. A friend from Toomey's combine, Percy Crosswell was shot and killed trying to escape this camp.
Unknown to the prisoners, Hitler had signed an order on 22nd of April 1945 that they were to be executed if Germany was forced to surrender. Fortunately, the camp was liberated that month.
Crew of Lancaster X KB751, coded NA-Q
- F/O W. Fairgrieve RCAF
- Sgt R. Toomey RCAF
- F/O L. Brown RCAF
- F/O H. Slater RCAF
- P/O R. Boyce RCAF
- F/O J. Srigley RCAF
- P/O W. Lamb RCAF
C. Lafleur
