John Godwin RNVR
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British Sub-Lieutenant John Godwin, RNVR, was brought up in Argentina, and took part in a raid on Axis shipping near Haugesund, north of Stavanger, Norway. His party managed to sink several ships using limpet mines, but he was eventually captured, together with the rest of his party, a commando sergeant, two Naval Petty Officers and three seamen. After spending some time in Grini prison near Oslo, they were sent to Sachsenhausen concentration camp, where contrary to the Geneva Convention they were forced to march thirty miles a day on cobbles testing army boots.
On February 2nd 1945 they were led to execution. Godwin managed to wrestle the pistol of the firing party commander from his belt and shot him dead before being himself shot. No superior officer witnessed this act, but it was reported in dispatches.
[edit] Sources
- Foot & Langley 1979 MI9 - Escape and Evasion 1939 - 1945, London, Book Club Associates, London, 1979 pp. 154,155 ISBN 0-316-28840-3
- Reilly, Joanne [1997]. "Appendix: Belsen Testimonies", Belsen in History and Memory. Routledge, 216-217. ISBN 0714647675.
- Gilbert, Sir Martin [2004]. The Second World War: A Complete History. MacMillan, 637. ISBN 0805076239.
