Bill Waterworth enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at the age of 18. On September 19, 1942, Waterworth was shot down over the French coast just short of completing his 33rd mission. Waterworth avoided capture by German patrols for two weeks before being captured and taken prisoner by the G…
Bill Waterworth enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force at the age of 18. On September 19, 1942, Waterworth was shot down over the French coast just short of completing his 33rd mission. Waterworth avoided capture by German patrols for two weeks before being captured and taken prisoner by the Gestapo. He was sent by boxcar to a Prisoner of War (POW) camp - Stalag VIIIB/344 - in Lamsdorf, Germany where he remained for three years. In 1943 the Red Cross issued each P.O.W. a blank 151 page logbook "A Wartime Log : A Remembrance from Home Through the Canadian Y.M.C.A." Waterworth treasured this log during his captivity and compiled it as a scrapbook collecting photographs, artwork by fellow prisoners, newsclippings, parcel lists and letters from home. In January 1945 the prisoners were forced to march from Poland to France, and he carried his log throughout the ordeal. His sense of history and purpose with the Wartime Log continued throughout his life, with follow-up stories of fellow POWs and of their reunions through to 1999.
S1 / 162 - Whyte Museum Oral History Prograamme : Bill Waterworth's Wartime Log interview with Bill Waterworth by Head Archivist E. J. (Ted) Hart, May 28, 2009