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Name: |
KIDDER, Gordon Arthur, POW, MiD |
Nationality: |
Canadian |
Regiment/Service: |
Royal Canadian Air Force |
Rank/ Trade: |
Flight Lieutenant/ Navigator |
Service No.: |
J/10177 |
Unit Text: |
156 (RAF) Squadron |
Date of Birth: |
9 December 1914 - St. Catherines, Ontario |
Date of Death: |
25 March 1944 - Shot by the Gestapo near Mahrisch Ostrau |
Place of Burial: |
Pozan Old Garrison Cemetery - Poland |
Name of Father: |
KIDDER, Arthur Garfield |
Name of Mother: |
SMITH, Ethel May |
KIDDER, F/L Gordon Arthur (J10177) - Mention in Despatches -
No.156 Squadron (deceased) - Award effective 8 June 1944 as per London Gazette of that date and AFRO 1729/44 dated 11 August 1944. Born 09 December 1914; home in St. Catharines, Ontario.
Educated at University of Toronto, 1933 to 1937 (BA in Modern Languages); also took post-graduate courses from John Hopkins University. Worked as a Clerk for Department of Education, June to September
1936 and again June to September 1937 before becoming an insurance salesman, clerk and underwriter, including period of 1938 to 1941 with Foreign Department, Western Association Company. On enlistment
he gave his languages as English, French, German (good) and Spanish (fair). Enlisted in Toronto, 8 January 1941 and posted to No.1 Manning Depot. To No.1A Manning Depot, Picton, 20 February 1941; to
Station Rockcliffe, 21 March 1941; to No.3 ITS, Victoriaville, 05 May 1941; graduated and promoted LAC on 9 June 1941; posted that date to No.11 EFTS, Cap de la Madeleine. Ceased pilot training 04 July
1941 and posted to Station Trenton; to No.1 AOS, Malton, 01 September 1941; may have graduated 06 December 1941 but not taken on strength of No.1 BGS, Jarvis until 09 December 1941; graduated and
promoted Sergeant, 17 January 1942; to No.2 ANS, Pennfield Ridge, 18 January 1942; graduated and commissioned 16 February 1942. To “Y” Depot, 18 February 1942; to RAF overseas, 4 March 1942. Taken on
strength of No.3 PRC, Bournemouth, 16 March 1942. To No.2 (O) Advanced Flying Unit, 24 April 1942. To No.23 OTU, 19 May 1942. To No.14 Conversion Flight. 05 August 1942. Promoted to Flying Officer, 01
October 1942. To No.156 Squadron, 14 August 1942 (documents say No.165 Squadron, clearly wrong). Shot down and taken prisoner 13 October 1942 (Wellington BJ775); shot 25 March 1944 after the Great
Escape. No citation in AFRO.
Upon being shot down, Kidder wrote to his family on 4 November 1942 (received by them 8 January 1943) and they reported on some of the contents:
"I am being treated very well in hospital still with one broken and one damaged foot and various cuts etc. but nothing serious. Considering what happened to us it is really miraculous that
I’m still able to talk about it. We were brought down in the sea and Mac (Sergeant E.E. MacDonald, Box 63, Picton, Nova Scotia) and I were able to get out but the others were lost. We had quite a
time keeping afloat until we were picked up by a German ship."
He may have gotten further than most escapees from Stalag Luft III. He was in the company of Squadron Leader Thomas Graham Kirby-Green (born Nyasaland, 28 February 1918), formerly of Training Flight,
No.311 Squadron. The following narrative (found in Kidder’s file) was specifically about Kirby-Green and based on an interview with a Gestapo man (Kiowsky) who was believed to be credible:
"He [Kirby-Green] was a prisoner at Sagan in Lower Silesia. He escaped and was arrested at Zlin, Moravia, at 1100 hours on 28th March 1944 by the German Criminal Police. Charge: “Escape from Prison
Camp”.
"With Squadron Leader Kirby-Green was a Canadian Flight Lieutenant and the story applies equally to him.
"They were arrested at Zlin were handcuffed and were then ordered to be transferred to Moravska-Ostrava en route for Breslau. There is some uncertainty as to how they were dressed, but it would seem
to have been in “mixed clothes”.
"They left Zlin in two Gestapo cars. The driver of one was Kiowsky, at present in custody at Zlin. I was invited to personally question Kiowsky at the Narodni Vybor, Zlin, on November 30th, 1945, as
well as a man Raska of the Gestapo. The driver of the other car - Schwarzer - has not been caught. In the two cars were the two prisoners, accompanied by:
(a) Gestapo man Zacharias
(b) Erich. Born 16 December 1911. Recently known to be living at Wartenstadt (near Mittenwald [?], South Bavaria). Father’s name Hermann. Mother’s: Anna Treller. Erich is apparently in the British
Military Zone of Germany, having received from the British Authorities a certificate of being a “harmless person”. He is married by the whereabout of his wife is unknown.
(c) Second guard was a Gestapo man from Brno but his name is not known.
"Whilst travelling from Zlin to Moravska-Ostrava the prisoners asked Zacharias what would happen to them; he merely indicated their fate by turning his thumbs down.
"They were handcuffed with their hands in front of them.
"Arriving at a spot somewhere between Frydek and Moravska-Ostrava and about 10 kilometres from Moravska-Ostrava, the cars were stopped to permit the prisoners to relieve themselves. Kiowsky was some
meters away when hearing a shot he turned and saw Erich with a revolver in his hand having shot Kirby-Green in the back by the shoulders; as Kirby-Green swung round from the shot, he then shot him in
the head and Kirby-Green collapsed.
"It is asserted that these murders were ordered by the Chief of the Gestapo of Zlin, Hans Ziegler.
"After the murders, Erich stayed with Zacharias and one car while the other went to Moravska-Ostrava to arrange for the removal of the corpses. Before they came back Zacharias ordered the removal of
the handcuffs so that it would seem they had been shot thus. The German uniformed police removed the bodies. Where they are buried is not known. Before leaving for Zlin, Zacharias said that
everything was arranged in Moravska-Ostrava.
"Some 14-21 days later Erich, Zacharias, Kozlovsky (of the Office of Gestapo Administration, Brno) Schwarzer and Kiowsky went back to the scene of the murder. Kozlovsky had a plan in his hand. They
feared an inquiry by the International Red Cross. Kozlovsky gave instructions that if questioned they were so say that “they were killed 25 metres away from the road when trying to escape.” He
marked the plan with the place were they were supposed to have been killed.
"The Chief of the Gestapo, Ziegler, forbade any discussion of this incident, for fear of Red Cross investigation.
"Ziegler, it is reported, stated before they left Zlin, “You will probably not reach Breslau.”
- excerpt from report by Dr. F.V. van der Bijl, Prague, 2 December 1945 to British Ambassador to Czechoslovakia.
SOURCE: Air Force Association of Canada website & Hugh Halliday (30 October 2010).
Background:
But had a change of heart and decided to try the working world getting a job as a clerk at the Ontario Department of Education and later as a translator with a Toronto
insurance company. With strong education and good character, he likely would have had a successful career and normal life Military Career: But when they arrived at the Squadron, realized that there were not enough aircraft, so were offered the choice to join a Pathfinder unit. The crew accepted the assignment and
jointed the 156 Squadron at Warboys on September 8, 1942 The Wellington they were in was spotted by searchlights and took heavy fire. As it tried to make it back to England across the North Sea, the plane went down. Kidder and another
crew member survived the crash and were left floating at sea in the planes leaking dinghy. Kidder had a broken ankle. At dawn the two men were picked up by a German minesweeper. Stalag Luft III: After the camp purge that sent Wally Floody and a few others to another camp just a few weeks before the escape, Kidder is teamed up with Tom Kirby-Brown (British) as an escape
partner. Originally Kidder planned to travel with Dick Churchill as Romanian woodcutters. But X Organization decided to team him up with Brown instead; they would travel as Spanish labourers. Everyone
agreed to the change, but it still made everyone nervous, being so close to the escape The Escape: At station, Kidder and Green are approached by a woman who was a member of the camp staff. She smiled at them, but asked who they were. Playing the part of a Spanish labourer,
Green answered in a mixture of broken Spanish and German. The woman became suspicious and called over a policeman. Green repeated his story and the policeman waved the two men on At 1 am, Kidder, Green, Bob van der Stok (who was one of the three to make it to safety), and three other escapees boarded a train for Breslau Circumstances of Death: Other: SOURCE: History Television website. The Great Escape "On March 24, 1944 seventy-six Allied airmen escaped from the prisoner of war camp Stalag Luft III, Sagan, Germany through a hand dug 340 foot long tunnel,
situated 30 feet underground, and connecting their hut to a spot beyond the perimeter fence. Their escape was immortalized in the 1963 movie "The Great Escape" which starred Steve McQueen and
Richard Attenborough. Only three of the escapees succeeded in reaching Britain, the rest were recaptured. To deter further escape attempts, and in direct contravention of the Geneva
Convention, Adolph Hitler ordered 50 of the participants to be executed. To cover up the evidence, they were then taken out in small groups at different times, and to different locations in the woods,
where they were shot. The rest were returned to various prisons and concentration camps." SOURCE: Royal Canadian Air Force Museum website. Return to Remembering Those Who Served Page
Photo courtesy of "The Great Escape" by Rob Davis
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