This Military Service Page was created/owned by
Geraldine Reardon, HM3
to remember
Crawford, John, AOC USN(Ret).
If you knew or served with this Sailor and have additional information or photos to support this Page, please leave a message for the Page Administrator(s) HERE.
Contact Info
Last Address TACOMA,WA
Official Badges
Unofficial Badges
Additional Information
Last Known Activity:
Tuesday, February 10, 2004
Serving country never gets old for these retired vets
By MIKE BARBER
SEATTLE POST-INTELLIGENCER REPORTER
TACOMA -- Like a lot of the 21st century Navy's reserve sailors drilling here last weekend, Chief Petty Officer John Crawford was wearing a uniform that blended in, except for one small detail:
The thin line of World War II ribbons across his chest.
John Crawford, 81, of Tacoma is serving in the Naval Reserve under special permission without pay or benefits.
Even before the parents of many sailors around him were born, Crawford had survived being shot down in a Canadian Royal Air Force Lancaster bomber over France; escaping a date with a Gestapo firing squad after his French resistance rescuers were betrayed; and being locked up at Buchenwald concentration camp and Stalag 3 prisoner-of-war camp before the Red Army troops liberated.
The whole article:
him.http://seattlepi.nwsource.com/local/160016_oldnavy10.html
Other Comments:
Someone is selling a chunk of Chief Crawford's legacy on eBay:
I'm just trying to piece together his service record. Apparently, he enlisted in the Royal Canadian Air Force, trained at the British Commonwealth Air Training Plan School #3 Bombing & Gunnery School at MacDonald, Manitoba, Canada. He was sent to England to serve with the Royal Air Force. He flew bomber missions as a Chief Aviation Ordnanceman & Air Gunner over Germany and France. His Lancaster bomberwas shot down over northern France a few weeks after D-Day, on July 7, 1944. He parachuted to safety, evaded capture for a while, spent about six months at Buchenwald, then was imprisoned at Stalag Luft III.
http://www.lostbombers.co.uk/bomber.php?id=10070
After the War, he came to the U.S., married local, and enlisted in the Naval Reserves. He served in Korea and supposedly retired in 1982.
It's quite a history and shouldn't be lost.
World War II/European-African-Middle Eastern Theater
From Month/Year
December / 1941
To Month/Year
September / 1945
Description The European-Mediterranean-Middle East Theater was a major theater of operations during the Second World War (between December 7, 1941, and March 2, 1946). The vast size of Europe, Mediterranean and Middle East theatre saw interconnected naval, land, and air campaigns fought for control of the Mediterranean, North Africa, the Horn of Africa, the Middle East, and Europe. The fighting in this theatre lasted from 10 June 1940, when Italy entered the war on the side of Germany, until 2 May 1945 when all Axis forces in Italy surrendered. However, fighting would continue in Greece – where British troops had been dispatched to aid the Greek government – during the early stages of the Greek Civil War.
The British referred to this theatre as the Mediterranean and Middle East Theatre (so called due to the location of the fighting and the name of the headquarters that controlled the initial fighting: Middle East Command) while the Americans called the theatre of operations the Mediterranean Theatre of War. The German official history of the fighting is dubbed 'The Mediterranean, South-East Europe, and North Africa 1939–1942'. Regardless of the size of the theatre, the various campaigns were not seen as neatly separated areas of operations but part of one vast theatre of war.
Fascist Italy aimed to carve out a new Roman Empire, while British forces aimed initially to retain the status quo. Italy launched various attacks around the Mediterranean, which were largely unsuccessful. With the introduction of German forces, Yugoslavia and Greece were overrun. Allied and Axis forces engaged in back and forth fighting across North Africa, with Axis interference in the Middle East causing fighting to spread there. With confidence high from early gains, German forces planned elaborate attacks to be launched to capture the Middle East and then to possibly attack the southern border of the Soviet Union. However, following three years of fighting, Axis forces were defeated in North Africa and their interference in the Middle East was halted. Allied forces then commenced an invasion of Southern Europe, resulting in the Italians switching sides and deposing Mussolini. A prolonged battle for Italy took place, and as the strategic situation changed in southeast Europe, British troops returned to Greece.
The theatre of war, the longest during the Second World War, resulted in the destruction of the Italian Empire and altered the strategic position of Germany resulting in numerous German divisions being deployed to Africa and Italy and total losses (including those captured upon final surrender) being over half a million. Italian losses, in the theatre, amount to around to 177,000 men with a further several hundred thousand captured during the process of the various campaigns. British losses amount to over 300,000 men killed, wounded, or captured, and total American losses in the region amounted to 130,000.
My Participation in This Battle or Operation
From Month/Year
January / 1944
To Month/Year
December / 1944
Last Updated: Mar 16, 2020
Personal Memories
People You Remember Serial Range ME554 - ME868 This aircraft was one of 250 Lancaster Mk.1s ordered from Metro- Vick May42 and delivered from Nov43 to Jun44 with Merlin 22 engines initially installed up to ME639 and Merlin 24 engines from ME640 except for ME688-9 with Merlin 22 engines. ME789 was delivered to No.106 Sqdn 9May44. No Key Raids traced. When lost this aircraft had a total of 114 hours. ME789 was one of five No.106 Sqdn Lancasters lost on this operation. See: ME668; ME831; JB641; PB144 Airborne 2240 7Jul44 from Metheringham to attack a flying-bomb storage site at St Leu. at apx.0100 8Jul44 the crew baled out, their Lancaster on fire in both port engines and in the rear fuselage, near the town of Gournay-en-Bray in the Dept.of Seine- Maritime. F/O G.S.Mather RCAF PoW Sgt L.T Lucas PoW F/O D.A.Evans RCAF Evd F/O J.S.Kingston RCAF PoW F/S W.Stewart PoW Sgt J.Crawford RCAF PoW Sgt W.A.Waldram RCAF PoW Sgt J.Crawford must have initially evaded as he is reliably reported as having 'spent time' in Buchenwald before being interned in Camp L3, PoW No.8080. See p.273 'Footprints on the Sands of Time'. F/O J.S.Kingston was interned in Camps 9C.L3, PoW No.2068. Sgt L.J.Lucas initially evaded until captured in Paris 2Aug44, also 'spent time' in Buchenwald with his comrade, Sgt Crawford, before internment in Camp L3, PoW No.8103. Sgt W.A.Waldram also ex-Buchenwald in Camp L3, PoW No.8118. F/O G.S.Mather in Camp L1, PoW No.4796. F/S W.Stewart in Camp L7, PoW No.492. "
Memories Although it was highly unusual for German authorities to send Western Allied prisoners of war (POWs) to concentration camps, Buchenwald held a group of 168 aviators for about six months.[12] These POWs were from the United States, United Kingdom, Canada, Australia and New Zealand. They all arrived at Buchenwald on 20 April 1944[13] (according to one source, on August 20, 1944[14]).
All these airmen were in planes which had crashed in occupied France. Two explanations are given for them being sent to a concentration camp: first, that they had managed to make contact with the French Resistance, some were disguised as civilians, and they were carrying false papers when caught; they were therefore categorized by the Germans as spies, which meant their rights under the Geneva Convention were not respected. The second explanation is that they had been categorised as Terrorflieger (?terror aviators?). The aviators were initially held in Gestapo prisons and headquarters in France. In April or August 1944, they and other Gestapo prisoners were packed into boxcars and sent to Buchenwald. The journey took five days, during which they received very little food or water. One aviator recalled their arrival at Buchenwald:
As we got close to the camp and saw what was inside...a terrible, terrible fear and horror entered our hearts. We thought, what is this? Where are we going? Why are we here? And as you got closer to the camp and started to enter the camp and saw these human skeletons walking around old men, young men, boys, just skin and bone, we thought, what are we getting into?[15]
They were subjected to the same treatment and abuse as other Buchenwald prisoners until October 1944, when a change in policy saw the aviators dispatched to Stalag Luft III, a regular prisoner-of-war camp (POW) camp; nevertheless, two airmen died at Buchenwald.[16] Those classed as terrorflieger had been scheduled for execution after October 24; their rescue was effected by Luftwaffe officers who visited Buchenwald and, on their return to Berlin, demanded the airmen's release.
Stalag 3 Sagan Evacuation: Russian troops were approaching Sagan, Poland. At 11:00 PM on 27 January 1945 Germans marched the POWs out of Stalag 3 with Spremberg for their destination. The exodus was harrowing to POWs of all compounds, especially to those of the South Compound who made the 55 kilometers from Sagan to Muskau in 27 hours with only 4 hours sleep. At Muskau they were given a 30 hour delay for recuperation and then marched another 25 km to Spremberg. On 31 January the South Compound men plus 200 men from the West Compound went to Stalag 7A at Moosburg in rail "forty-and eight" boxcars packed 50 men and 1 guard in each boxcar. The trip took two days and two nights. On 7 February the men from the Center Compound joined them. The North Compound fell in with the West Compound at Spremberg and on 2 February entrained for Stalag 13D at Nurnberg, which they reached after a two day trip.
On April 13, 1945, after an approximate three month stay, the Americans were told that they must evacuate Stalag 13D and march to Stalag 7A at Moosburg. The main body reached Stalag 7A on 20 April 1945. Many POWs dropped out of the march en route to Moosburg and the German guards made no serious attempt to stop them. The POWs were liberated by General Patton's 14th Armored Division on April 29th.
