Phil Lamason Phillip ( Phil ) John Lamason DFC & Bar ( 15 September 1918 – 19 May 2012 ) was a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force ( RNZAF ) during the Second World War , who rose to prominence as the senior officer in charge of 168 Allied airmen taken to Buchenwald concentration camp , Germany , in August 1944 . Raised in Napier , he joined the RNZAF in September 1940 , and by April 1942 was a pilot officer serving with the Royal Air Force in Europe . On 8 June 1944 , Lamason was in command of a Lancaster heavy bomber that was shot down during a raid on railway marshalling yards near Paris . Bailing out , he was picked up by members of the French Resistance and hidden at various locations for seven weeks . While attempting to reach Spain along the Comet line , Lamason was double - crossed by a traitor within the Resistance and handed over to the Gestapo . After interrogation , he was taken to Fresnes prison . Classified as a " Terrorflieger " ( terror flier ) , he was not accorded prisoner - of - war ( POW ) status , but instead treated as a criminal and spy . By 15 August 1944 , Lamason was senior officer of a group of 168 captured Allied airmen who were taken by train to Buchenwald concentration camp , arriving there five days later . At Buchenwald , the airmen were fully shaved , , denied shoes , and for three weeks forced to sleep outside without shelter in one of the sub - camps known as " Little Camp " . As senior officer , Lamason took control and instilled a level of military discipline and bearing . For several weeks Lamason negotiated with the camp authorities to have the airmen transferred to a POW camp , but his requests were denied . At great risk , Lamason secretly got word to the Luftwaffe of the Allied airmen ' s captivity and , seven days before their scheduled execution , 156 of the 168 prisoners were transferred to Stalag Luft III . Most of the airmen credit their survival at Buchenwald to the leadership and determination of Lamason . After the war , he moved to Dannevirke and became a farmer until his retirement . During the 1980s and 1990s , he was a regular speaker at KLB Club and POW reunions . Early career . Lamason was born and raised in Napier , a city in New Zealand ' s North Island , on 15 September 1918 . He was educated at Napier Boys ' High School and Massey University ( Palmerston North campus ) where he was awarded a Diploma in Sheepfarming . During this period , Lamason described himself as " a bit of a ratbag " . Prior to the war , he worked for the Department of Agriculture at New Plymouth as a stock inspector . It was there Lamason took the opportunity of free flying lessons , clocking up 100 hours . He was described as a tall , good - looking man with blue eyes and a broken nose . Lamason joined the RNZAF in September 1940 . By April 1942 , he had been posted to the European theatre of operations as a pilot officer in No . 218 Squadron RAF . During a bombing raid on Pilsen , Czechoslovakia , he was in command of an aircraft that was attacked by an enemy fighter and badly damaged , but managed to return to base . As a result of his actions , he was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross ( DFC ) on 15 May 1942 . The citation read : After his first tour ended flying Stirlings with 218 Squadron , Lamason then instructed other pilots at 1657 Heavy Conversion Unit . Returning to operations with No . 15 Squadron RAF , Lamason was twice Mentioned in Despatches , first on 2 June 1943 and again , having received promotion to acting squadron leader , on 14 January 1944 . He was awarded a Bar to his DFC on 27 June 1944 , for " courage and devotion to duty of a high order " and " vigorous determination " in attacks on Berlin and other heavily - defended targets . Lamason was presented his award after the war by King George VI at Buckingham Palace , where he met and befriended a young Princess Elizabeth , later to be queen . A day after making an emergency landing at an American base in England , Lamason was introduced to , shook hands and spoke with Clark Gable . Lamason was not afraid to speak his mind . On the night of 30 / 31 March 1944 , when 795 bombers were sent to attack Nuremberg , he was very critical of the route chosen , warning his station commander that heavy losses could be expected . On the moonlit night , 95 bombers were lost , its heaviest losses of the entire war during a single raid . Buchenwald . On 8 June 1944 , Lamason was serving as a flight commander in a Lancaster ( LM575 ) of No . 15 Squadron RAF , on his 45th operation , when he was shot down during a raid on railway marshalling yards near Paris . Lamason recalled : Along with his English navigator , Flying Officer Ken Chapman , Lamason was picked up by members of the French Resistance and hidden at various locations for seven weeks . In August , while attempting to reach Spain along the Comet line , Lamason and Chapman were captured by the Gestapo in Paris after they were betrayed by the French traitor Jacques Desoubrie for 10 , 000 francs each . After interrogation at the Gestapo headquarters in Paris , they were taken to Fresnes Prison . Many fliers were classified as " Terrorflieger " ( terror flier ) by the Germans , and were not given a trial . The most common act for allied airmen to be classified a terror flier was to be captured in civilian clothing and / or without their dog tags . The German Foreign Office decided that these captured enemy airmen should not be given the legal status of prisoner of war ( POWs ) but should instead be treated as criminals and spies . Consequently , Lamason was amongst a group of 168 allied airmen from Great Britain , United States , Australia , Canada , New Zealand and Jamaica who , along with over 2 , 500 French prisoners , were taken by train — in overcrowded cattle boxcars — from Fresnes Prison outside Paris , to Buchenwald concentration camp . As the airmen were herded into the boxcars , Lamason protested about the poor treatment of the airmen , only to be struck in the face by a SS guard . Lamason fell to the ground and captured pilot Roy Allen watched as a SS Major pulled a Luger from his holster and thought Lamason would be shot on the spot . After five days travel , during which the airmen received very little food or water , they arrived at Buchenwald on 20 August 1944 . Buchenwald was a labour camp of about 60 , 000 inmates of mainly Russian POWs , but also common criminals , religious prisoners ( including Jews ) , and various political prisoners from Germany , France , Poland , and Czechoslovakia . It was known for its brutality and barbaric medical experiments . Upon arrival , Lamason , as ranking officer , demanded an interview with the camp commandant , Hermann Pister , which he was granted . He insisted that the airmen be treated as POWs under the Geneva Conventions and be sent to a POW camp . The commandant agreed that their arrival at Buchenwald was a " mistake " but they remained there anyway . The airmen were given the same poor treatment and beatings as the other inmates . For the first three weeks at Buchenwald , the prisoners were totally shaved , denied shoes and forced to sleep outside without shelter in one of Buchenwald ' s sub - camps , known as ' Little Camp ' . Little Camp was a quarantine section of Buchenwald where the prisoners received the least food and harshest treatment . After their first meal , Lamason stepped forward and said : Lamason then instructed the group not to trust the SS , or provoke them in any way because as they had experienced on the train , the guards were unpredictable and trigger - happy . Also , they were not to explore the camp because of the chance of breaking unknown rules , but to stay together and keep as far away from the guards as possible . He further stated that acting on the group ' s behalf , he would make further contact with the camp authorities for recognition of their rights . Lamason then proceeded to organise the airmen into groups by nationality and appointed a Commanding officer within each group . Lamason did not do this just to improve their morale but because he also saw it as his responsibility to carry on his war duties despite the adverse circumstances . Captured US pilot Joe Moser believed that Lamason also did this because if the right opportunity presented itself , the group would be able to operate much more effectively if military discipline and operations were applied . Lamason ' s leadership boosted the airmen ' s spirits and gave them hope while instilling a level of discipline and bearing . One of the first assignments Lamason gave was to mount a guard detail , both day and night , to prevent pilfering by other inmates , which had begun during their first night at camp . During their incarceration , Lamason also insisted the airmen march , parade and act as a military unit , a behavior which infuriated the camp authorities while simultaneously impressing them . Within days of their arrival , Lamason met Edward Yeo - Thomas , a British spy being held at Buchenwald under the alias Kenneth Dodkin . Lamason , who knew the real Dodkin quite well , immediately became suspicious and later confided in Christopher Burney , who assured Lamason the cover was legitimate . Through Yeo - Thomas and Burney , Lamason was introduced to two Russian colonels , senior members of the International Camp Committee , an illegal underground resistance group of prisoners in the main camp . As senior officer , Lamason had access to the main camp and quickly built a rapport with the group . As a result , he was able to secure extra blankets , clothes , clogs and food for the airmen . Lamason also built a rapport with two other prisoners ; French Scientist Alfred Balachowsky and Dutch Olympian trainer Jan Robert . Both men had developed trustworthy contacts within the camp administrative area and were able to provide Lamason with reliable intelligence that assisted in the survival of the airmen . For the next six weeks , Lamason negotiated with Pister and the German camp authorities , but his requests to have the airmen transferred to proper POW camps were denied . One captured British airman , Pilot Officer Splinter Spierenburg , was a Dutchman flying for the Royal Air Force . Spierenburg , who spoke fluent German , regularly acted as an interpreter for Lamason when he negotiated with the camp authorities . Because Buchenwald was a forced labor camp , the German authorities had intended to put the 168 airmen to work as slave - labor in the nearby armament factories . Consequently , Lamason was ordered by a SS officer to instruct the airmen to work , or he would be immediately executed by firing squad . Lamason refused to give the order and informed the officer that they were soldiers and could not and would not participate in war production . After a tense stand - off , during which time Lamason thought he would be shot , the SS officer eventually backed down . Most airmen doubted they would ever get out of Buchenwald because their documents were stamped with the acronym " DIKAL " ( Darf in kein anderes Lager ) , or " not to be transferred to another camp " . At great risk , Lamason and Burney secretly smuggled a note through a trusted Russian prisoner , who worked at the nearby Nohra airfield , to the German Luftwaffe of their captivity at the camp . The message requested in part , that an officer pass the information to Berlin , and for the Luftwaffe to intercede on behalf of the airmen . Lamason understood that the Luftwaffe would be sympathetic to their predicament , as they would not want their captured men treated in the same way ; he also knew that the Luftwaffe had the political connections to get the airmen transferred to a POW camp . Eventually , Lamason ' s persistence paid off . Under the pretence of inspecting aerial bomb damage near the camp , two Luftwaffe officers made contact with the airmen and also spoke to Lamason . Convinced the airmen were not spies , but bona - fide airmen , the officers reported their findings to command . After reading the report , an outraged Hermann Göring demanded ' at the highest level ' the transfer of the airmen to Luftwaffe control . Unknown to all airmen except Lamason , their execution had been scheduled for 26 October , if they remained at Buchenwald . News of the airmen ' s scheduled execution had been conveyed to Lamason by a German Communist prisoner , Eugen Kogon , who had a reliable contact within the camp administrative area . Lamason discussed the information at length with Yeo - Thomas , Burney and Robert and they concluded there was little that could be done to avert the mass execution . Lamason decided not to inform the airmen , but to keep this information to himself to keep morale high and in the slight hope the Luftwaffe would intervene in time . Then , on the night of 19 October , seven days before their scheduled execution , 156 of the 168 airmen , including Lamason , were transferred from Buchenwald to Stalag Luft III by the Luftwaffe . Two airmen died at Buchenwald . The other ten , who were too ill to be moved with the main group , were transported to Stalag Luft III in small groups over a period of several weeks . In the two months at Buchenwald , Lamason had lost 19 kilograms ( 42 lbs ) and had contracted diphtheria and dysentery . At Stalag Luft III , he spent a month in the infirmary recovering . In late January 1945 , all Stalag Luft III POWs were force - marched to other POW camps further inside Germany . Lamason and Chapman were marched to Stalag III - A outside Luckenwalde , where they remained until liberated by the Russian army at the end of the war in Europe . Lamason and Chapman were taken to Hildesheim airfield and flown to Brussels and then onto England . Many airmen credit their survival at Buchenwald to the leadership and determination of Lamason . Captured pilot , Stratton Appleman , stated that " they were very fortunate to have Lamason as their leader " . Another airman , Joe Moser , stated that Lamason was a great leader whom he would have been glad to follow anywhere he asked . British pilot , James Stewart , described Lamason as " a wonderful unsung hero " . In the book , " 168 Jump into Hell " , Lamason was described as having single - minded determination selflessness , cold courage and forcefulness in the face of the very real threat to him of execution by the camp authorities because he was their leader , who quickly established himself as a legendary figure in the airmen ' s eyes . In the National Film Board of Canada 1994 documentary , " The Lucky Ones : Allied Airmen and Buchenwald " , captured pilot Tom Blackham stated that Lamason was not only the senior officer , but also their natural leader . Lamason emerged from Buchenwald with a giant reputation . In the book , " Destination Buchenwald " , Lamason stated that he felt deeply honoured to have been the senior officer during the Buchenwald period . Aftermath and later life . Following their liberation and return to England , Lamason was asked to consider commanding one of the Okinawa squadrons for the final attack on Japan . However , the RNZAF refused and Lamason returned to New Zealand , arriving there the day after the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima . After the war , Lamason was discharged from the air force on 16 December 1945 . In 1946 , Lamason was asked to be the lead pilot to test the flight paths for a new British airport . As part of the agreement , he was offered a farm in Berkshire . However , family said he needed to be home instead and Heathrow Airport went ahead without him . In 1948 , Lamason moved to Dannevirke , a small rural community north east of Palmerston North where he acquired 406 acres and became a farmer until his retirement . During the 1980s and 1990s , Lamason was a regular speaker at KLB ( initials for Konzentrationslager Buchenwald ) Club reunions , a club formed by the allied airmen while detained in Buchenwald . Lamason was also a member of the Caterpillar Club , an informal association of people who have successfully used a parachute to bail out of a disabled aircraft . Lamason hid the fact for 39 years that the order for the airmen ' s execution was given and scheduled for 26 October 1944 , first mentioning it at a Canadian POW convention in Hamilton in 1983 . In May 1987 , the New Zealand government in Wellington approved a fund to compensate servicemen held in German concentration camps and Lamason was awarded $ 13 , 000 . However , Lamason was never honoured by his homeland for his leading role in saving the lives of the allied airmen at Buchenwald . In 1994 , the National Film Board of Canada released a documentary movie titled , “ " The Lucky Ones : Allied Airmen and Buchenwald " ” , in which former Allied airmen recounted their personal and collective stories of life before , during and after Buchenwald . Lamason was interviewed and mentioned throughout the documentary . Lamason was also portrayed in the History Channel ’ s 2004 documentary " " Shot from the Sky " " , about the real life saga of B - 17 pilot Roy Allen , one of the captured airmen taken to Buchenwald . In April 2005 , Lamason , then 86 , recollected the events of Buchenwald on TV New Zealand . In June 2010 , Lamason , then 91 , was interviewed again about his experience at Buchenwald by Mike Dorsey . This and other interviews with Lamason are featured in Dorsey ' s 2011 documentary film titled , " Lost Airmen of Buchenwald " , which tells the complete story of the 168 Allied airmen who were sent to Buchenwald , including Lamason . Mike Dorsey said Lamason remained scarred by his experiences to the extent that Dorsey said “ I have a feeling that Lamason , to put it in a word , has no time for the Germans . ” Lamason died at his home on 19 May 2012 , on the farm outside Dannevirke where he had lived for over 60 years . He was 93 and at the time of his death , survived by two sons and two daughters , his wife ( Joan " née " Hopkins ) having died in 2009 .