Taihape, Auckland, New Zealand#51 Squadron (Swift and Sure) RAF Snaith. Halifax II aircraft #JN 901 MH- was shot down by a night fighter during a raid against targets in Hannover, Germany
The aircraft was abandoned and Flying Officer PPJ Pohe MiD, one of the first Maori to serve in the Royal New Zealand Air Force, was taken as Prisoner of War. His Maori name was Porokoru Patapu
Flying Officer Pohe was later one of the seventy-six airmen to escape from Stalag Luft III in the Great Escape and one of the fifty to be murdered by the Gestapo after being re-captured, on direct orders of Adolph Hitler
Only three of the airmen who initially escaped made it to freedom
22/23.09.1943 51 Squadron Halifax II JN901, Fg Off. Porokoru P. Pohe ...
