Raymond Davies Hughes, an RAF sergeant from Mold, worked with traitor William Joyce, better known as "Lord Haw Haw", broadcasting Nazi propaganda in WWII after he was shot down on a bombing raid and became a prisoner of war, writes contributor Kevin Broadfoot who is researching Hughes' story.
Hughes moved to Mold after his mother married John Hughes a bricklayer at John Summers steelworks in Shotton. The family lived in Pwllglas and Hughes first attended Mold Council School and then in 1937 went on to Mold Alun. On leaving school at 15 he took up a position with Oliver's Boot Stores on Mold's High Street.
Although he did not distinguish himself at school, his progress and conduct having been described as unsatisfactory, he did make his mark with his new employer and was soon promoted to a branch manager's position in Bangor but then was suddenly dismissed. He maintained that he had been caught dressing the shop windows in his shirt sleeves.
Hughes joined the RAF Volunteer Reserve in 1941 and although rejected for pilot training he was selected for flying duties as an air gunner. He was posted to 467 Squadron Royal Australian Air Force and in the five months before he was shot down made such a favourable impression that he was recommended for an officer's commission.
On the evening of August 17 1943, six days after his 20th birthday, Hughes was on his 21st mission as an air gunner in a Lancaster bomber, taking part in the raid on Germany's secret rocket research centre in Peenemünde where the V1 flying bomb and V2 rockets were being developed.
After his aircraft was attacked by a German fighter and set on fire the six crew bailed out over the Baltic Sea but, unfortunately, the flight engineer and radio operator drowned. Hughes landed in a field on a small island and, suffering from burns and a sprained ankle, was quickly captured and transported to Dulag Luft, the reception and interrogation centre near Frankfurt.
There he agreed to hand out 'Red Cross' forms to other prisoners. Although these collected more personal details than the fabled 'name, rank and number' which was all captured aircrew were required to disclose, Hughes believed his interrogators' explanation that the information would be used to help contact the families of captured airmen.
This was a deception commonly used by the Germans - they were not official Red Cross forms and the information was used later in interrogations. Hughes quickly became useful to the Germans and he was kept at Dulag Luft instead of being moved on to a normal prisoner of war camp. His 'assistance' brought rewards and he enjoyed a considerable number of privileges - he had better quarters and more freedom than the other prisoners and could wear civilian clothes. One report even suggests that by November 1943 he was wearing a German uniform.
Under the pseudonym of John Charles Baker, Hughes travelled to Berlin where he had a considerable amount of freedom. He rented a flat whilst he was employed as a broadcaster and script writer with Radio Metropole, receiving a monthly salary of 600 marks. He received further payments for work carried out for the German foreign ministry. Between January and March 1944 he made several broadcasts in Welsh intended for Welsh troops involved in the Italian campaign.
Hughes maintained he had merely read items of sports news and had included in these unscripted words from the Welsh national anthem and the Lord's Prayer. Unfortunately, the BBC Monitoring Service did not have a Welsh speaker listening to the broadcasts and were only able to confirm that the broadcasts had been made but information received through MI9, the part of British intelligence that maintained covert links with Allied POWs, suggested Hughes had also been writing anti Jewish propaganda for broadcast by the Germans.
Shortly before the end of the war Hughes lost his freedom to move around Berlin and was returned to a POW camp from where he was liberated by the Russians in April 1945. Whilst awaiting repatriation to Britain he was arrested and charged with voluntary aiding the enemy whilst a POW. Whilst in captivity Hughes had been promoted and it was as an RAF Warrant Officer that he appeared before the court martial held at RAF Uxbridge in August 1945.
He pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of assisting the enemy. Among these charges was one of providing money to those engaged in trying to promote and recruit volunteers for the British Free Corps - a unit comprised of British and Allied POWs who had agreed to fight for the Nazis on the Russian Front.
He was cleared of six of the 11 charges but found guilty of the other five (three of which carried the possibility of capital punishment) including assisting in the recruitment for the British Free Corps. A number of defence witnesses including the pilot of his Lancaster had spoken in his favour which may account for the fact that rather than receiving the death sentence, a penalty of five years hard labour was handed down. However an appeal for clemency was successful and Hughes was released after serving two years.
What happened to him then is uncertain although for a short while at least he did return to live in the Mold area and is believed to have then emigrated to Australia or Canada.
