Dambuster’s stolen photo album recovered
Documents to be returned to family in ceremony
The fruits of one woman’s battle to retrieve treasured wartime documents stolen by a British researcher will soon be handed to a grateful relative of one of the famous Dambuster airmen.
Jim Heather, the nephew of flier Ken Earnshaw, who was killed in the May, 1943, raid to destroy three dams above Germany’s industrial Ruhr region, said he owes much to Shere Fraser, whose father John Fraser survived the same mission but was captured.
On April 22, Fraser will return a photo album to Heather during a ceremony for the fliers at the Bomber Command Museum at Nanton.
“If it wasn’t for her tenacity and perseverance, we would never have gotten it back,” said Heather from his home in Vulcan.
“We’re anxious to get it back and see what’s in there.”
Canadians Fraser and Earnshaw were together in an Avro Lancaster aircraft during the raid to cripple the Ruhr region using special bombs designed to bounce off the water before hitting the dams.
The sorties resulted in the deaths of 53 Allied airmen and 1,600 civilians when two of the structures were breached, flooding factories and mines.
Fraser’s capture led to his involvement in the famous Great Escape caper at prison camp Stalag Luft III.
In 2000, British researcher Alex Bateman asked the families for the men’s’ log and photo books, which were sent with the understanding they’d be returned.
When they weren’t, Shere Fraser launched a campaign to retrieve them, which ultimately led to Bateman’s theft conviction in a British court last February, which she witnessed.
It was then that a police officer handed to Fraser Earnshaw’s photo album found in Bateman’s London apartment.
The log books have never been found, with Bateman still maintaining they were stolen from him.
“I have so little of him left, I have to fight. I have not given up and I won’t,” said Fraser, whose war veteran father was killed in a flying accident in 1962 when she was six.
“This generation of heroes is dying and at times, their legacy is being very sadly sold by unscrupulous collectors.”
It’s thought the log books can fetch thousands of dollars each.
The consolation of her incomplete efforts, Ken Earnshaw’s photo album, will be returned to the dead airman’s nephew in the condition it was found in Bateman’s home, said Fraser.
It includes about 140 images with a cover imprinted with the RCAF crest, she said.
“Alex basically tore out a lot of the photos, it’s quite dishevelled but I want Jim to see how it was found,” said Fraser, who lives in Blaine, Wash.
“I’m starting to have a disruptive sleep over it being so emotional.”