Shot down, captured and tortured but Derrick, 100, says he’s always been lucky
RAF joins party for survivor of WW2 Death March
RAF fighter hero Derrick Grubb may have been shot down, captured, tortured by the Nazis and forced on the infamous Death March – but toasting his 100th birthday, the veteran insisted he had “always been lucky”.
The Second World War squadron leader marked his milestone at a gala lunch with family, friends and current members of the RAF, laid on by veterans support group Project 71.
Asked for his secret in reaching three figures, Derrick, of Havant, Hants, said: “I wish I knew – I’ve always been healthy and lucky. So much has happened.”
He served with 112 Squadron – flying Kittyhawk fighters from beaches in Italy – but was taken captive and held at Stalag Luft 7, a Luftwaffe prisoner of war camp in what is now Bakow, Poland.
Interned on June 6, 1944, which was D-Day, Derrick later ended up on what became known as The Death March and The Long March.
Nazi guards forced some 80,000 Allied prisoners to trek at gunpoint for hundreds of miles in the severe winter of January to April 1945 to keep ahead of advancing Russian troops as Germany fell. Poorly dressed and ill-fed, the captives trudged west across Poland, Czechoslovakia and into Germany.
Guards
Derrick ended up in Stalag III-A in Luckenwalde, Germany, for the rest of the war until the PoWs’ Nazi guards deserted in the face of the Russians’ rapid advance, and the camp was liberated. Post-war, he then stayed in the RAF for another 34 years before being employed as a bursar at a grammar school in Chippenham, Wilts. His wife Joyce died in 2001.
Air Commodore Simon Harper, grants director of the Royal Air Force Benevolent Fund, who attended the centenary lunch at Hampshire’s Wickham Estate Winery, said: “One hundred years is a remarkable achievement. On behalf of the Royal Air Force it was a privilege to join Derrick on his very special day.”
He was joined by RAF Odiham’s Sqn Ldr Adam Calvesbert, WO Angela Grimshaw and WG Cdr Becky Bassett. A band and historic vehicles added to the occasion.
Father-of-four Derrick has six grandchildren and nine great-grandchildren.