Capt Geoffrey Packham
Lancaster pilot who was shot down over the Netherlands
CAPTAIN GEOFFREY PACKHAM, who has died aged 95, was shot down over the Netherlands and arrested by the Gestapo.
On the night of June 16/17 1944, Packham and his crew took off in their Lancaster to attack the oil facility at Sterkrade. On the bombing run to the target the aircraft was hit by flak and one of the engines was destroyed.
Unable to open the bomb doors, and with his instruments damaged, Packham turned for home. Shortly afterwards, the Lancaster was attacked by a night-fighter and a second engine was put out of action. With the bomber losing height he ordered the crew to bail out before he too took to his parachute just as the Lancaster entered a spin.
The crew landed in the Netherlands where Packham’s six colleagues were soon rounded up but he managed to avoid capture. He was picked up by friendly locals and given civilian clothes and a false identity card. He was then escorted as he walked, cycled and travelled by train into Belgium.
There he was delivered to a safe house in Antwerp and questioned again to establish his identity and details of his flight. Other evaders were at the house, but shortly before they were due to leave on the next stage of their escape, they were arrested by the Gestapo and taken for interrogation.
Packham had been picked up by KLM Line – an escape line that had been infiltrated by the Abwehr, the German military counterintelligence and counterespionage service, using a Flemish collaborator.
The Abwehr’s objective was not just to catch Allied airmen and their innocent Dutch and Belgian helpers, but also to extract valuable intelligence from the airmen who thought they were in friendly hands.
Packham was eventually sent to Stalag Luft I at Barth on the Baltic coast. On May 2 1945, the Russians liberated the camp but before its 9,000 inmates could be repatriated, they had to clear the nearby bomb-scarred airfield. Ten days later aircraft of the US 8th Air Force arrived to return them to Britain.
The son of a Great War fighter pilot, Geoffrey Howard Packham was born in Sheffield on January 27 1922 and educated at Firth Park Grammar School in the city. He started work as an audit clerk with the council but speed was his passion. His aunt was a well-known motorcycle racer and she encouraged him and his brother in the sport.
He volunteered to be a pilot in the RAF and, after completing his training in Canada in March 1942, found himself teaching glider pilots and flying target aircraft at an airgunnery school. In November 1943 he converted to Lancaster bombers and joined No 550 Squadron.
Packham’s first operation was on the night of D-day when targets in Northern France were bombed in support of the Allied landings. On his seventh sortie 10 days later, he and his crew were shot down.
After the war Packham went back to his job with Sheffield City Council, but after six years returned to flying, joining Sabena, the Belgian national airline. He flew long-range routes for eight years, evacuating Belgians from the Congo in 1960 when riots broke out after independence.
The same year Packham returned to Britain and joined the Flight Operations Department of the CAA. He became a senior inspector, flew various civil airliners, and was a member of the inspection team that flew with British Airways crews bringing Concorde into service.
Packham was always passionate about motorcycling and was a talented amateur rider, achieving success, together with his brother, in trials events and sidecar racing, before retiring from the sport aged 75.
Geoffrey Packham married Estelle Kadleck in 1952; she died in 2005. Their two daughters survive him.
Geoffrey Packham, born January 27 1922, died October 17 2017