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Donaldson, now manager of a Lethbridge tire service firm last saw Bader at the Colditz prisoner-of-war camp in Germany in April, 1945, when the camp was freed by the United States army. The same day Bader was flown to England while Donaldson returned later.Donaldson, known as “Weasel” to his war buddies, was born and educated in Lethbridge. He first met the legless ace at the camp at Goidltz in 1943.Both had been shot down in aerial engagements with the Luftwaffe.Of Bader, Donaldson said: He was a terrific morale builder. Nothing ever got him down and he helped us a lot.”As an emputee, Bader was placed on parole and allowed toTHEY REALLY HIT JACKPOTLethbridge finance director A. W. W. Findlay’s office hit the jackpot Friday.It took in nearly $1,700,000, though none of the officials went near the games of chance at the Exhibition grounds.The total was made up of a cheque for $1,133,900 from the Alberta Municipal Finance Corporation representing loans to finance the city’s capital works program, a cheque for $280,-423.93 in payment of the city’s share of municipal grant revenues from the provincial gasoline tax, and cheques totalling approximately $280,000 from se-WILSON DONALDSONnu:ubiwalk about freely in and outside the camp.“He walked as many as 10 miles a day,” Donaldson recalled, in an interview with The Herald, “to obtain food for the men who were practically being starved to death by the Germans.TRADES C1GARETS“The prisoners were given barely enough‘ifpod to live on, the idea being to weaken us so we wouldn’t try to escape,” Donaldson, explained.Bader traded cigarets while out of camp to German civilians for food and smuggled it into camp in his artificial legs,Donaldson and Bader worked together on a number of camp projects including an escape committee.A book, Detour”, was published after the war and it contains the diaries of each of the prisoners at the camp. Included are those of Bader and Donaldson.Donaldson went to England and joined the RAF in 1935. He returned to Lethbridge in 1939 and voluntarily returned to England when the war broke out the same fall.He went through the ranks and was promoted flight-lieutenant a month before he was shot down April 12, 1940, after completing three operational trips over Norway,bTJ
Newspaper Details
Lethbridge Herald
Lethbridge, Alberta, CA
Sat, Jul 27, 1957
Page 15
Full Page
Clipped by
Barbara C.
NA, NA 13 Oct 2023
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