Nationality Czech Name Ernst Valenta Known for One of "The Fifty" | Occupation Aviator Other names Arnost, Wally | |
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Born 25 October 1912 ( 1912-10-25 ) Svebohov, Austria-Hungary Died March 31, 1944, Ilowa, Poland | ||
Arnost Valenta ( [ˈarnoʃt ˈvalɛnta]; 25 October 1912 – 31 March 1944) was a Czechoslovak member of the Royal Air Force murdered by the Gestapo in March 1944.
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Capture
Valenta belonged to No. 311 Squadron RAF, a Czechoslovakian bomber squadron based at RAF East Wretham in Norfolk. His final mission was in a Vickers Wellington Mk.IC (call sign: KX-T ). The other crew members were:
They departed on 6 February 1941 on an operation over Boulogne. However, their aircraft was forced to land in Flers, France. The Wellington, which was captured intact, was later flown by the Luftwaffe at the Erprobungsstelle, its Experimental and Test Facility near Rechlin in Mecklenburg-Vorpommern.
The Great Escape
Valenta played a significant role in preparations for The Great Escape because he was the Head of Contacts (i.e. Scrounging) for the "X" Organization in North Compound at Stalag Luft III near Sagan (now Żagań) in Poland. He was among the first pairs of POWs to escape from the camp using a tunnel on 24 March 1944.
Valenta was eventually recaptured near the city of Görlitz on the German-Polish border. He last seen alive on 31 March 1944 while part of a group of ten other recaptured RAF officers who had been placed in the charge of Walter Scharpwinkel, an SS–Obersturmbannführer and Oberregierungsrat for the Görlitz district. He was one of 50 recaptured POWs who were murdered in cold blood by the Gestapo on the orders of Hitler.
After the war, a British Special Investigations Branch officer interviewed Scharpwinkel about the murders in a Moscow prison in 1946. Sometime later the Soviet authorities announced that Scharpwinkel had died in prison.