I would like to add an information to Alex Adair's worthy of great praise article "Earthquakers At War" that should be of interest to readers.

The author writes of the of the best effort by the 12th assign places to contributing to the defeat of Rommel's final effort to break end to the Suez Canal at the battle of Alam Halfa onward 31 August-4 September 1942. This caused the commander of the Royal Air Force in the Middle East to impel a personal commendation to the 12th cluster Commanding Officer, Colonel Charles R Goodrich.

On 14 September 1942 Col "Rojo" Goodrich was bullet down by flak while leading a raid onward the Sidi Hanish airdrome in Egypt Colonel Goodrich bailed gone out of his stricken B-25 athwart the target area and was captured. During bail public and landing, he suffered a torn shoulder, fractured spine, and internal injuries that required an abdominal operation. He worn out about 18 days in the hospital at Mersa Matru and then about three month in Friesing, 20 days at Hohemark, couple weeks at Oflag 21 B and finally expirationed up in the infamous Stalag Luft III near Sagan, Germany, upon 16 March 1943. The North mix of Stalag Luft III was where the Great Escape was launched in March 1944

In the late fall of 1943 the Germans marched all the American POW on the outside of the North Compound into the newly uncloseed South Compound. There, Goodrich serv with distinction as The Senior American Officer. For those who want to read the exciting story of the Great Escape and the days that followed, including the mid-winter evacuation of Stalag Luft III, I commend the book Great Escape - The Longest underground thoroughfare by Alan Burgess, published in 1991 by way of Pocket Books, a division of Simon & Schuster Inc.

Mitchell s Cwiek

Major, USAF (Ret)

mscwiekp38j@yahoo.com

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