Raymond Davies Hughes facts for kids

Raymond Davies Hughes (born August 11, 1923 – died April 4, 1999) was from Mold, a town in north Wales. He was a Welsh airman in the RAF during World War II. During the war, he made radio broadcasts in Welsh for the Germans. These broadcasts were a type of propaganda.

Growing Up in Wales

Raymond Hughes moved to Mold when his mother married John Hughes. John worked as a bricklayer. Raymond went to Mold Council School and later to Alun School. When he was 15, he started working at a shoe store in Mold. He later became a manager at a store in Bangor. However, he was fired from this job. He said it was because he dressed shop windows while in his shirt sleeves.

Joining the War Effort

In 1941, Raymond Hughes joined the Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve. He was chosen to be an air gunner. He joined No. 467 Squadron, which was part of the Royal Australian Air Force. He did so well that after five months, he was suggested for a promotion to officer.

On August 17, 1943, Hughes was on his 21st flight as a gunner. He was in a Lancaster bomber, flying a mission over Peenemünde. Their plane was attacked by an enemy fighter and caught fire. The crew had to parachute out. Raymond was captured by the Germans. He was sent to a special camp for captured airmen near Frankfurt. This camp was called a Dulag Luft.

Working for the Germans

At first, Hughes agreed to hand out forms to other prisoners. He was told these were Red Cross forms to help families contact their captured loved ones. But the forms were actually designed to get more personal information from the prisoners. This information could then be used by the Germans during questioning.

Raymond soon became helpful to the Germans. He stayed at the Dulag Luft camp instead of being moved to a regular prisoner-of-war (POW) camp. Because he helped, he received better living conditions and more special treatment than other prisoners. He was even allowed to wear regular clothes. Some reports said that by November 1943, he was wearing a German uniform.

Using the fake name John Charles Baker, Raymond agreed to make propaganda broadcasts. He moved to Berlin and had a lot of freedom there. He rented an apartment and worked as a broadcaster and writer at Radio Metropole. He was paid 600 ℛℳ each month. Between January and March 1944, he made several broadcasts in the Welsh language. These broadcasts were aimed at Welsh troops fighting in the Italian campaign. Later, information gathered by MI9 (a British intelligence group) suggested that Hughes also wrote messages against Jewish people for broadcast.

Sometime in 1944, Raymond Hughes lost his special treatment. He was moved to a regular POW camp. In April 1945, he was freed by Soviet forces. While waiting to go back to Britain, he was arrested. He was accused of helping the enemy while he was a prisoner of war.

His Trial

Raymond Hughes had a military trial, called a court-martial, in August 1945 at RAF Uxbridge. He said he was not guilty of 11 charges of helping the enemy. One charge was that he gave money to people recruiting for the British Free Corps. This was a special German unit made up of British and Allied POWs.

He was found not guilty of six charges. But he was found guilty of the remaining five charges. Three of these charges could have led to a death sentence. However, he was sentenced to five years of hard work in prison. This was later reduced to two years after he asked for a lighter sentence.

Raymond Hughes later became a businessman. He died in Cheltenham in 1999.

In Books and Plays

Raymond Hughes's story was told in a play called Radio Cymru. Wiliam Owen Roberts wrote this play. The Dalier Sylw theatre company produced it.