FOB committee member, Jenny Hibbens has sent us this fascinating tale of her Father.
Sgt
Vivian Joseph HIBBENS (Smoky) RAAF SN: 400712
The
Habitual Escaper
Vivian Joseph Hibbens was born in Bemboka NSW on 16th
January 1922. His parents were Herbert Ernest Mingus Hibbens and Ethel Cecilia
(nee: Pritchard). He had one younger sister, Norma Pearl.
In 1938 he was given a 17 hands high race horse which
could no longer race. He promptly went out and enlisted in the 8th
Light Horse - telling a white lie about his age to be
eligible - being rather patriotic he chose the 26th January 1917 as
his birth date.
He enlisted with the Royal Australian Air Force on 13th
October 1940 in Melbourne. At the time he was employed as a Bank Officer with
the Commonwealth Bank.
After his initial air training under the Empire Air
Training Scheme at 5 Elementary Flying Training School at Narromine NSW - he
was shipped to Canada where he gained his wings at Camp Borden Ontario. He then
sailed to the UK and undertook Spitfire Training at Hawarden Wales and was attached to the 234 Squadron at Ibsley in
Hampshire. After gaining his endorsement on Spitfires – he flew a few volunteer
night sorties over France. Whilst here, his mother sent him a Koala mascot - whom
he named ‘Anzac’.
In April 1942 he was posted to service in the Middle-East
to fly Spitfires with the 145 Squadron RAF, travelling via Sierra Leone. After
completing only eight operational sorties with his squadron, he was detailed to
transport a Hawker Hurricane fighter to 33 Squadron RAF, at Landing Ground 154
near Alexandria during the First Battle of El Alamein, on 18 July 1942. He
encountered a sandstorm, turned to the east to avoid it, and was then blown off
course by wind and attacked by 13 German Me109 fighter aircraft. His aircraft
was badly damaged and running out of fuel when he crashed close to German tanks
near the El Alamein front line - but not before he shot down two of the German fighters. His only injury was a
bayonet wound to his right arm, sustained from an over jealous German. He took his mascot Anzac with him as he left
the aircraft. He was taken via the usual route via Mersa Matruh on the coast
for interrogation, then to Dulag Luft at Frankfurt in cells for a week before
being transported to the largest POW camp the Germans had - Stalag 8B at
Lamsdorf Poland. This was the only POW
Camp in WWII where all the Australian Airmen were housed together in three
barracks. There were 84 of them. He became POW No. 25096.
Being a country boy, he found the life in the POW camp
boring as an RAAF Officer. The captured allied airmen were not permitted to go
out on the working parties as the Germans accorded them the same respect as
they did their Luftwaffe - whom they considered the elite of their forces. They
were not for trivial manual labour. He was delighted when he was appointed the
‘Camp Librarian’ – only to discover that the books rarely came back. Those that
did had most of the pages torn out by the borrowers to be used as toilet paper.
Apparently the newly arrived in camp were given this dubious position as a bit
of a joke. He also earned the nick name of Smoky - for his battering with
cigarettes for food - this name stayed with him for the rest of his life.
When the British and the Germans agree to repatriate and
swap sick and wounded POWs – Anzac was smuggled to a man being sent back to
England with the message that “the owner is alive and well in Stalag 8B - send
this message to his mother”. Unfortunately the POW could not remember who owned
Anzac - except that it belonged to an RAAF man. Anzac was placed behind
Reception at RAAF House in London. One day someone who knew him recognised the
Koala . . . “That is Viv Hibbens’ Koala”. Anzac was reunited with his owner at
the end of the war.
He attempted several escapes from within the confines of
the camp – all were quickly thwarted. He would do his time in ‘the hole’ and then
would try again. Realising that this was all futile - he then signed up to
become part of the ‘Swap-Over’ group.
During an interview with Ron Wall in late December 2007
(also a RAAF POW in Stalag 8B) he is quoted as saying when asked if he
remembered him “Oh yes. He was a quiet man. But he was never there – he was
always out escaping. He would get caught and brought back and then he would
turn right around and do it again. We got used to not seeing him.”
First, he became Private Stanley Francis Weir from the
New Zealand Army (POW No. 5239). He apparently made 6 unsuccessful bids of
escape during this time from the working party at the Tichlau paper factory – but none of them
were documented. Later, from 15th September 1944 as Private Douglas
William Simpson (POW No. 8033) from the Australian 2/2 Battalion, he made three
unsuccessful bids for freedom. The first attempt was on the 12th November 1944 –
he broke out of camp and joined a working Commando at Oberglau (a beet factory
40 kms south of POW camp), 16 kilometres west of the Oder. He attempted to
cross the Oder to join the Russians. He was free for 13 days, getting food from
farmers and picking up some on the wayside. He was eventually picked up by the
German S.S. Front Line Patrol, and sent back to the working party.
His second attempt was on 16th December 1944
where he again broke away from the Working Party near the town of Frapatz, was
on the run for 10 days – once again being picked up and returned to the Working
Party.
Again on January 3rd 1945 near Frapatz he
escaped again and was on the run for 9 days until being picked up and returned
to the Working Party.
When the orders came through to March out the Prisoners
from Stalag 8B on 22nd January 1945 - he was still with the working
party. The real Private Simpson, who was still acting as Sgt Hibbens, decided
marching off in the cold was not a good option - so he went back to the Army
enclosure and was later taken out by cattle car.
His final and successful bid for freedom was on the Death
March around 21st April 1945. Some of the other POWs on the Death March who had also
escaped, were picked up by the Czech Partisans. They asked the Partisans to go out
and find him. He was found huddled under a bush where he had been sleeping and
he was taken to a small town called Kdyne in the SE of Czechoslovakia where he
was hidden in the basement of a Delicatessen shop. This tiny town had hidden
around 400 escaped POWs - which was incredibly brave, since if any had been
discovered by the Germans - whole families would have been shot. When he heard
that the Americans were on their way - he headed off to meet them on the 4th
May to join up with the 9th Infantry Regiment of General Patton’s
Army.
In a letter written from Kdyne on 7th May 1945
- he talked about playing cards with an escaped Canadian and two Czech girls .
. . “none of us can speak the other’s
language - but we are managing to have fun. The whole town is draped in
decorations and flags and flowers adorn the US Army tanks and Jeeps”. The
Americans kept him with them to act as Interpreter to the M.63 Signals Air
Corps. He went with them into Prague and then on to Berlin. In mid-May they
endeavoured to send him home - but not before he kept his promise to his mother
that at the end of the war he would “see the sites of Europe”. He went on to
Belgium and then Paris and eventually was repatriated back to England on 16th May 1945. He was the last man home of the RAAF POWs in Stalag 8B.
Smoky was a staunch RSL man all his life, leading the
local Marches on Anzac Day and Memorial Day each year. He became a member of
the Odd Bods UK - NSW Branch until his untimely death at the age of 50 in 1972
from a heart condition which his doctors believed was a result of his time as a
POW and the Death March.
Anzac’s flying days did not end with the war. Smoky’s
daughter, Jennifer, took him with her during her flying training in the late
60s and early 70s. Sadly, by that stage he had no fur left and had been sewn up
after having been ‘examined’ by the Germans. He is now housed at the
Australian War Memorial along with hundreds of letters and other war
memorabilia which his mother had diligently saved.
John received his Legion D’Honneur at Melbourne’s
Shrine of Remembrance on 29th September and in fact he is in the same
photo as Ron Fitch in a previous article. Our apologies for missing you John.
