James 'Dixie' Deans

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James 'Dixie' Deans (1913 - 18th February 1989) was a RAF sergeant and WWII bomber pilot who was shot down in 1940 and became a well known prisoner of war Camp Leader.^[1] Once captured he commanded the respect from his fellow POWs, who elected him Camp Leader and he also gained the respect and trust of his German captors. Deans spoke perfect German and was trusted by thousands of his fellow POWs for his quiet but firm decisions. In 1945 he guided 2,000 allied POWs across Germany in what was known as the 'Long March'.

Deans was imprisoned first at Stalag Luft I, then moved to Stalag Luft III - of Wooden Horse fame - where he held weekly meetings with the Germans on behalf of the commissioned and other rank POWs. His third POW camp was at Stalag Luft VI at Heydekrug, the easternmost German POW camp in Lithuania. At all camps he set up powerful intelligence gathering networks through the use of radios built in the camps by means of bribery of the guards. This enabled the POWs to hear events of the war from the BBC news and they were often better informed than their captors. He was also responsible for helping to organise passing back secret information to MI9 in the UK via coded letters.

In March 1945, Deans took charge of 12,000 POWs on a month-long march across Poland and Germany in what became known as one of the 'Long Marches' to Stalag XI-B (357) at Fallingbostel. From here in the later stage of the war Deans and many thousands of POWs were marched north-east towards Lubeck. Once again Deans Dixie took charge of the daily details of maintaining survival on this march and was bullied the Germans in charge for food, transport for the sick, and for better accommodation at nights. He demanded that the German commandant, Oberst Ostmann, allow him to set off to warn the approaching British armies of the POW columns ahead. He made contact with the British army but then insisted on returning to guide his men to safety were he accepted Oberst Ostmann's and his men's surrender.^[2]

Unbelievably when Deans returned home to England he was not offered a permanent commission in the RAF but found work as an executive officer at the London School of Economics, from where he retired in 1977. Shortly after the war Deans was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, which he fought for the rest of his life. Deans was awarded the MBE, but as a non-commissioned officer did not receive a knighthood which many thought he deserved.

Deans was a founder member and first President of the RAF Ex-POW Association.