Heroes Militaria

Robert Baker

My passion for militaria stems mainly from family history.  

I am half British and half German. 

On my English paternal side, to avoid internment of foreign nationals in Britain, there was a family surname change at the start of WW1 from Schneider to Baker; hence I am German decendant on both sides. 

My German maternal grandad, pictured above right, became a Luftwaffe Stuka pilot in WW2. He was an Oberfeldwebel, a teacher who trained pilots to fly at Oppeln airfield from 1939 - 1944. He was shot down in the winter of 1944 over Russia and became a prisoner of war.

My mum, as a 10 year old child, heard the news that he was MIA and unlikely to have survived. Along with her mum and sister, she became a refugee during WW2, fleeing their hometown of Breslau to escape the Russian advance.

She met my father whilst he was on National Service in Germany and they married in 1952.  In 1953, she received a phone call from the Red Cross, in Germany, stating that her father has been found alive.  He had escaped a Russian POW camp with 11 others; only 2 of them ever making it back to their homeland.  Accompanied by a nurse, he was reunited with my mum at a train station in Germany, where she ran to him; they hugged for what seemed like eternity.  The many years spent in prison and a long harsh journey on the run had taken its toll.  It took almost a year of nursing care for him to recover.  He lived until 1979, aged 81.

My English paternal grandad, items pictured above left, was a member of the British Home Front, an air raid warden, who bravely helped save people from bomb damaged buildings, as a result of the many Luftwaffe raids over London.  He also owned a factory that made much needed medical supplies for the front. 

Lastly, my uncle, was also a British Para, having been parachuted into Arnhem in 1944, he was one of the 2000 who made it out alive. 

Despite being on opposite sides of the war, they all shared many things in common: none of them wanted war, and they rarely, if ever, spoke about it. 

To me, as a young boy growing up, they were all 'Heroes'.

Robert 'Schneider' Baker

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