Notes Shot Down on 28 Dec 41, Shot by the Gestapo Near Görlitz, after escaping from Stalag Luft III During the Great Escape.
Flight Lieutenant (Pilot) Charles Piers Egerton “Chaz” Hall Veteran
Birth 25 Jul 1918 Kings Norton, Metropolitan Borough of Birmingham, West Midlands, England Service No: 50896
Regiment/Service: Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve
Honours: Mentioned in Despatches
Son of Aubrey and Marcella Egerton-Hall, of Kingston-on-Thames, Surrey.
Death 30 Mar 1944 (aged 25) Miasto Legnica, Dolnośląskie, Poland
Burial Old Garrison Cemetery Poznań, Miasto Poznań, Wielkopolskie, Poland GPS-Latitude: 52.4176889, Longitude: 16.9329833
Plot Coll. grave 9. A.
Memorial ID 20953771
One of the Great Escape participants. 50896 F/L Charles P Hall, British, born 25-Jul-1918, 1 PRU, PoW 28-Dec-1941, recaptured near Sagan, murdered 30-Mar-1944 by Lux and Scharpwinkel, cremated at Liegnitz.
28 Dec 1941
Bergen op Zoom, Noord-Brabant, Netherlands
AA804 was delivered to 1 PRU on 07 Oct 41 and 28 Dec 41 was the aircraft’s first operational flight
| Date: | Sunday 28 December 1941 |
| Time: | 14:05 |
| Type: | Supermarine Spitfire PR Mk IV |
| Owner/operator: | 1 PRU RAF |
| Registration: | AA804 |
| MSN: | 2166. |
| Fatalities: | 0 / Occupants: 1 |
| Other fatalities: | 0 |
| Aircraft damage: | Destroyed |
| Location: | near Bergen op Zoom, Noord-Brabant – Netherlands |
| Phase: | En route |
| Nature: | Military |
| Departure airport: | RAF Benson, Oxfordshire |
| Destination Airport: |
Spitfire AA804 took off from Benson, P/O Hall was a member of ‘D’ Flight in 1941 when shot down at Bergen op Zoom Holland on only his third flight and taken prisoner.
1943
F/L Charles Piers HALL (50896) who was at Stalag Luft III. He was one of the 50 executed on the personal orders of Adolf Hitler for taking part in the Great Escape. He was a pilot with 1 Photo Reconnaissance Unit (PRU) and became a POW
Narrative:
Takeoff at 10:40 hrs for a photo recce operation to Düsseldorf, Germany. On the evening of the 27th, RAF Bomber Command had raided the German city.
The aircraft suffered engine trouble which forced the pilot to put it down.
30/03/1944 50896 Flight Lieutenant Charles Piers Egerton Hall MID, Royal Air Force Volunteer Reserve, 1 PRU, Pilot, POZNAN OLD GARRISON CEMETERY, Coll. grave 9. A., son of Aubrey and Marcella Egerton-Hall, of Kingston-On-Thames, Surrey. Executed by Gestapo after The Great Escape.
Hello, I am researching Charles Piers Hall. He joined the RAF in 1935 as no 550173 Boy Photographer. He attended the School of Photography from 18 February 1935 until 18 February 1936. He was stationed at RAF Calshot, HMS Argus and NAS Eastleigh before starting Flight training on 19 August 1940. His service number changed to 50896 upon graduating.
He became a Spitfire pilot with 1 Photo Reconnaissance Unit (PRU). On his third mission he had to bail out over the Netherlands after engine problems and became a POW at Stalag Luft 3. He was part of the mass escape now known as the Great Escape but was recaptured and murdered by the Germans with 49 other recaptured POWs.
I have found his crash site and have been researching him for the last 5.5 years. I am in touch with family members and I am planning to visit the national archives in Kew in a couple of weeks to search for info about him and his aircraft.
I have questions: Where would he have attended the School of Photography in 1935?
Are there any archives available on him as an RAF Photographer?
Is there anything else that could help my research?
I have some photographs of him and taken by him (also some air to ground photography) would these photographs be of interest to you?
Kind regards,
Guido Almekinders, kotor@home.nl
the Netherlands
Website:https://www.facebook.com/Spitfire-PRIV-AA804-Remembering-PO-Charles-P-Hall-102310054888112
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