Long March Display Unveiled at Museum
Published on: 12 March 2025
Sergeant George Thomson
Image courtesy of Ian Buchanan
From late 1944 to April 1945, 80,000 Allied prisoners-of-war were marched westwards from the Nazis’ network of camps, as the Soviet Army advanced towards the German front. This event is known as the Long March. Prisoners were forced to walk hundreds of miles in extreme winter temperatures. Many died from exposure, exhaustion or disease, or were shot by guards.
To mark the 80th anniversary of the Long March, the RAF Museum is displaying loaned objects belonging to Sergeant George Thomson, who was force marched westwards from Stalag Luft VII in January 1945. George, a navigator, was imprisoned after baling out of a Lancaster while on a bombing raid over Frankfurt.
The Long March Memorial, located in Hangar 5
The display opened today in RAF Museum London Hangar 5, within the Museum’s ‘Strike Hard, Strike Sure’ Bomber Command exhibition and beside the Long March Memorial.
Items on display include George’s diary, which gives a powerful insight into his experiences as a prisoner-of-war, as well as his navigator’s badge, flying logbook, prisoner-of-war dog tags and wrappers from a Red Cross food parcel.
Top – descriptions of each of the artefacts on display. Bottom – the artefacts on display.
Also on show will be a postcard from George to his parents, dated 4 October 1944. It reads; ‘Dear Mum and Dad, I am now in a POW camp and the address is on the front. Please don’t worry about me; I am quite OK and thanks to the “Red Cross” life here is quite good. Will you let all my friends know, and keep everything going for me. I only hope you have not had too much anxiety, and that you are both well. Take care of yourselves – all my love, George.’