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This is an easy cache and dash but you may want to take a seat and give a moment to remember the many people that gave their lives so that we could be free.
Born in Landau on August 28th 1921, Bernard Scheidhauer was the son of Colonel Michel William Scheidhauer who was the Commanding Officer to a Battalion of Moroccan infantry. He grew up in Germany and France and his hopes and aspirations were to become a pilot following his graduation, but this was unfortunately postponed by the fall of France in May of 1940. Bernard, little more than a teenager, tried once, and failed, a crossing of the Pyrenees to Spain. Then he made his way to Douarnenez, a fishing village just south of Brest on the Cornouaille coast, where his family had relatives. Along with five other eager young Frenchmen, he purchased a small fishing boat called "La Petite Anna". On the night of 20th/21st of October, 1940, the six young men set sail for England, with 24 hours worth of rations on board, and a total of 180 litres of fuel. After a couple of days at sea, they ran into heavy weather. Riding out the storm, they used up the remaining fuel and began to drift helplessly. After being at sea for ten days, they were rescued by the British merchant ship, SS Craighorn, and who deposited them safely at Milford Haven. On November 5th, 1940, Bernard enlisted in the Free French Navy, serving on a ship called "Volontaire", which was berthed in Liverpool. However, his ambition to be a pilot was answered on January 22nd, 1941, when he was called to Camberley to start his training. Around June 24th 1942 he received his wings and flew Spitfires. Then, sadly, on November 18th, Bernard was hit by flak which affected his fuel situation by cutting the lines. However, thinking he was heading for home, for some reason he headed west instead of east. He finally ran out of fuel and was forced to crash land, wheels up, by the Dielament Manor near Victoria Village, on the Island of Jersey, just barely missing a herd of cows. Thinking he was on the Isle of Wight, Bernard wanted to return to base, and then when he was told where he was by the bystanders, wanted to destroy the plane, but without much success. These bystanders helped him to dismantle parts of it, including the cockpit and the laminated wooden propeller, before the occupying forces showed up some 45 minutes later. Bernard was taken prisoner and after the usual formalities, he was assigned to Sagan - Stalag Luft 111. Being trilingual in French, English and German, these talents were soon picked up by the camp escape committee, headed by "Big X", Squadron Leader Roger Bushell. Roger was quite experienced in escape and he soon selected Scheidhauer to form part of the security side of the escape and tunnelling operation. Bernard's first main task was to keep a watch on the German guards and report on their every move. When the tunnelling started, he also spent several hours at the tunnel face - a particularly hazardous task with the constant risk of cave-ins and of being buried alive under all that sandy yellow soil. Fortunately an ingenious method for the removal of that soil had been devised by another prisoner; Lt Peter ("Hornblower") Fanshaw. This consisted of special 'pockets' in trousers or greatcoats. The pockets were filled with soil, and distributed evenly throughout the compound by the wearer. Bernard was one of the 'Penguins' as they were called. The tunnel called "Harry" was completed by March of 1944 and the first moonless night after this was selected to be the escape day. For the escape, Roger Bushell chose Bernard because of the latter's language abilities, and they were considered among the 70 escapers most likely to succeed. They were chosen to be numbers 3 and 4 out of the tunnel. But then the problems started! First the door to 'Harry' was stuck solid, and took an hour to free. Then they found the tunnel had been made 20 feet too short, and ended in the clearing outside the fence, instead of in the forest as was intended. Once out, and on their way, Bushell and Scheidhauer made their way to the Sagan railway station and caught a train to Breslau. There Bushell and Scheidhauer caught another train to Saarbrucken. Then their luck ran out. They were hoping to continue on from there into France. However, they were unfortunately asked to show their papers. The jig was up when Bernard, answered the Guard's "Have a good day" by saying in English, "Thank you". They were arrested and turned over to the Gestapo, who shot them dead a couple of days later. Bushell was 33 and Scheidhauer was 22. In 1963 the film The Great Escape portrayed the above escape from Stalg Luft 111. On September 17th, 1999, the people of the Isle of Jersey, on the initiative of resident Ian Le Sueur, held a service for Bernard Scheidhauer, and the unveiling of a memorial near the field where he landed. Members of the Scheidhauer family were in attendance. The above co ordinates take you to the memorial site close to where the plane crashed. Please bring a pen to sign the log, and sorry no FTF present on this one, just the prestige of the log.
Additional Hints
(Decrypt)
Sebag, yrsg sbbg