Hero's farewell for RAF man shot down and tortured by Nazis

FAMILY, friends and veterans paid tribute at the funeral of an RAF hero who was tortured by the Nazis at Buchenwald concentration camp.

- By James Podesta

FAMILY, friends and veterans paid tribute at the funeral of an RAF hero who was tortured by the Nazis at Buchenwald concentration camp.

Sqn Ldr Stanley Booker, who died last month aged 102, was shot down over northern France in June 1944.

He was taken in by the Resistance but was betrayed by a Belgian and, in civvies, was seized by the Gestapo.

Stanley was taken by cattle train to the camp at Weimar, Germany, where more than 56,000 prisoners died. He was tortured by the secret police and saw prisoners murdered.

He was two days from execution as suspected Special Operations Executive agent but was saved when Luftwaffe officers found Allied airmen were there and he was transferred to air force-run Stalag Luft III at Zagan, now in Poland. That camp was made famous by The Great Escape film.