Flight Officer Johnny Smythe, from Sierra Leone

Flight Officer Johnny Smythe, from Sierra Leone, enlisted in the RAF in 1939. He was one of four out of a class of 90, to complete the tough training to be a Navigator. On his 28th bomber mission, in November 1943, he was wounded, shot down, and captured by Germans who could not believe they were looking at a Black officer. In Stalag Luft One, Smythe worked on the escape committee, but couldn’t break out himself: "I don’t think a six-foot-five black man would’ve got very far in Pomerania."