Harry returns Nazi booty
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A wartime relic from Nazi Germany has been reunited with the town it was liberated from 65 years ago by a St Austell war veteran.Sixty-five years after snatching Nazi mementos in the German town of Goch, former sapper and Normandy veteran Harry Billinge donated a rare Nazi Swastika banner to the town's war museum in a visit to coincide with the D-Day anniversary in Normandy.
The sprightly 84-year-old was part of the British push that invaded the German Rhineland in 1945. After fierce fighting, the town of Goch was captured by the Allies and Harry took the opportunity to help himself to some keepsakes as the occupying forces retreated.
"I spotted the flag hanging from a building in a large municipal building that had been bombed almost to destruction,” he recalled. “I took a chance and climbed up and retrieved it. I ripped it off the hooks that held it and stuffed it inside my battledress. We all took souvenirs at most of the fights to take back home to our families.”
The cheeky Cockney's booty collecting didn't stop there.
"We went inside another old building and as we searched for anyone still hiding I went into a room with a large desk that had been blown over. Inside it was full of medals, including a First Class Iron Cross complete with oak leaves. By the end of the war, like a lot of mates, I had accrued loads of this stuff."
Mr Billinge is a familiar sight in St Austell where he can be seen year round selling poppies for the British Legion. However, he has become a minor celebrity in France where he often appears on French TV as a VIP at the annual service of remembrance honouring the brave soldiers that embarked on the D-Day landings in June 1944.
In fact, Harry even has a corner of hotel dedicated in his honour and last year the French authorities commissioned a mural depicting him.
A close friend of Harry's, Dutchman Harn Kuper, spotted Harry's spoils of war on a visit to St Austell last year and photographed them to show the German war museum in Goch.
After spotting the flags, the curator immediately tried to purchase what are now very rare and collectable artefacts.
After mulling the offer over, Harry decided to part with the souvenirs — but with one caveat.
"I decided that, after all these years and despite still hating the Nazis, the right and proper thing to do was give it back. But I couldn't accept blood money — I was offered £200 for this in 1947, and by today's prices it's worth probably tens of thousands.
“Nobody should ever forget what the Nazis did and this should stand as a permanent exhibit to the sacrifices made by British lads ridding the world of this scourge."
Mr Billinge attended the 66th anniversary of D-Day, the largest joint operations wartime assault in history at Normandy, where he landed as an 18-year-old recruit.
