Mutter, Neville E S
Name: Neville Edward Stone MUTTER
Born 1 August 1922
Hometown: born in Moseley, Staffordshire, England, raised in Swindon, Wiltshire, England
Age at arrival in Buchenwald: 22
Died 5 March 2001 in Brendoncare Froxfield, Froxfield, Marlborough, England, age 78
Service: Royal Air Force
Service ID: 147751
Service Rank: Flight Officer
Duties: Fighter pilot
Air Group: 65 Squadron, shifted to 19 Squadron after repatriation
Airbase: Ford, Sussex UK
Aircraft: P-51 FB117 (43-6678)
Date shot down: 30 April 1944
Fate of crew: Evaded. captured
Evasion summary: Stayed in a Maquis in the Troyes area for several weeks. Went to Melun by bicycle, then Paris to stay with Mme Coppinger and Comtesse Lagallarde. Who betrayed them is unclear (Lagallarde said a Mr "Blanche").
Date captured: 21 July 1944
Capture summary: Arrested on the Pont de la Concorde together with Air Commodore BLACKHAM, and interrogated at the Gestapo Headquarters in Avenue Foch before being imprisoned in Fresnes.
Boxcar Transport: 15-20 August 1944, in boxcar #1 or #3.
Buchenwald ID: 78375
Notes on Buchenwald internment:
Transferred from Buchenwald to: Stalag Luft III,
Kriege ID: 8059
Notes on SLIII internment:
Subsequent transfer to: Marlag und Milag Nord
Notes on internment: Assigned to Block 22. Mutter was in the group marched out by the SS in early April 1945, headed to Lubek. The column was attacked repeatedly by Allied aircraft. They found shelter in the barns and buildings of a large estate-type farm.
Liberation: He stayed at the farm until 2nd May when a British Army Scoutcar drove into the farmyard (possibly from 45 Royal Marine Commando) at which point they were liberated. The following day he and unidentified other prisoners commandeered a VW People's Care being used by an Army Major and left idling outside an HQ. After stopping at several RAF-occupied airfields they were made welcome by the Station Commander of a major airfield at Rheine and traded the VW for an airlift on a Lancaster.
Repatriation from ETO: By air on 8 May 1945.
Discharged:
Veteran status:
Notes on Post-War period: Received a Bachelor of Science in Agriculture at Leeds University in 1946 where he met and married his wife Dorothy. Together they raised 5 children while Neville worked as an agricultural advisor on several postings in Tanzania. In his later years he ran a Landscape and Contract gardening business from Surrey, England before retiring to Ramsbury Wiltshire.
