The Collection of Second World War and Modern Gallantry Awards formed by the late William Oakley


In February 1943 he climbed the wall at Fort 13 but was quickly recaptured. By May of the same year he had again obtained a passport, clothing and money. He hid close to the main gate, and when it was dark, climbed over the wall and railings. He caught a train for Danzig but the forged passport did not satisfy an official on the train. O’Donnell was then confined indefinitely in Fort 16 but managed to find Poles who were prepared to help him.


He escaped in November 1943 by bluffing the guard and spent the next ten days in Thorn trying to obtain a satisfactory passport. He was recognised and recaptured by a Gestapo official who had caught him on a previous attempt. At this stage O’Donnell was guaranteed his passage to England if he agreed to collaborate with the Germans for six months.


By February 1944 he was ready for another escape. He and one companion hid in a load of Red Cross boxes which were being sent to a Stalag nearby. With the help of a Pole, they were hidden in a room attached to the German Officers’ Mess but, having failed to obtain forged papers, they decided to travel by train to Gotenhafen. They were discovered near Marienburg.


When clothing was being moved from Fort 15 to Thorn in May 1944, O’Donnell hid in one of the sacks and escaped. He put up in a working camp so that he could forge papers and then set out for Danzig on foot. He was recaptured several days later.


Later that year, the camp were under orders to move and he managed to pass into the German compound and climb over the perimeter wire. On this occasion he was free for four days.


Whilst on the march in April 1945, he escaped from the column and joined our troops in Bergen.’


James O’Donnell was born in the parish of St. Mary’s, Bolton, Lancashire, in April 1911, and enlisted in the Irish Guards in September 1929. However, in September 1932, he transferred to Army Reserve, having opted for a new career in Blackburn Police. Double M.M.


Recalled on the outbreak of hostilities in September 1939, he was advanced to Lance-Sergeant and accompanied a composite battalion of the 2nd Irish Guards to the Hook of Holland in May 1940, where, among other duties, the Battalion oversaw the evacuation of the Dutch royal family. But, as described in The History of the Irish Guards in the Second World War, by Major D. J. L. Fitzgerald, M.C., the Germans were fast approaching:


‘It was the first heavy air raid on the Battalion in the area. Flights of bombers roared over the village, bombing and machine-gunning. The Battalion had been expecting this all day, but they could offer no effective opposition. The anti-aircraft gun posts came into action at once. They were necessarily in very exposed positions, but they fired continuously throughout the raid. Lance-Sergeant J. O’Donnell’s A./A. post was particularly exposed, but he stood to his gun, pumping a steady stream of tracer, till he collapsed badly wounded by machine-gun bullets ... This air-raid killed seven Guardsmen and wounded twenty-three. Three of the casualties were wounded some distance from the R.A.P. [including O’Donnell]. A local doctor treated them and then, with the best intentions, drove them to hospital in The Hague, where, unfortunately, the Germans collected them.’


His bravery on this occasion resulted in the award of the M.M., while his remarkable tally of subsequent escape attempts - as cited above - resulted in a Second Award Bar.


Posthumous Q.P.M.. - gunned down in cold blood


Returning to the U.K. from Bergen on 23 April 1945, he was placed back on the Army Reserve and, after further medical treatment, rejoined the Blackburn Police, and, by the time of his part in “The Brewery Street Siege” in December 1958, he was serving as a Detective Inspector and Head of C.I.D.


The following extract, taken from Blackburn Police records, describes events after O’Donnell entered Henry King’s House:


‘A short time after Inspector O’Donnell entered the room mention was made by King that he would make a statement, whereupon the Detective Inspector took out his notebook and a pencil. He held the notebook in his left hand and the pencil in his right hand. In order to pacify King he agreed to write down any statement which he cared to make. King spoke in an incoherent manner, saying something about Inspector O’Donnell was not writing. O’Donnell then turned in his direction and without the slightest warning or provocation King raised the gun and shot O’Donnell in the lower chest. He then pointed the gun at Inspector Harrison, who jumped through the open doorway into the front room and took up a heavy dining chair to defend himself.


At this time Inspector O’Donnell was shuffling on his buttocks through the doorway into the front room. He was obviously badly hurt and in great pain. He was taken from the house by Inspector Harrison and rushed to the Blackpool Royal Infirmary where an emergency operation was performed on a gun shot wound in the left side of the lower part of his chest, and for severe lacerations to the large and small intestines. During the afternoon of that day Inspector O’Connell’s condition deteriorated, and despite a further emergency operation which was carried out he died at about 11.45 p.m. A post-mortem examination revealed the cause of death to be shock and haemorrhage from a gunshot wound to the lower left chest and abdomen.


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