Phillip John Lamason, DFC* (15 September 1918 – 19 May 2012) was a pilot in the Royal New Zealand Air Force (RNZAF) during the Second World War, who rose to prominence as the senior officer in charge of 168 Allied airmen taken to Buchenwald concentration camp, Germany, in August 1944.

Raised in Napier, he joined the RNZAF in September 1940, and by April 1942 was a pilot officer serving with the Royal Air Force in Europe.

By 15 August 1944, Lamason was senior officer of a group of 168 captured Allied airmen who were taken by train to Buchenwald concentration camp, arriving there five days later.

At Buchenwald, the airmen were fully shaved, starved, denied shoes, and for three weeks forced to sleep outside without shelter in one of the sub-camps known as "Little Camp".

At great risk, Lamason secretly got word to the Luftwaffe of the Allied airmen's captivity and, seven days before their scheduled execution, 156 of the 168 prisoners were transferred to Stalag Luft III.

[1] He was educated at Napier Boys' High School and Massey University (Palmerston North campus) where he was awarded a Diploma in Sheep farming.

During a bombing raid on Pilsen, Czechoslovakia, he was in command of an aircraft that was attacked by an enemy fighter and badly damaged, but managed to return to base.

During the return flight his aircraft was attacked by an enemy fighter and sustained damage; the hydraulics were shot away and the turret rendered unserviceable, while a fire broke out in the middle of the fuselage.

Displaying great presence of mind, Pilot Officer Lamason coolly directed his crew in the emergency and, while 2 of them dealt with the fire, he skilfully outmanoeuvred his attacker and finally shook him off.

By his fine airmanship and great devotion to duty, Pilot Officer Lamason was undoubtedly responsible for the safe return of the aircraft and its crew.

[10][11] He was awarded a Bar to his DFC on 27 June 1944, for "courage and devotion to duty of a high order" and "vigorous determination" in attacks on Berlin and other heavily defended targets.

[4][5][12] Lamason was presented his award after the war by King George VI at Buckingham Palace, where he met and befriended a young Princess Elizabeth.

[13][14] A day after making an emergency landing at an American base in England, Lamason was introduced to, shook hands and spoke with Clark Gable.

On the night of 30/31 March 1944, when 795 bombers were sent to attack Nuremberg, he was very critical of the route chosen, warning his station commander that heavy losses could be expected.

[19]Along with his English navigator, Flying Officer Ken Chapman, Lamason was picked up by members of the French Resistance and hidden at various locations for seven weeks.

[18][20][21] In August 1944, while attempting to reach Spain along the Comet line, Lamason and Chapman were captured by the Gestapo in Paris after they were betrayed by the French double agent Jacques Desoubrie for 10,000 francs each.

[22] The German Foreign Office decided that these captured enemy airmen should not be given the legal status of prisoner of war (POWs) but should instead be treated as criminals and spies.

[23][24] Consequently, Lamason was among a group of 168 Allied airmen from Great Britain, United States, Australia, Canada, New Zealand and Jamaica who—along with over 2,500 French prisoners—were taken by train in overcrowded cattle boxcars from Fresnes Prison outside Paris to Buchenwald concentration camp.

[37] Within days of their arrival, Lamason met Edward Yeo-Thomas, a British spy being held at Buchenwald under the alias Kenneth Dodkin.

Both men had developed trustworthy contacts within the camp administrative area and were able to provide Lamason with reliable intelligence that assisted in the survival of the airmen.

[5] As Buchenwald was a forced labour camp, the German authorities had intended to put the 168 airmen to work as slave labor in the nearby armament factories.

[45] Most airmen doubted they would ever get out of Buchenwald because their documents were stamped with the acronym "DIKAL" (Darf in kein anderes Lager), or "not to be transferred to another camp".

[5][39] At great risk, Lamason and Burney secretly smuggled a note through a trusted Russian prisoner, who worked at the nearby Nohra airfield, to the German Luftwaffe of their captivity at the camp.

Under the pretence of inspecting aerial bomb damage near the camp, two Luftwaffe officers (including Hannes Trautloft) made contact with the airmen and also spoke to Lamason.

[31][36][39][46] News of the airmen's scheduled execution had been conveyed to Lamason by a German political prisoner, Eugen Kogon, who had a reliable contact within the camp administrative area.

[26] On the night of 19 October, seven days before their scheduled execution, 156 of the 168 airmen, including Lamason, were transferred from Buchenwald to Stalag Luft III by the Luftwaffe.

[26] In the National Film Board of Canada 1994 documentary, The Lucky Ones: Allied Airmen and Buchenwald, captured pilot Tom Blackham stated that Lamason was not only the senior officer, but also their natural leader.

[57] Lamason hid the fact for 39 years that the order for the airmen's execution was given and scheduled for 26 October 1944, first mentioning it at a Canadian POW convention in Hamilton in 1983.

[26] In May 1987, the New Zealand Government in Wellington approved a fund to compensate servicemen held in German concentration camps and Lamason was awarded $13,000.

[29] Lamason was portrayed in the History Channel's 2004 documentary "Shot from the Sky", about the real life saga of B-17 pilot Roy Allen, one of the captured airmen taken to Buchenwald.