Page 169 - They Also Served

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Benson Freeman 1924.
The son of a Royal Navy engineer
commander, Benson Fletcher Railton
Metcalf Freeman was born in Newbury
on 6th October 1903. Moving with his
parents, he was educated at St Helen’s
College, Southsea, Portsmouth Grammar
School and Newton College, Devon.
Entering Sandhurst on 1st September
1922 and training in No.4 Company,
he was commissioned into the King’s
Own Royal Regiment in August 1924.
However, infantry soldiering was not for him and, in 1927, he transferred to the RAF, training as a fighter pilot. Retiring in 1931, he farmed an estate in Gloucestershire and became involved in far-right politics, joining Sir Oswald Mosley’s BUF in 1937.
On the outbreak of war, Freeman was recalled to the RAF and posted as a flying instructor to No.24 Squadron, the VIP transport unit based at Croydon Airport. Ordered to fly to Merville in France, most of the aircraft were destroyed in German raids. As the enemy approached, Freeman took off with several other personnel in a DC-3 Dakota, but this was forced down by ground fire and they were captured by the enemy. Initially imprisoned in Stalag XI-A, his fascist views soon became known, and his position became untenable after newly captured aircrew reported that they had been briefed by MI9 that there was a British informer in the camp. Taken to Berlin, he met Rudolf Hess who recruited him to ‘help in the promotion of peace and the frustration of Bolshevik plans’. Following the meeting, Freeman was sent to the Reich Broadcasting Corporation as part of the infamous Germany Calling programme. Headed by William Joyce, known as ‘Lord Haw Haw’, Freeman shared an office with fellow traitor and Sandhurst alumnus Norman Baillie-Stewart. Living under the name ‘P Royston’, he received a weekly salary of 200 Reichsmark. Freeman’s programme was called JAZZ Cracks, a mixture of music and jokes poking fun at the Jews, Bolsheviks and especially the British government.
In October 1944, Freeman found his ideological niche by joining the Waffen-SS. Unlike most other British turncoats who joined the BFC, a unit comprising misfits, criminals and deserters, Freeman joined the SS-Standarte Kurt Eggers. On joining,
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