A Welsh RAF airman was court-martialled and told he could be put to death due to collaborating with the Nazis in the Second World War. Raymond Davies Hughes, from Mold, was charged with assisting the enemy in September 1945.
Hughes was born on August 11, 1923, and attended Mold Council School, and then Alun School in 1937 before leaving education at 15 years old. He then went on to work in a shoe store before being promoted to branch manager in Bangor.
Still a teenager, he joined the RAF volunteer reserves as an air gunner in 1941. He was on his flying his 21st mission when his plane was shot down over Germany during a bombing raid and he ended up in a prisoner of war (POW) camp. While there, the Weshman was approached by the German authorities with an offer.
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At the time, Joseph Goebbels was the Third Reich's Propaganda Minister and knew the importance and influence of mass media. He believed that a Welsh speaker could reach a new audience and Hughes agreed to broadcast propaganda for the Germans in Welsh.
He went on to work with traitor William Joyce, better known as Lord Haw-Haw, who broadcast propaganda programs in English for the Nazis. Joyce was a fascist who believed in Hitler's ideals and took German citizenship in 1940.
The broadcasts were not illegal in Britain at the time, and many people tuned in to know what the enemy was saying about the war. However, the government discouraged the public from tuning in. The messages on the broadcast were along the lines of encouraging the British people to surrender and it is believed that Hughes’ broadcasts were similar in nature.
North Wales Live reports that between January and March 1944, Hughes made several broadcasts in Welsh, using many aliases including John Charles Baker, George Becker, and Raymond Sharples. It was later suggested that he had also been writing anti-semitic propaganda for broadcast. During his time there, he had personally met up with Goering and other officials in Hitler's inner circle.
However, Hughes’ privileges were taken away in 1944 and he was later liberated from the camp in April 1945. While waiting for transport home, Hughes was arrested and charged with voluntarily aiding the enemy while at a POW camp. Months after the war had ended, in August, he appeared before a court-martial held at RAF Uxbridge.
He pleaded not guilty to 11 charges of assisting the enemy but was found guilty of five of those charges by September. Lord Haw-Haw was hanged for treason and Hughes was told he could face a similar fate. Fearing for his life, the then 22-year-old told the court information, including information on a Canadian prisoner of war. Hughes was later sentenced to five years of hard labour, which was subsequently reduced to two years following an appeal for clemency.
After his sentence, Hughes became a successful businessman and died in Cheltenham in April 1999 at 76 years old.
