German Army belt : Sergeant C N Fraser, 460 Squadron, RAAF

Brown canvas German Army waist belt. The belt is fitted with a 215 mm piece of brown leather on the inside of one end which has seven pairs of holes punched into it at even intervals. The belt's painted aluminium buckle with two claws is attached to the middle two holes. One end of the leather tongue has been machine sewn to the canvas with three rows of stitching. Stamped within the partial square formed by the stitching is 'G. REINHARDT BERLIN 1941'. The buckle at the opposite end of the belt is circular and shows the Nazi eagle and swastika within an oak leaf wreath. There are two sliding loops attached to the length of the belt to secure the free end of the belt.

Collected by 435111 Sergeant Colin Fraser who served with 460 Squadron, RAAF, during the Second World War. Fraser was born in Melbourne in 1922 and enlisted for service on 15 March 1943. He was promoted to the rank of Sergeant during training in Australia.

In March 1944 he travelled to England via the United States. On arrival in England he was assigned as Navigator to a crew consisting of a number of RAAF members and a RAF flight engineer for further operational training. In March 1945 he and his crew were allocated to 460 Squadron in Bomber Command, flying Lancaster aircraft.

On Anzac Day, 1945, 20 Lancasters from 460 Squadron, one carrying Fraser's crew, took part in a daylight raid on Berchtesgaden, Hitler's summer retreat in southern Germany. Shortly after dropping their bombs on the target their aircraft was hit. Fraser had moved forward from his Navigator's seat to get a view of the target and this action may have saved his life. When he returned to his position there was a gaping hole where his feet would have been. With three engines gone, the pilot, Flying Officer Harry (Lofty) Payne attempted to direct the plane north in the hope of getting to American occupied territory about 40 miles away.

The fourth engine then failed and fuel from the severed fuel lines flooded into the fuselage. Payne gave the order for his crew to bail out. Fraser's ankle was injured slightly during his parachute jump and he and the rest of the crew were captured by the Germans almost immediately after landing. They were taken to Stalag 7A in Moosburg and from there to Mainburg Interrogation Centre.

The following day they were returned to Stalag 7A and a few days later the prisoners in the camp were liberated by the Americans. Fraser left the camp by road and travelled to an airstrip near Ingolstadt, where he boarded an American DC3 to Rheims and then a Lancaster to England. Fraser returned to Australia in September 1945 and was discharged on 11 February 1946.