Friends of the Somme - Mid Ulster Branch  
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Updates for Flight Sergeant Herbert Lisser
Date Information
22/08/2020 On 26th February 1948, he was reinterred in Glenalina Section ES, Grave 207
22/08/2020 Obergefreiter Herbert Lisser served in the Luftwaffe during World War Two. The rank of Obergefreiter in the Nazi Air Force was similar to a Flight Sergeant in the Royal Air Force.
22/08/2020 Obergefreiter Herbert Lisser became a prisoner of war and was given the P.O.W. number A58170.
22/08/2020 Herbert Lisser found himself in a prisoner of war camp in Northern Ireland.
22/08/2020 It is believed he was in the Monrush Camp in Cookstown.
22/08/2020 It is believed 21 year old Herbert Lisser attempted to escape on the night of Monday 20th March 1945. He was fired on by the military guard and received five bullet wounds.
22/08/2020 Obergefreiter Herbert Lisser died of cardiac arrest caused by war wounds on 22nd March 1945 in Belfast.
22/08/2020 From the Belfast Telegraph dated Saturday 24th March 1945: (Although Lisser is not named in the article, the dates and places are consistent with his death and burial.)
22/08/2020 ‘The Nazi salute was given by more than 100 German soldiers and airmen who stood on the steps of a hospital at a Northern Ireland prisoner of war camp today, and watched the funeral of one of their comrades, an army corporal who was fatally wounded when attempting to escape from a camp.
22/08/2020 The coffin, draped with a Swastika flag was carried by six members of the Luftwaffe. Included in the small party who walked behind the coffin were two German nursing sisters who, with a number of others, were taken prisoner in a Brussels hospital. At Belfast City Cemetery, where the interment took place, a brief service was conducted by a German chaplain.
22/08/2020 Herbert Lisser was born at 51 Richthofenstrasse, Bremen, Germany about 1924.
22/08/2020 Herbert Lisser was initially buried on 24th March 1945 in Glenalina Section AS, Grave 159, Belfast City Cemetery, Belfast
22/08/2020
22/08/2020 Obergefreiter Herbert Lisser remains were reinterred in Germany on 18th July 1962.
22/08/2020 Many thanks to the Wartime NI website, from which most of this information comes (see below).
22/08/2020 The German had got clear of the heavy barbed wire entanglements when he was spotted. He refused to halt and the sentry opened fire. He received four bullet wounds in the right arm and a fifth in the chest. His right arm was badly shattered.
22/08/2020 He was attended to by two German doctors and later taken to Dungannon Hospital, where he was attended to by Dr J G Bell. Dr Bell gave a blood transfusion.
22/08/2020 Subsequently he was removed to a military hospital in Belfast in a serious condition. He received treatment at No. 24 British General Hospital, Campbell College, Belfast.
22/08/2020 From the Mid Ulster Mail dated Saturday 24th March 1945: Escaping Prisoner Shot
22/08/2020
22/08/2020 While attempting to escape from the prisoner of war camp near Cookstown on Monday (20th March) night, a German prisoner of war, aged 21, was fired on by the military guard and received five bullet wounds. He was attended to by two German doctors and later taken to Dungannon Hospital, where he was attended to by Dr J G Bell. Subsequently he was removed to a military hospital in Belfast, in a serious condition. It is stated that the German had got clear of the heavy barbed wire entanglements when spotted, and as he refused to halt, the sentry opened fire. He received four bullet wounds in the right arm and a fifth in the chest. The right arm was badly shattered and Dr Bell gave a blood transfusion.
22/08/2020 There must be still some doubt that the Mid Ulster Mail report refers to Herbert Lister. However, the age, the dates, the shot escaping, the seriously injured and moved to Belfast, all seem to fit the narrative put together here.
22/08/2020 The funeral arrangements were carried out by Messrs. Wilton, Rosewood Buildings, Crumlin Road, Belfast.’
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