My friend the Fuhrer's aide

Interesting times awaited Talbot Bashall when he left a forestry job in Britain in 1953 and moved to Hong Kong. Starting as an officer in Stanley Prison, he later ran the Prison Staff Training School, then an institution for young offenders, and a street-hawker-control force before becoming controller of a refugee centre handling a 'deluge' of Vietnamese boatpeople that started in 1979. And there was something else: for a time he also maintained a long-distance friendship with a convicted Nazi German war criminal. Enter the once-mighty Field Marshal Albert Kesselring, who was one of Adolf Hitler's most favoured military chiefs during the second world war. Kesselring's roles included command of the Luftwaffe's Second Air Fleet, which bombed southeastern England - where Bashall was a Surrey schoolboy during the 1940 Battle of Britain. The battle is commemorated on September 15. 'I used to watch the German planes flying over and sometimes heard the whistle of bombs as they fell,' Bashall said recently. 'I could never have imagined meeting one of the planners of those raids, let alone befriending one.' The 84-year-old grandfather was talking in Perth, Australia, where he and his wife Cynthia settled after leaving Hong Kong 28 years ago. Their comfortable bungalow faces a tree-lined reserve around which Bashall walks most mornings - and has a large, sunlit lounge that is lined by bookshelves and numerous paintings of Hong Kong, including a collection of colourful panoramas by accomplished local artist Brian Tilbrook. Bashall, a polite, warm-spirited man, said he was a 20-year-old army lieutenant when ordered to Venice, Italy, in April 1947 to be Kesselring's 'guard and personal escort'. Kesselring, then 62, was facing trial over alleged 'barbarous reprisals' against Italian civilians, including complicity in the slaughter of 335 Italian men and youths in the Ardeatine Caves south of Rome in 1944 after 33 German soldiers were killed by partisans. The trial was in its second month when Bashall arrived. His main duty was ensuring that Kesselring appeared in court and generally came to no harm. However, as guard platoon commander he had further responsibility for another '20 or so' Nazis accused also being detained in a six-storey apartment block in the Mestre, part of Venice on the Italian mainland. Kesselring (inset) was one of three German commanders held in separate bedrooms in the top-floor apartment and the field marshal made an immediate good impression. 'He shook my hand and said he was very pleased to meet me. There was no field-marshal kind of arrogance at all,' said Bashall. 'The rest were in cages in the basement, which I called the 'Chamber of Horrors' because of the ghastly types held there. 'These lesser-known Waffen SS thugs included SS Colonel Herbert Kappler, a right bastard who had carried out the caves massacre.' Bashall said the orders for the caves massacre came directly from Hitler to Kappler. Such orders were known as a F?hrerbefehl, which meant nobody could argue with them, but responsibility for the caves atrocity was nevertheless attributed to Kesselring as commander-in-chief. And this happened despite evidence that by 1944, Hitler had transferred most military power in Italy to the SS, which was leading the fight against Italian partisans. Bashall told how, on court days, he and Kesselring took a 20-minute launch ride down the Grand Canal to a landing near the court building and remembered once glancing at his khaki-uniformed prisoner and thinking: 'My God, I'm living history.' In court, Kesselring always displayed an air of 'calm dignity'. When a British major expressed his admiration for this, Kesselring replied: 'If I'd behaved any differently, I wouldn't have deserved to become a field marshal.' Bashall said he and Kesselring always lunched together and often chatted in English about battle tactics. Kesselring ate alone in his room in the evening, before Bashall would often come to join him. 'We'd talk for an hour or two about everything under the sun,' said Bashall. 'He was outraged at being charged with war crimes and strongly defended his regular troops. 'He insisted that they'd fought fairly and behaved properly, but said the SS and Gestapo were a law unto themselves. 'And while accepting full responsibility for everything that happened under his command, he said he had no power to countermand any orders from Hitler, right or wrong.' Also, Kesselring blamed Hitler's deputy, Hermann Goering, for Germany's defeat in the Battle of Britain. A change of tactics saw the Germans switch from bombing attacks on British airfields and war infrastructure to the use of terror attacks on major cities, including London. When the British people did not crack as expected, the earlier-held initiative was lost. 'He said the Royal Air Force pilots saved the day; no doubt about it,' Bashall said. 'When I told how I was in school when his bombers had us running for the air raid shelter, he smiled and said, 'I'm sorry about that.'' Late one night, after accidentally leaving a bottle of sleeping pills in Kesselring's apartment, Bashall was roused by a guard who said, 'The field marshal wants to see you.' A few minutes later, Kesselring was handing the bottle to Bashall through the observation hole in his door, while saying with a wry grin, 'Very dangerous'. 'Later, he told me: 'I understand that if anything happens to me, you'll be responsible, so you've no need to worry,'' Bashall said. 'I knew then that he would never commit suicide, and I believe the incident reinforced the rapport we were already developing.' Bashall, busy elsewhere, wasn't in court to hear Kesselring sentenced to 'death by shooting'. 'He only said he was very disappointed at the verdict and, quite honestly, I also thought he'd be acquitted,' Bashall said. 'In the meantime, the military police had taken from his room anything that may have aided him to commit suicide - his bedsheets, pencils, cups and mugs and so on - but I gave them all back to him. 'After the incident with the pills, I knew he wouldn't hurt himself. I also told him how sorry I was about the verdict.' The order to move Kesselring to his next place of detention came two days later. On the night before, Bashall was alone with him. No other visitors were allowed. 'He solemnly presented me with a book entitled Fighting on Roman Soil, by the German war artist, Wilhelm Wessel. 'The foreword had been written by him and was dedicated to his troops. 'On the flyleaf inside he'd written, in his own hand: 'To Lieutenant Talbot Henry Bashall with my best wishes for the future and with many thanks for the comrade-like and friendly attitude towards me. Mestre, May 5,1947, Kesselring, Generalfeldmarschall.' 'He also gave me a signed photograph of himself in field marshal's uniform, complete with Iron Cross. 'And, as I recall he said, in part: 'Thank you for your consideration and kindness. With young lieutenants like you, England has nothing to fear.' 'There's no doubt that he appreciated me treating him with respect.' Six days later, on Sunday, May 11, 1947, Bashall made a diary entry about Kesselring's departure for Werrl Prison in West Germany. He wrote: 'Tears filled his eyes as we shook hands, and I felt quite touched, he said he would never forget me. At 15.15 he left in an ambulance for Mestre Station. I saluted him as he left and he raised his hat. I am very sorry to see the last of him, but may see him again, who knows.' After Kesselring's death sentence was commuted, Bashall wrote to him a number of times. Replies were not permitted but he heard his letters were getting through. Bashall was in Hong Kong when a copy of Kesselring's memoirs arrived in the mail, with the inscription: 'In memory of my sojourn in Venice-Mestre. Talbot H. Bashall. Dedicated in happiness with jubilation; in sadness with lament; the inevitable you carry with dignity. Kesselring, Generalfeldmarschall. Bad Wiesse, January 1954.' Kesselring had been released from prison with throat cancer on October 24, 1952. Winston Churchill was among many who petitioned for his release. Kesselring died in July 1960 at age 74.