Period:

Second World War (1939-1945)

Rank:

Corporal

Unit:

Royal Army Service Corps

Awarded on:

May 12th, 1942

Citation:
"Corporal Hogan was wounded on the 14th May, 1940, and evacuated to the General Hospital at Boulogne, which was captured five days later. He was removed to Paris-Plage, escaped the same day, but after two days of liberty was recaptured by German patrols, and taken to the hospital at Lille.

On the 2nd June he escaped for the second time, in civilian clothes, which he had obtained in Paris-Plage. He remained in Lille until September 26th, when he was arrested in a Cafe, together with his hostess and four other soldiers, by German police, who took them to the Gestapo Headquarters. Corporal Hogan was subjected to very close questioning as to the help he had received in escaping, but he gave no information except that of his name, unit and number. After being held in a civil prison, under Gestapo control, for a fortnight, he was again questioned and received a very rough treatment from the German guards. For the next four months he was interrogated about once a week, and for the rest of the time was kept in his cell.

Early in February, 1941, he was taken to Charleville, where he was given Belgian military cloting and kept five days in a concentration camp. He was then put in a small truck on a train together with 38 other British prisoners, and was told they were going to Essen. With the assistance of his fellow prisoners, Corporal Hogan escaped form the train while it was travelling at about 20 miles an hour. The guards started shooting from the train, which did not stop, and he received a rifle wound in the left hand. After the train had passed, he succeeded in getting a lift in the truck of a passenger train to a place about 6 kilometres west of Aix-la-Chapelle, where he got a lift from a Dutch lorry driver to the other side of the German-Dutch frontier. Going to a Convent he received treatment for his wound and was given food. He then went on to Bunde, where the Dutch gave him shelter, food, and civilian clothes, and conducted him to a farmer who had land on both sides of the Dutch-Belgian frontier. Crossing the frontier, he continued to Ans, and then went by tram and later on foot until he reached Ninove on 27th February, and remained there until November 1941. During that time he distributed clandestine journals in Brussels, Charleroi, Mons and Nederbrakel. In November he was denounced by a Belgian woman, and about the 15th November the Gestapo came to the house where he was staying, but seeing them in time he was able to make a hurried escape/ he remained in hiding on a farm until January, 1942, when he returned to Brussels, and on the 6th February left Belgium for Spain by train under arrangements made by an escape organisation, eventually reaching this country on 10th March from Gibraltar."

LG 35556/2072