Flight Lieutenant William Baggs Asked To Be Flagged.

I am not kidding the Airman asked to be flagged on purpose.

He thought no one would believe the story he had to tell.

If I did not read his story and see the flag in question with my own eyes, I wouldn't have believed his 70+ year old tale either.

Let me start by saying that I am not a World War II history buff.  Nor am I an aviation or naval combat expert, but I am fascinated by real life stories, from actual people, who lived their stories.

I also feel responsible for sharing what I have learned, (especially if the yarn is a really good one), with others who I think might be equally interested in it.

This is one such story. I do hope you will enjoy it, just as much as I have.

I learned about it during a recent trip to the National Air Force Museum of Canada which is located in the Trenton ward, of the city of Quinte West, in Ontario Canada. 

It was buried in the back far corner of the museum, but the bright colours of the flag caught my eye and I was immediately compelled to investigate further.

Oddly, but not surprisingly, I have not been able to collaborate the story 100% with additional research obtained from time spent searching the Web. The majority of the story I can verify, but not the specific details surrounding Canadian, Flight Lieutenant William Baggs' specific actions, which makes it a little more mysterious.

As the story goes, the ship in question, namely the Nurnberg was in the Wilhelmshaven Harbour in Germany.

This is a picture of the massive ship that had be re-purposed for World War II initiatives. Its job was to lay defensive minefields and train in the North Sea.

  Attribution: Bundesarchiv, DVM 10 Bild-23-63-63 / CC-BY-SA 3.0  This file is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0 Germany license. 

In May 1945, F/L Baggs found himself performing ground tasks with the 4th Canadian Armoured Division. He was on a reconnaissance mission in the Wilhelmshaven Harbour with Captain Tommy Jarvis from the Canadian Army Unit and an unnamed Canadian intelligence officer. It was just days before Germany surrendered unconditionally.

The 3 of them were invited by the Commanding Officer of the Nurnberg, German light cruiser of the Leipzig class to accept the surrender of the ship.

Thinking that nobody would believe this highly unusual situation and their story, William Baggs asked the Commanding Officer if he could have a few items to prove that he was surrendering the ship in his charge, to the 3 of them.

William asked for the huge flag, baring the Swastika crest from the stern of the ship.

This flag is kept behind glass and its colours are still vibrant to this very day.

It is the first one that I have actually seen in person...because Mr. Baggs had the foresight to ask for it.

The other items that he asked for were a 7.65 mm Mauser automatic, a couple of Naval bayonets and the Commanding Officer's own walking stick.

(The last request was pretty cheeky, I thought. Baggs might as well have asked for the CO's underwear.)

Here's a couple of other German related artifacts from World War II, that I thought were interesting and are on display at the museum, too.

To conclude the story of the Nunberg's surrender, in January 1946 the ship was assigned as a "war prize" and given to the Soviet Navy. The ship was renamed the "Admiral Makarov" and she served until 1959 before being written off the navy records and scrapped.

 This is a little Cessna and I, inside the museum.

I do hope you enjoyed this incredible story of the day that Mr. Baggs asked to be flagged. ;)

(I know that it's hard for any of us Steemians to believe that anyone would want to be flagged...on purpose, but allegedly it happened. The flag was loaned to the museum by Mr. Baggs. It's wool and is 341 cm by 195 cm. It's a huge flag.) 

I welcome your comments and invite you to follow me on my journey.

~ Rebecca Ryan