Who were the British soldiers who arrested William Joyce, better known as “Lord Haw-Haw” in WW II?

William Brooke Joyce (24 April 1906 – 3 January 1946), nicknamed “Lord Haw-Haw”, was a U.S.-born British fascist politician and Nazi propaganda broadcaster to the UK during World War II. It is estimated that, at his peak, 6 million Britons regularly tuned in to his fascist propaganda transmissions.

An active fascist in the UK in the 1920s, Joyce fled to Germany in 1939 after a tip-off that he was about to be arrested. He was recruited by the Nazis, keen to use his voice and views to help wage a propaganda war through the radio.

As the Allies closed in on Berlin, Joyce went into hiding near Flensburg, on the Danish border. On May 28, 1945 he spoke with 2 British soldiers he met, Capt. Bertie Lickorish and Lt. Geoffrey Perry. Lt. Perry recognised the distinctive accent.

He was carrying papers drawn up in the name of Wilhelm Hansen. However, upon searching the man, Lickorish and Perry found another set of papers in the name of William Joyce.

Lt. Perry had been born Horst Pinschewer in Berlin to a German Jewish family who had sent him to the UK in the 1930s to escape Nazi persecution. Eventually allowed into the Army he helped liberate Belsen concentration camp. He’d then been given the job of helping set up a free radio station in Hamburg. Just 3 weeks before stumbling upon Joyce, Lt. Perry had been broadcasting from the very chair and microphone from which "Haw-Haw" had given his splenetic broadcasts.

Joyce was hanged on January 3, 1946, at Wandsworth Prison.