Summer 2007

Pre-captivity photograph of a tank crew from 6^th Battalion Tank Corps. Sergeant Gerald Cramp, second from right was taken prisoner in North Africa and was a resident of Stalag 18A in Austria.

SUMMER 2007 NEWSLETTER

ASSOCIATION NEWS by Les Allan, President.

99 Parlaunt Road, Langley, Berkshire SL3 8BE. Tel/Fax 01753-818308.

Greetings to all members. First a Memorial update. I can report that thanks to RSM Mark Carlisle of 2^nd Bn REME and serving members of the Royal Engineers the walls of the Memorial have been built and the Memorial Plaques have been placed in position. The granite slabs required to finish the walls have been donated and fitted by Bruce McAllister who travelled all the way down from Edinburgh in the middle of all that ‘lousy weather’ we’ve had recently. The Arboretum authority I understand arranged a Veterans Parade to which the Bevan Boys were invited (about time they were recognised). One of those Bevan Boys is not only a near neighbour of mine, but is also an associate member of our association. He was so impressed with the Memorial to-date that he was prompted to call me with words of praise for all of those connected with it. Be assured that the Memorial Committee have been and still are working very hard to ensure that the Official Opening Day at the National Arboretum at 13.30 hours on Saturday 21^st July will be a day worthy of the memory of those Comrades in Arms made Prisoner of War who never returned. I will prepare a full report later on this year. I look forward to your company on our day, in the meantime Best Wishes and don’t forget to wear your medals. Les.

STOP PRESS. We have just been advised that the Australian government are going to pay compensation to their former prisoners of war who were guests of the Nazis as well as those who were taken prisoner during the Korean War. I immediately wrote to the new Labour Prime Minister the Rt Hon Gordon Brown, MP as follows;

“Because of the very negative, indeed dishonest attitude of this and all previous UK governments since 1945 in the matter of compensation and also the reimbursement of pay credits dishonestly deducted from the pay of UK medical personnel supposedly protected by the Geneva Convention, would you care to comment on the enclosed media release sent to me from Australia?”

The reply that I received from a nameless member of the Campaign Team Gordon Brown for Britain read as follows;

“Thank you for your letter dated 6^th June. You raise some interesting points, and we shall make sure that Gordon is aware of your views. It is vital over the coming weeks that Gordon is able to hear from as many people as he can, in order to be in the best possible position to lead the country into the challenges of the coming years, and we appreciate you taking the time to make your contribution on this matter.”

Well, Gordon is now the new Prime Minister and we shall be sending copies of this newsletter to 10 Downing Street, marked for his immediate attention.

WHERE ARE THEY NOW?

I am after any information as to the following POW James EDWARDS (possibly Jim) born 13/8/1922 in Stoke on Trent . His Father was Joseph? Mother Minnie. He was Married to Edith (Cumming). James was a POW for around 3 months at the end of the war and was believed captured in the area of the River Rhine, possibly Operation Market Garden? He was a member of a UK parachute regiment (Red Beret). Thanks for any information. Lindsay Lorrain WO2 (ret) 1st Commando Regiment, Australia. Write to 16 McMahons Road, Ferntree Gully, Melbourne, Australia 3156. Or email lplorrain@yahoo.com.au

Regarding the photograph on the front cover from Gerard O'Shea, 148 Lower Kilmacud Road, Stillorgan, Co. Dublin, Ireland. “My uncle Gerald Cramp was a tank Sergeant in WWII with the British Army in North Africa. He was in Stalag 18A. Do you have any information on him or photos? Gerald is the man with moustache 2nd from right. He was in the 6^th Battalion Tank Corps.”

I recently came into possession of a WWII Log Book that belonged to Geo. G. Gidney. He was a member of the RAF and was a POW in Stalag VIIIB/Stalag 344 with my father, Howard Conroy Jones, RCAF. They went on one of the infamous "Death Marches" together and he gave my father his Log Book along with camp pictures when he died. My father tried to get in touch with his family when he was repatriated to England, but they had been bombed out. As a daughter of an ex-POW, I know that the information in this Log Book would be invaluable to Mr. Gidney's family. Can you point me in the right direction so that I can find Mr. Gideny's family? Maureen Manningham 8523 Victoria Street, Metcalfe K0A 2P0, Ontario, Canada.

Editors note; we have suggested that Maureen contacts the Veterans Agency, but if you knew either man or can offer any advice please drop her a line.

Member John Pepper wrote in to say; “ I was very interested in the article on P.G.70 (Italy) in the Spring Newsletter, as I was detained in this camp and I believe I was among the first to arrive in Aug 1942, as was the writer of the article, but I cannot remember the Water Tower. I do remember that the buildings consisted of empty warehouses and that we had to sleep on straw for the first few weeks. I also remember that on Christmas Eve 1942 we had a Midnight Mass at which a number of the wives of the Italian officers were present and who were weeping during the service. I would like, if possible, to have a chat with the writer of the article and to compare experiences with him. If he agrees perhaps you would let him have my address which is 6 Withyham Road, Bexhill-on-Sea, TN39 3BD.

In your Winter 2000 newsletter a Mr Scott Howes was looking for fellow prisoners attached to Stalag XXB who worked on the state farm at Gross Waplitz. I am an associate member and my grandfather was working as a farm labourer at Waplitz during the time he stipulated. Is there any way you could put me in touch with this gentleman? My details are: Darren Payne, 12 bryncastell, Bow Street, Aberystwyth.

Editors note; seven years have elapsed since that request appeared and we no longer have an address for Mr Howes. However, if you are reading this Mr Howes, please get in touch with Darren!

I'm seeking information on my father, Private George Henry Beynon 3910913, late of the 1st Parachute Battalion, 1st Airborne Division. He was captured in Arnhem in 1944 and held as a POW in Stammlager 357. He passed away in 1994 aged 75. Would you have any information regarding my father / Prison Camp? He was in Hut E4 at the end of December 1944. Kind regards, Alan Beynon, PO Box 1275, Gosford, NSW 2250, Australia.

Colin Smith, 68 Joyes Road, Folkestone, CT19 6HL has sent this photo in of his father George Smith, who is the tall gent at the left hand end of the back row standing. It was dated 15^th February 1944 and sent from Stalag 9C. George was a member of The Buffs. If you were there at the time or knew Colins father, please drop him a line.

Mr W E Saunders, 2 Penmere Road, St Austell, Cornwall PL25 3PE would like to hear from anyone who was in the Milk Factory in East Prussia by the side of the River Vistula. He was nicknamed ‘Trotters’ as he was always on the trot for food, with cream and butter to be stolen whenever possible. Especially looking for pals Bill Beven, Bill Shufel and Eric Dove. The working party was about fifty strong.

MURDER ON THE MARCH.

One of the prisoners of war who successfully escaped from his camp when the Italian Armistice came into being in September 1943 was Corporal Levenberg of the East Yorkshire Regiment. He made his way to Rome but was recaptured in May 1944 and taken to Campo 82 at Laterina.

The camp was overcrowded and the 800-900 prisoners were infested with lice. The washing facilities were quite inadequate and the food consisted mainly of soup made with cabbage leaves. The German commandant was a Hauptmann Schultz and his interpreter was an NCO by the name of Feldwebel Hoffmann. They were both typical Nazis and Schultz always made a point of ignoring the protests made by the American Technical Sergeant who had been elected as camp leader.

As the Allied advance made progress, the decision was made to evacuate the camp on 21^st June 1944. There was no transport available, so the men would have to march. Due to the proximity of the Allied forces the prisoners were very restive and a number made attempts to escape. The column had gone only two miles from the camp when a handful of men tried to climb down and escape. Corporal Levenberg watched as the German guards shot them down.

The guards were a murderous bunch and when an American soldier asked a guard for permission to relieve himself it was refused. The American tried to step out of the column whereupon the guard struck him on the head with his rifle butt and knocked him down. He continued to batter the defenceless man and left him lying at the side of the road. His subsequent fate is unknown.

Eventually the column reached a village where a number of armoured cars were parked at the side of the road. As the column marched by some hand grenades were thrown from the cars and the explosions killed and wounded a number of prisoners. Some of the prisoners tried to scatter but were shot at by the guards.

Levenberg would later testify that the English-hating Hoffmann was very excited and was cursing the men. The Corporal was a witness when one of the prisoners stumbled out of the line of march and Hoffmann walked up and shot him dead.

One of the other witnesses to Hoffmans merciless killings was Ian MacKintosh, who had been in the infamous Tarhuna camp in North Africa. He had escaped from Campo 54 at Fara Sabina and made his way south, before being picked up again. After a beating from the Gestapo he found himself in a truck heading for Laterina, minus his boots and trousers, both removed by the guards to discourage escape attempts. Suddenly British planes appeared over the trucks and while the guards were distracted MacKintosh jumped off the moving truck and made good his escape. Unfortunately for him, the Italians who befriended him in a nearby farm house betrayed him at the first opportunity and some Germans arrived who then made him walk the five miles to Laterina camp in bare feet.

Six weeks after his arrival at Laterina, the men were formed up in threes and marched out of the camp, with guards walking alongside at five yard intervals. MacKintosh counted sixteen dead prisoners on the road before he made his mind up to escape. He saw two of the men shot dead from behind by Hoffmann, merely for turning their heads towards the side of the road.

Together with Sapper Zimmerman, MacKintosh made his break as the guards opened fire at them. Although two bullets went through his clothes, MacKintosh was not hit and the pair made good their escape and joined the partisans in the mountains of Arrezzo. On 6^th August 1944 he successfully made his way through the German front lines and met up with the Indian 7^th Brigade.

While MacKintosh made good his escape, the column continued to march for another couple of kilometres until they reached another village where they were to spend the night in a sports field. The next morning they were told that they were going to return to Laterina camp. On the way back they passed through the village where the hand grenades had been thrown and Levenberg saw a number of bodies of prisoners lying in the street in a crushed and unrecognisable condition. They had been run over by tracked vehicles.

As the column of men retraced their footsteps Levenberg saw the bodies of four more prisoners lying in a ditch. They had all been shot. When the reached the camp again on the afternoon of 18^th June they saw the bodies of eight men that had been brought there for identification. They had been killed soon after leaving the camp the previous day.

When Levenberg discussed the march with some of his comrades, more than one told him about an incident that had occurred in the first village. A number of prisoners had tried to escape and took refuge in a house. The Germans followed them and threw hand grenades through the windows, killing the prisoners and an Italian girl.

The day after their return to the camp, all of the prisoners were marched out again to a railway siding seven kilometres away. They were packed in, 65 men to one cattle truck for the three day journey to Stalag 7A at Moosberg in Germany. There was no room to lie down or sleep and the only water they received was given to them by Italian peasants when the train stopped. At one town all of the men were taken off the train, stripped naked in public view and searched. They would finally be liberated by the American army in May 1945.

War Crimes investigators were given descriptions of Hauptmann Schultz. He was believed to have been an artilleryman, about 30 years old and five feet six inches in height. He was well built, tending to run to fat and weighed about twelve stone. He had very thin dirty-brown hair and some gold fillings in his teeth. He was missing the top of one of his fingers. Feldwebel Hoffman was about 60 years old and had spent some time as a prisoner of war in Canada during the First World War. He was about five feet, eight inches tall and had a pointed nose and sharp features. As far as the editor can ascertain, the two Nazis were never located after the war.

Due to industrial action at the Post Office we only have a partial listing of the Memorial donations received. We would like to thank; The Coldstream Guards £25.00, Mr R.C.Wight £20.00, Lancashire Fusiliers £100.00, The Korean Veterans £100.00, Inner Wheel Club £25.00, Mr Speake £5.00, Mr Les Allan £200.00, Mr Lock £15.00, Mr Miskimmer £10.00, Mr B.B.Maller £25.00, Mr Mowatt £50.00, The R.W.R.A. £100.00, The Kings Fusiliers £100.00, Mrs Bevan £20.00, T.N.Grimes £100.00, The Grenadier Guards £250.00, Mr D. Welch £50.00, The R.A.S.C. & R.C.T. Association £500.00.

Membership Renewal. It is also that time of year when we remind members that their annual subscription due was due on 1^st January. The cost is £5 for former prisoners of war and £10 for family and friends and for former POWs living overseas. Please make cheques out to NEXPOWA and send to Les Allan, 99 Parlaunt Road, Langley, Berkshire SL3 8BE. For enquiries please ring or fax Les on 01753-818308. Our previous decision to reduce the number of newsletters to three 16-page issues has now been reversed and we will pay the extra postage necessary to continue producing four 12-page issues per year. If anyone would like any back issues of the newsletter please contact Phil Chinnery who still has stocks of most of them.

HISTORIANS NEWS by Phil Chinnery.

Contact details 59 Pinkwell Lane, Hayes, Middlesex UB3 1PJ. Email NEXPOWA@fsmail.net

Ivor Gordon has sent in the photograph below, showing his football team at arbeits kommando A942/GW in Schladming, Austria in 1943. They were given permission by the local farmer to use his field in the wintertime only, after clearing the snow away first. They played against a Belgian team who had a compound in the same work camp.

Another example of the treatment meted out to prisoners of war. The picture above shows the fifty men who escaped from Stalag Luft 3 and who were later executed after recapture. The picture was sent in by member Ben Van Droegenbroek who recently held an exhibition at the American Ex-Prisoners of War Stalag Luft 3 Reunion in Kansas City.

Photo above was taken in either Stalag 4B or 4C. Sent in by Pauline Spurle whose late grandfather Roy Gear is in the front row, second from the right. He was working in a stone quarry on the River Elbe in Czechoslovakia. Do you recognise anybody?

BOOK REVIEW – PRISONER OF WAR by Charles Rollings. The author has cast his net wide to collect the stories and anecdotes for this book. He describes the life of the prisoner of war in Italy, Germany and the Far East and has even included some recollections from former prison camp staff. The foreword to the book is written by former POW Robert Kee who commented; “I met Charles Rollings, the author of this excellent book, long after the end of the war. He had so deeply immersed himself in the whole character of Kriegsgefangenshaft that I remember telling him that, despite his obvious youth, he could almost have been a prisoner of war himself. No one could have been found better capable of focusing attention on the whole constitutional nature of Kriegiedom and his excellent selections of individual personal accounts, together with his reminder of how the Germans treated Russian prisoners as Untermenschen makes it possible for readers to feel that they have been prisoners of war too.”

The chapter headings give an idea of the scope of the stories; Capture – Transit and Interrogation – Imprisonment – Surviving the Day – Food, Drink, Clothes and Tobacco – Work – Contact – Health – Education and Entertainment – Escape – Punishment and Reprisals – Evacuation and Liberation – Repatriation – Post War.

Many of the anecdotes illustrate the conditions under which the prisoners struggled to survive. Conditions now belatedly recognised by the Australian Government, but sadly not by ours. For example; Private Alfred Charles Bryant of the Royal East Kent Regiment (The Buffs) was sent to Stalag 20A at Thorn in Poland. When he arrived in July 1940 the camp was made up of tents in a big field. He recalled; “We were put into tents and had all our hair cut off. Our photographs were taken and we were each given a number. We stayed for about ten days while we regained our strength. The next five years of my life were a constant struggle against fatigue, starvation, heavy labour and a general desire to lie down and die; at least that way I would get it all over with. From my capture in 1940 and up to the latter part of 1944 I spent most of my time working on various farms near whichever prison camp we happened to be stationed in at the time. The best five years of my life were wasted.”

One of the worst camps was Dulag 185 at Salonika in Greece. Sapper Don Luckett of the Royal Engineers was there one night when the Italian guards opened fire on some of the prisoners using the slit trench latrines in the dark. Several bodies were found in the morning and the senior NCOs who tried to complain to the Italian commandant were beaten up for their trouble.

ISBN No 978-0-09-191007-5. Published by Ebury Press at £19.99. Hardcover, 392 pages with maps and photographs. Copies can be ordered from Ebury Press, Random House, 20 Vauxhall Bridge Road, London SW1V 2SA. www.randomhouse.co.uk

OPPOSITE. One of the interesting illustrations in the book, a map of the military and civilian prison camps under Japanese control, produced for the British Prisoners of War Relatives Association.

Summer 2007 Newsletter