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The National Ex-Prisoner of War Association |
An Ex-Prisoner of War Memorial for the National Memorial Arboretum.
The National Ex-Prisoner of War Association Memorial Committee need your
support to meet a fundraising target of £40,000 to build the only
United Kingdom memorial
dedicated to those Prisoner of War who did not return from
German & Italian Prison Camps,
for the Staffordshire National Memorial Arboretum.
The design of the
Memorial to be based on the Stalag XIB Memorial built on location in
Fallingbostel Germany, (see photograph).
This Memorial was the brain child of W02 (Retd) Allan Purcell, of the Army
Catering Corp. The Memorial gates are built on the foundations of the
German Commanding Officer's Office, we find this very appropriate. The land
was generously donated by the German Government, who also help to maintain
the site. Stalag X1B was one of the last camps to be liberated, freeing men
who had been in the camp since the outbreak of the war.
Stalag X1B held the
very first PoWs from WW2 making this site even more significant.
Throughout the war this and other German / Italian Prison Camps suffered from severe shortages of food water and medical supplies . The limited resources were stretched even further, with the arrival of many Paratroopers who were made prisoner as a result of the Arnhem Battle. At this time there was also a huge influx of American soldiers from the battle of the bulge, so by February 1945 X1B was in a most deplorable state. (Some 100,000 PoWs past through X1B) The camp was very lucky indeed to be liberated on the 16th April 1945 by the Eighth Hussars. Timing of the liberation was key, as one month later, would have seen a disaster on the scale of Belsen. Many of the PoWs were already very weak, some due to prolonged malnutrition , and living in the poor conditions, others by the long forced marches from Eastern Poland during a bitter winter. Sixty one years have passed since those terrible days, but the nightmares still persist.
The survivors of this and other German / Italian Prisoner of War prison camps are now well into their eighties. Many are now unable to make the long trip to pay homage and respect to their fallen comrades. Building a memorial closer to home will enable them to do so, it will also serve to educate and highlight to the rest of the UK the suffering these men endured overseas for our freedom.
Please help us to establish a memorial worthy of the sacrifices defending our way of life made by those who fell by the wayside on the way back from Prisoner of War Incarceration. "We Will Remember Them"
NEXPOWA Memorial Committee:- L.Allan (Mrs) F.Moores. E.Reeves G.Moores H.Ashton Moores.
Cheques should be made payable to: The
National Ex-Prisoner of War Association (or NEXPOWA) Fund, to Mrs Freda Moores treasurer National
ex-Prisoner of War Association, 17.Wallace Close, Marlow, Bucks. SL7 1TY.
The Last Ordeal
In the Winter of 1944-45 an Army of ragged Prisoners of War began
to converge on routes leading Westwards out of Eastern Europe. Along the way
they lived off the land, foraging for food using all the skills and cunning for
survival developed in the hard school of up to five years of Prisoner of War
life. Harassed and Strafed by units of the Russian Air Forces in the East then
by the Allied Air Forces in the West, temperatures of minus 25-30 centigrade and
hopelessness caused many to fall by the wayside never to rise again.
This ragged Army of men. who, in the prime of their lives, with the odds of survival hugely stacked against them refused to give ground in Land Sea and Air battles on which the survival of Britain depended ie. Dunkirk, StValery, St Nazaire, Dieppe, Tobruk, Crete, Arnhem, spring to mind. Not for them the "Pride and Pleasure" of "Stars and Ribbon". For them the "Paths of Glory" led to captivity and then for many to the grave.
The National Ex-Prisoner of War Association Memorial Committee in response to many requests appeal for donations and sponsors to support an Ex-Prisoner of War Memorial for the Staffordshire National Memorial Arboretum. There are few, if any branches of the three services that do not have ex-Prisoners listed in their records. Please help us to remember those that did not return from incarceration.
The First Ordeal....
May-June 1940: An estimated 60,000 men under orders to hold at all costs an
escape corridor through which an estimated 350,000 men of the British
Expeditionary Force escaped via Dunkirk and the little ships. After the last man
had escaped from the Dunkirk beaches the 60,000 left holding the escape corridor
open were killed in action or made Prisoner of War.
These were the forgotten heroes of Dunkirk.
Many thousand more were to join them in Prison Camps from later desperate land
sea and air battles. Pause for thought: Were it not for those killed in action
or made Prisoner holding the DUNKIRK escape corridor open , and the 51st stand
at StValery, would there have been a "Battle of Britain" or a "D.Day" ?.........
Were it not for those who stood to the last in later desperate battles and were
made Prisoner of War would VICTORY have been achieved ?
"We Remember Them" Do you?
Please help us establish the only UK Memorial Dedicated to the Memory of those
incarcerated in Prisoner of War camps in Italy and Germany from Mid East and
European Theatres of War.
Please be generous, Thank you for your
attention.
The National ex-Prisoner of War Association "Gates of freedom" approved design
for the National Arboretum.
