Private Papers of A J East

Ms original diary (March - May 1945, 69pp) and photocopy of an enlarged transcript (103pp) describing his service as a Flight Sergeant (bomb aimer) in a Halifax of No 51 Squadron RAF, the experience of being shot down over Hanover (29 August 1943), captured, interrogated (at Dulag Luft) and imprisoned in Stalag IVB, Muhlberg until April 1945. He gives numerous examples of other prisoners' abortive escape and evasion attempts, attitudes and behaviour of Germans and prisoners to one another, pastimes (sport, music, shows, arts and crafts) allied air raids (including some in which prisoners were killed), Russians and Polish women in adjacent compounds, war news and the operation of a secret radio, theft and subsequent discipline among POW's, Red Cross parcels, food shortages, the arrival of liberating forces, the delays in their evacuation, German civilian conditions and Russian behaviour after the surrender. He also mentions an attempt to recruit prisoners into the League of St George (p40). prisoner of war record cards as kept by the Germans and official notification to his wife of his being reported missing; printed illustration of the layout of Stalag IVB.

Catalogue date 1987-06

Cataloguer PHR