Description
Object description
Microfilm copy of a ts account (35pp) describing his service in the 1st Battalion Black Watch (51st Highland Division) in France, September 1939 - 1940, detailing his crossing to France and how his unit established a front line position near Grinsdorf, carrying out a series of night patrols until the beginning of the German offensive (May 1940) when they retreated to Abbeville and then to the port of St Valery where he was captured by the Germans, describing his march through northern France, Belgium and Holland, and then the rail journey to Stalag VIIIB, Lamsdorf, recalling the poor conditions and his constant attempts to escape which involved joining numerous working parties; a second ts account (59pp) continues his experiences as a prisoner of war, describing how he broke away from a POW column in Poland and made his way towards the advancing Russians, the suspicion and hostility that the Russians greeted him with and his unsuccessful efforts to secure a rail pass to Moscow, recalling Russian looting and their indifference towards their dead soldiers, his decision to head towards Czechoslovakia where he witnessed the plight of Eastern European civilians and refugees and provides a picture of the conditions in Eastern Europe towards the end of the war, finally reaching Moscow and sailing back to the United Kingdom.
Content description
Microfilm copy of a ts account (35pp) describing his service in the 1st Battalion Black Watch (51st Highland Division) in France, September 1939 - 1940, detailing his crossing to France and how his unit established a front line position near Grinsdorf, carrying out a series of night patrols until the beginning of the German offensive (May 1940) when they retreated to Abbeville and then to the port of St Valery where he was captured by the Germans, describing his march through northern France, Belgium and Holland, and then the rail journey to Stalag VIIIB, Lamsdorf, recalling the poor conditions and his constant attempts to escape which involved joining numerous working parties; a second ts account (59pp) continues his experiences as a prisoner of war, describing how he broke away from a POW column in Poland and made his way towards the advancing Russians, the suspicion and hostility that the Russians greeted him with and his unsuccessful efforts to secure a rail pass to Moscow, recalling Russian looting and their indifference towards their dead soldiers, his decision to head towards Czechoslovakia where he witnessed the plight of Eastern European civilians and refugees and provides a picture of the conditions in Eastern Europe towards the end of the war, finally reaching Moscow and sailing back to the United Kingdom.
History note
Cataloguer JSK
History note
Catalogue date 2002-05-09