Description
Object description
Copy of a well written ts account (40pp, undated) by RAF Wireless Operator Collingwood (first name unknown) covering his experiences as a prisoner of war in Germany (February 1944 - April 1945) after having been shot down during a raid on Scheinfurt, describing the attack on his aircraft, his wounds, his capture and transportation via Stuttgart and Frankfurt to Dulag Luft where he was admitted to hospital and discovered the extent of his injuries, his 14 day solitary confinement and interrogation there, his suffering from internal haemorrhaging and consequent move to a civilian hospital in Frankfurt, his horror at the devastating effects of the Allied bombing raids on German cities, his transfer to Allied POW hospitals, first at Obermasfeld, then Bad Soden eye hospital, his recovery, discharge and transfer to Stalag Luft VII (Bankau, September 1944), conditions, daily life and entertainment in the camp, their evacuation in the face of the Russian advance (January 1945), the bitter endurance of the forced march to the west, their arrival at Stalag Luft IIIA (Luckenwalde) and the terrible conditions in that camp, their liberation by the Russians (April 1945), their transportation westwards and his return to England. The account provides a dramatic description of the last moments aboard a downed aircraft, useful insights into the medical treatment of Allied POWs, conditions in several different hospitals and the chaos and squalor prevalent in Germany during the last months of the war.
Content description
Copy of a well written ts account (40pp, undated) by RAF Wireless Operator Collingwood (first name unknown) covering his experiences as a prisoner of war in Germany (February 1944 - April 1945) after having been shot down during a raid on Scheinfurt, describing the attack on his aircraft, his wounds, his capture and transportation via Stuttgart and Frankfurt to Dulag Luft where he was admitted to hospital and discovered the extent of his injuries, his 14 day solitary confinement and interrogation there, his suffering from internal haemorrhaging and consequent move to a civilian hospital in Frankfurt, his horror at the devastating effects of the Allied bombing raids on German cities, his transfer to Allied POW hospitals, first at Obermasfeld, then Bad Soden eye hospital, his recovery, discharge and transfer to Stalag Luft VII (Bankau, September 1944), conditions, daily life and entertainment in the camp, their evacuation in the face of the Russian advance (January 1945), the bitter endurance of the forced march to the west, their arrival at Stalag Luft IIIA (Luckenwalde) and the terrible conditions in that camp, their liberation by the Russians (April 1945), their transportation westwards and his return to England. The account provides a dramatic description of the last moments aboard a downed aircraft, useful insights into the medical treatment of Allied POWs, conditions in several different hospitals and the chaos and squalor prevalent in Germany during the last months of the war.
History note
Cataloguer JS
History note
Catalogue date 2006-01-13