Description
Object description
Documents pertaining to his Second World War service as an RAF Flight Engineer serving with 433 Squadron RCAF based at Skipton-on-Swale, Yorkshire, the loss of his Halifax bomber over France on 4 July 1944, and his subsequent captivity in German hands as a POW, during which he was held in Fresnes Prison, the Allied block at Buchenwald concentration camp, and Stalag Luft III (Sagan), comprising: personal and official correspondence concerning his RCAF service and `missing in action'/POW; letters and postcards written by him to his wife from Stalag Luft III (with transcriptions) and two letters from her to him, October 1944 – April 1945; correspondence between him, the Foreign Office, and Airey Neave MP during the 1960s concerning compensation claims on the German government for suffering endured by British nationals as a result of Nazi persecution (confinement in a concentration camp); private letters from former British/Allied aircrew and others to Watmough concerning the compensation issue and their own wartime experiences (including some who were also held in Buchenwald), 1960s; manuscript `List of Allied personnel arrived at Buchenwald concentration camp on Aug[ust] 20th 1944 from Fresnes Prison, Paris', compiled by Watmough during his captivity; postwar newspaper cuttings concerning Watmough and his involvement in the compensation issue; and a small number of miscellaneous papers relevant to his war experiences.
Content description
Documents pertaining to his Second World War service as an RAF Flight Engineer serving with 433 Squadron RCAF based at Skipton-on-Swale, Yorkshire, the loss of his Halifax bomber over France on 4 July 1944, and his subsequent captivity in German hands as a POW, during which he was held in Fresnes Prison, the Allied block at Buchenwald concentration camp, and Stalag Luft III (Sagan), comprising: personal and official correspondence concerning his RCAF service and `missing in action'/POW; letters and postcards written by him to his wife from Stalag Luft III (with transcriptions) and two letters from her to him, October 1944 – April 1945; correspondence between him, the Foreign Office, and Airey Neave MP during the 1960s concerning compensation claims on the German government for suffering endured by British nationals as a result of Nazi persecution (confinement in a concentration camp); private letters from former British/Allied aircrew and others to Watmough concerning the compensation issue and their own wartime experiences (including some who were also held in Buchenwald), 1960s; manuscript `List of Allied personnel arrived at Buchenwald concentration camp on Aug[ust] 20th 1944 from Fresnes Prison, Paris', compiled by Watmough during his captivity; postwar newspaper cuttings concerning Watmough and his involvement in the compensation issue; and a small number of miscellaneous papers relevant to his war experiences.
History note
Cataloguer SWW