Description
Object description
British private served Royal Army Medical Corps on Crete, Greece, 1940-1941; prisoner of war in Dulag 183, Salonika, Greece, Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf and Stalag VII-B, Memmingen, Germany, 1941-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as private with Royal Army Medical Corps in GB, 1939-1940: pattern of service, 1939-1940; father's military service in First World War. Aspects of period as private with Royal Army Medical Corps on Crete, Greece, 1940-1941: arrival in Crete with initial landing force, 11/1940; movements on island, 11/1940-5/1941; German invasion of Crete, 5/1941; treatment of wounded; capture of hospital by Germans. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Greece, 1941: initial treatment on capture; flight in Junkers Ju 52 from Crete to Greek mainland; reasons why there was no thought of escape; conditions in barracks at Kaminia; conditions on board Bulgarian ship transferring prisoners of war to Salonika, 7/1941; conditions in Dulag 183, Salonika including presence of collaborator Sergeant-Major Storer; suicides and German making sick prisoners of war work; participation in work parties.
REEL 2 Continues: treatment received by German guards; nature of train journey from Greece to Germany. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf, Germany, 1941-1945: arrival in camp; death of prisoners of war after delousing; accommodation; obstacles to escape; rations; Red Cross parcels; washing facilities; work parties; spare time activities; forestry work; cemetery work; behaviour of German guards; further details of work in cemetery; conditions for Soviet prisoners of war in camp; German attempt to conceal bad treatment of Soviet prisoners of war.
REEL 3 Continues: aid given to Soviet prisoners of war by British prisoners of war; inspections for lice; types of work he was employed in including work in German canteen; stealing food from Germans; narrow escape during German search; how the arrival of his international Red Cross card saved him from work in flax factory; delaying tactics employed to avoid working in flax factory; how work made prisoner of war life more bearable; work unloading Red Cross parcels from railway; construction of light railway.
REEL 4 Continues: further work unloading Red Cross parcels from railway; question of ineffectiveness of Protecting Power; fraternisation with Soviet prisoners of war unloading parcels; treatment of Soviet prisoners of war on arrival; intractability of British prisoners of war; nature of 'goon baiting' and its limits; punishments for escape attempts; German precautions against escape; an abortive escape attempt; obtaining news from outside world; 'Dear John' letters; response to German propaganda; sabotaging railway wagons; removal of prisoners of war from camp, winter 1944.
REEL 5 Continues: escape from forced march away from camp; illicit camp radio and how Germans failed to discover it; further details of escaping from forced march away from camp; period in camp after it had been abandoned by Germans; removal from camp by Germans. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Stalag VII-B, Memmingen, Germany, 1945: jeering of civilians; presence of Belgian and American prisoners of war in camp; work unloading Red Cross parcels; Allied bombing raids on area.
REEL 6 Continues: bombing raid on marshalling yards and its effect; German surrender at Memmingen; liberation by United States Army; security precautions taken by Americans and British reaction; presence of Latvian officer who had sided with Germans. Reflections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf and Stalag VII-B, Memmingen, Germany, 1941-1945: psychological and physical effects of captivity; lack of former prisoner of war organisation in post-war GB; plight of Canadian prisoners of war after Operation Jubilee the raid on Dieppe, France, 1942; lack of shelter and state of morale of Soviet prisoners of war at Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf; attitude of Soviet and American prisoners of war; failure of German attempt to recruit for British Free Corps.
REEL 7 Continues: Ukrainian collaborators serving with Germans; problems with German Air Force their jet aircraft; return to and reception in GB; question of why official investigation of German war crimes was bound to prove abortive; his reaction to not being immediately demobilised; nature of Sergeant-Major Storer's collaboration and his treatment by fellow prisoners of war at Stalag VIII-B, Lamsdorf, 1942