Description
Object description
British officer served with 2nd Bn Royal Sussex Regt, 133rd Infantry Bde, 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Div in France and Belgium, 1940; prisoner of war in Oflag VII-C, Laufen, Oflag VI-B, Warburg and Oflag VII-B, Eichstätt, Germany, 1940-1945
Content description
REEL 1 Aspects of period as officer with 1st Bn Royal Sussex Regt in GB, 1931-1939: enlistment in army, 1930; reasons for joining Royal Sussex Regt; recreational activities in mess. Aspects of operations as officer with 2nd Bn Royal Sussex Regt, 133rd Infantry Bde, 44th (Home Counties) Infantry Div in France and Belgium, 4/1940-5/1940: passage to France, 1940; billeting work in France; sight of first German aircraft, 10/5/1940; move into Belgium; discovery of Belgian Fifth Column; story of German infiltrator dressed as nun; capture of German POWs; capture by Waffen-SS troops. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in France and Germany, 1940: treatment of prisoners of war; interrogation; reception from civilians in Trier, Germany; separation of officers and other ranks; journey to Oflag VII-C, Laufen, Germany.
REEL 2 Continues: Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Oflag VII-C, Laufen, Oflag VI-B, Warburg and Oflag VII-B, Eichstätt, Germany, 1940-1945: initial conditions in Oflag VII-C, Laufen; improvement in rations; psychological problems of prisoners of war; contact with home; psychological strain of imprisonment; work of escape committee; question of rigid German mentality; tunnel construction; disposal of tunnel waste at Oflag VII-C, Laufen; successful escape from Oflag VI-B, Warburg; diversion tactics; flooding of escape tunnel; death of prisoner of war in tunnel; amusing story about German captor; escape attempt from Oflag VII-B, Eichstätt.
REEL 3 Continues: suspected German 'plants'; problems for escapees of making home run; bartering with German civilians; illicit radio set; organisation of camp entertainments; disposal of documentary records; strafing of prisoner of war column by American aircraft near Oflag VII-B, Eichstätt, 1945; liberation by United States Army; contingency plans for captivity; German tobacco provision; German canteen; prisoner of war bartering; receipt of parcels from private individuals and the British Legion.
REEL 4 Continues: management of canteen; disposal of canteen profits; mixing food from Red Cross parcels; freedom of movement inside camps; escape tunnel ventilation; nature of prisoner of war exercise; an anti-Nazi German officer; relations between prisoners of war taken in 1940 and those taken captive later on; attitudes of guards; dental treatment; religious life; prisoner of war orderlies and batmen; an officer work party; German separation of ranks; rank amongst prisoners of war; baiting of guards.
REEL 5 Continues: complaints procedure; settling of prisoner of war quarrels; enforcement of discipline; relative absence of homosexuality; relations with individual Germans; collective punishments; prisoner of war non-co-operation; German ill treatment of Soviet prisoners of war; improvement of treatment of prisoners of war by Germans towards end of Second World War; case of prisoner of war by shot by German guard; transfer to GB at end of war, 5/1945; processing of former prisoners of war at Amersham, GB; lack of long-term effects of captivity.