Description
Object description
British NCO served with Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Greece, 1941; prisoner of war on Crete and Dulag 183, Salonika, Greece, 6/1941-9/1941, Stalag III-A, Luckenwalde and Stalag III-D, Rudow, Berlin, Germany, 9/1941-4/1945
Content description
REEL 1 Recollections of operations as NCO with Royal Army Ordnance Corps in Greece, 1941: background to enlistment, 1940; move to Greece, 3/1941; character of campaign in Greece; evacuation to Crete, 5/1941; formation of composite battalion; lack of equipment; increase in German air attacks; German airborne landings; start of Allied evacuation; conditions for retreating troops; defence of evacuation area; orders to destroy equipment and surrender, 1/6/1941. Aspects of period as prisoner of war on Crete, Greece, 1941: capture by Germans; character of march towards Suda Bay; his escape from column and recapture.
REEL 2 Continues: danger from poisoned water; accommodation in hospital; gifts to prisoners of war recieved from Cretans. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Dulag 183, Salonika, Greece, 6/1941-9/1941: removal to mainland and camp; conditions for prisoners of war; prisoner of war defiance of German guards; attempt of Greek civilians to help prisoners of war. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Stalag III-A, Luckenwalde, Germany, 9/1941-10/1941: nature of train journey from Greece to Germany; interrogation; high state of prisoner of war morale. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Stalag III-D, Rudow, Berlin, Germany, 10/1941-4/1945: move to camp; railway working party; rations and cold weather; hospitalisation; conditions of Soviet prisoners of war; construction of illicit radio.
REEL 3 Continues: problems with radio reception; move to railway repair sub camp; arrival of Red Cross parcels; bribing German guard to obtain crystal radio set; improvements in radio reception; German searches and secreting of radio; effects of Allied bombing of Berlin; German anti-aircraft defences; sight of large Allied bomber raids on Berlin; attitude of Berliners towards prisoners of war; an accident that illustrates German mentality; German lack of sense of humour; morale of prisoner of war from London and his exploits.
REEL 4 Continues: further details of exploits of London prisoner of war; sight of Allied carpet bombing of Berlin; hostility of Berliners towards prisoners of war; effect of bombing on Berliners; tank trap being dug by Polish forced labourers; changing attitudes of Berliners toward prisoners of war on Soviet advance. Recollections of prisoner of war march away from Stalag III-D, Rudow, Berlin and liberation by Soviet Army in Germany, 4/1945: start of trek away from camp; bombing of Potsdam; defection of majority of guards; death of prisoners of war in tank battle; liberation by Soviet Army.
REEL 5 Continues: Soviet provisioning; sight of Soviet rocket firing Katyushas; Soviet hospitality towards prisoners of war; medical attention received; collection of goods from Germans; food rationing system; attending burial of Soviet Army officer; refusal to aid German girl; taking of tobacco from German; assistance to wounded American airmen in hospital; failure of former prisoners of war to take boots from Waffen-SS prisoners of war; move westwards and crossing River Elbe; reception from United States Army; hospitalisation at Neuilly-sur-Seine, France; return to GB.
REEL 6 Continues: Reflections on period of prisoner of war in Greece and Germany, 6/1941-4/1945: prisoner of war strike over assault by German officer; second strike over work regime; opinion of German airborne troops and German guards at Dulag 183, Salonika, Greece involvement in war crimes; death of father through ill treatment by prisoner of war; long-term effects of imprisonment; involvement in veterans' associations; attitude towards Germans.