Tucki, Joseph (Oral history)

Polish officer served with 44th Infantry Regiment. Polish Army in Poland, 9/1939; prisoner of war in Oflag VIII-A Kreuzberg and Oflag VII-A, Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany, 10/1939-4/1942 including escape to Hungary and return camp, 9/1941; prisoner of war in Oflag IV-C, Colditz Castle, Oflag X-C Lübeck and Oflag VI-B, Dössel-Warburg in Germany, 4/1942-4/1945.

REEL 1 Recollections of operations as officer with 44th Infantry Regt, Polish Army in Poland, 9/1939: outbreak of Second World War, 1/9/1939; under German Air Force attack in Bydgoszcz area, 9/1939; orders to withdraw behind River Vistula, 9/1939; inferiority of Polish Army equipment; crossing River Vistula to reassemble in Chelm area; ammunition shortage; wounding in leg; capture by German Army troops; handling of Polish wounded by German Army, 9/1939; ambush of his German captors by Poles, 9/1939; aid received by Polish civilians; hospitalisation in Kraków. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Oflag VII-A, Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany, 10/1940-9/1941: transfer to Oflag VII-A, Murnau am Staffelsee from Oflag VIII, Kreuzburg, 20/1/1940; arrival in camp; attempt to strengthen his leg in gymnastics group; plans for escape; acquiring old Prussian uniform and it's modification; accumulation of other escape equipment; aims of escape. Recollections of escape from Oflag VII-A, Murnau, Germany to Hungary, 9/1941: escape from camp dressed as German NCO, 12/9/1941. REEL 2 Continues: hiding out dressed as civilian; aid from fellow Pole on work party; effect of his picking up lucky horseshoe in Nickelsdorf, Austria; aid received from Polish forced labourers to cross into Hungary; crossing into Hungary and aid from priest; arrest by Hungarian Police; how Hungarian Police handed him back to German authorities and return to Oflag VII-A, Murnau am Staffelsee. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Oflag VII-A, Murnau am Staffelsee, Germany, 10/1941-4/1942: punishment on return to camp; abandoning new escape plan; recapture during second escape attempt and removal from camp, 4/1942. Recollections of period as prisoner of war at Oflag IV-C, Colditz Castle, Germany, 4/1942-8/1943: reception from other prisoners of war on arrival, 14/4/1942; composition of prisoner of war nationalities in camp; camp regime; hunger and supplementing rations; Polish escape tunnel. REEL 3 Continues: work on tunnel; ultimate fate of Polish tunnel; his thwarted escape plan; prisoner of war code system for transfer of information to Polish Resistance; recreational activities and examples of camp humour; degradation of Polish traitor; escape statistics; personalities among Polish prisoners of war. Recollections of period as prisoner of war in Oflag X-C, Lübeck and Oflag VI-B, Dössel-Warburg, Germany, 9/1943-4/1945: removal to Oflag X-C, Lübeck; tunnel escape attempts at Lübeck; removal to Oflag VI-B at Dössel-Warburg; murder of Polish escapers and accidental bombing of Dössel by Royal Air Force; liberation of camp inmates by United States Army. Aspects of period as civilian in GB, post-1945: work as engineer in GB after Second World War; start of Colditz Association, 1950. REEL 4 Continues: post-war visits to Polish People's Republic. Reflections on period as prisoner of war in Germany, 1939-1945: memories of Douglas Bader; refusal to meet Joseph Stalin's son Yakov Dzhugashvili at Oflag X-C, Lübeck; Royal Air Force bomb which dropped on Oflag VI-B, Dössel-Warburg; attitude towards German captors; physical condition on liberation; nature of prisoners of war communications with Polish Resistance; method of thwarting German inspection of prisoner of war parcels; lack of discrimination against him in GB after Second World War.