Pringle, John Courtright (Oral history)

British officer served with Kenya Armoured Car Regiment in East Africa, 1940-1941; served with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, 4th Armoured Bde in Libya, 11/1941; prisoner of war Campo PG 5, Gavi-Serraville Scriva, Italy, 12/1941-9/1943, Oflag III-A, Luckenwalde, Germany and Oflag VIII-F, Mahrisch-Trübau, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Czechoslovakia, 10/1943-8/1944 and Oflag IV-C, Colditz Castle, Germany, 8/1944-4/1945

REEL 1 Background in United States of America, Jamaica and GB, 1914-1934: family; education; service as officer with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars in Egypt, 1934-1939; reaction to declaration of Second World War, 3/3/1939. Recollections of operations as officer with Kenya Armoured Car Regiment in East Africa, 1940-1941: arrival with 2nd Bn Nigeria Regt; Royal West African Frontier Force in Nairobi, Kenya, 1940; transfer to Kenya Armoured Car Regiment; composition and role of unit; leading advance from Kenya into Italian Somaliland; sporadic nature of Italian resistance; impressive results of Italian colonisation in Ethiopia; precautions against attacks by Danakil at Dire Dawa, Ethiopia, 1941. Recollections of operations as officer with 8th King's Royal Irish Hussars, 4th Armoured Bde during Operation Crusader in Libya, 11/1941: rejoining regiment for Operation Crusader; role of officer commanding 'thin skins' supply vehicles used to fuel unit's tanks; inadequacy of M3 Stuart 'Honey' Tank against German Panzer Mk IV Tank; capture by General Erwin Rommel's headquarters staff at Sidi Rezegh, Libya, 22/11/1941; short conversation with General Erwin Rommel; question of British miscalculations during tank actions during Battle of Sidi Rezegh, Libya. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in North Africa and Campo PG 5, Gavi-Serraville Scriva, Italy, 11/1941-9/1943: treatment by Italian captors. REEL 2 Continues: removal by Italian submarine from Benghazi, Libya to Taranto, Italy, 12/1941; reason for making escapes; incarceration in Campo PG 5, Gavi-Serraville Scriva; escape from camp and attempt to reach Switzerland; recapture by Italian Police at Lake Maggiore; memories of Major David Stirling; take over of Campo PG 5 by Germans on Italian collapse, 9/1943. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Austria, 9/1943-10/1943: how Schutzstaffel (SS) brutality galvanised him and Major David Stirling from escaping on train journey into Germany; failure of escape attempt in Austria, 1943; behaviour of Germans towards Soviet prisoner of war at Innsbruck, Austria; escape attempt with Major David Stirling from camp. Recollections of of period as prisoner of war in Oflag III-A, Luckenwalde, Germany and Oflag VIII-F, Mahrisch-Trübau, Protectorate of Bohemia and Moravia, Czechoslovakia, 10/1943-8/1944: recapture and interrogation by Gestapo at Oflag III-A, Luckenwalde; plan to organise mass break out of prisoners from Oflag VIII-F, Mahrisch-Trübau; contact with Czechoslovakian Resistance; German apprehension about prisoner of war camp uprisings after D-Day, 6/6/1944; warnings by Germans not to escape from Oflag VIII-F, Mahrisch-Trübau. REEL 3 Continues: prisoner of war opposition to escape attempts and Major David Stirling's work in overcoming opposition; division of labour between himself and Major David Stirling and how they were condemned to death in absence. Aspects of period as prisoner of war in Oflag IV-C, Colditz Castle, Germany, 8/1944-4/1945: arrival, 8/1944; memories of sharing room with Wing Commander Douglas Bader; contact with anti-Nazi Germans and use prisoners of war put those contact to; question of danger of prisoners of war in camp being held as hostages at end of war; memories of Wing Commander Douglas Bader; liberation, 1945; reasons for leaving British Army, 1946.