This is a remarkable thread.
My father’s cousin was Thomas Denis O’Shaughnessy and served as an Able Bodied Seaman on HMS Vandyke. He was captured as a POW and remained so all the way through to 22 Mar 1945. He essentially spent his early 20s all as a prisoner. I do not have a great deal of other information, I know he escaped 3 times, each time being recaptured. Once he escaped and with a Polish airman stole a plane, only to crash it on take off.
After the war he never married and died 58 years of age. I think he had quite a sad life from what I gather. I expect this experience very much impacted him.
