question Something i didnt know till now ,

[private mw]

i heard a story i never knew the other day about the german great escape when 67 german prisoners escaped from island farm camp near ewenny in bridgend in 1945 tunneling 60ft under the wire in the biggest escape from a british POW camp it resulted in a large scale manhunt. and 3 boarded a bus posing as welsh miners with blackened faces the bus driver had his suspicions because they sat in silence and drove them to the nearest police station ! does anyone know anything about this and any more stories about it ! :shocked:

[private mw]

also found while doing some googling around sheffield had its POW camp lodge moor or redmires camp dating back to ww1 with 2 escape attempts in ww11 , isnt history and google a great thing ?

[RattlesnakeBob]

The German 'Great Escape' has been quite well documented over the years by various TV programmes and books . A few years back some ex German POWs went back there for a TV programme and actually found the exit from the tunnel still there under a hedge. The tunnel itself had collapsed but their memories of the event were incredible. A couple of the escapees were re-captured just down the road from me near to Castleford House just outside of Chepstow. They'd somehow stolen a car and had managed to get through the town and over the Wye Bridge at the bottom of the town before (as I recall but I might be wrong?) running out of petrol ....As of a few years ago there was a fair bit of the old camp left to see but (again I'm not 100% sure) I got a feeling it's been demolished now?? Maybe someone down that way can help with any local info????

[trustmeimamechanic]

My father remembers as a boy having German and Italian POW's working on the farm my great grandfather had at the time, they were it seems not guarded and would make wooden toys etc for dad and his brothers and sisters.

After the war more than a few never went home and stayed on here . I knew one 25 odd years ago who still had a farm near Edenbridge, he was a nice old chap and infact I used to bale his silage for him.

[cosrec]

I used to live next to live next door to an Italian POW. i spent a lot of time talking to him He got me drunk on homemade wine more than once. He was captured in North Africa early in the campaign along with two of his brothers by Australian troops. One brother was injured and died shortly afterwards.The remaining brother and Matthew were put on a ship to be transported he knew not where. The ship was attacked and sunk and his second brother drown. He was picked up by a British ship and ended up in "Welsh Wales" to use his words. He then ended up in Storewood Camp North yorks. Some prisoners suggested they should try to escape. Matthew told me he would he saw no reason it he was happy where he was . when the war finished he was put to work on a farm. When the time came for repaturation he said he tried every thing he could to avoid it as it was the happiest time of his life he had nothing to go back for and he hated the Italian Goverment for what they had done to him. He stayed on and was taken on by the farmer who he worked for his keep for many years. when the farmer died he got a job a Areospace Brough sweeping up virtually until his death. I remember him for his ability to fashion jewelery out of copper wire coloured perspex glass and other odds and ends. He made me a ring out of an old half crown the out side was polished smooth the inside you could read the writing. He also made toys from carved wood for young kids in the village this was in the 70/80s

Edited September 3, 2012 by cosrec

[RattlesnakeBob]

Cracking story there were a lot of Italian POWs in my area too and they were also well thought of. At the biggest pow camp just down the road they built a beautiful concrete memorial which survived for years until our idiot local council demolished it in spite of the Italian embassy in London offering to pay for its upkeep. Try googling 'Marconi. Memorial Forest of Dean' ........ Many of them stayed on around here too and were totally accepted as part of the community .

Ps : look on http://www.sungreen.co.uk. For a some great photos & info on the memorial & other wartime activities in The Forest of Dean.

Edited September 4, 2012 by RattlesnakeBob

[private mw]

ive heard island camp has 1 hut left nu 9 which the escape tunnel ran from i believe ! cheers for your input and great stories on this thread :coffee:

[private mw]

just found hut 9 is open to the public 8th & 9th sept 2012 pity i dont live closer :-)

[cosrec]

Storewood Camp 73 Yorkshire Still exists pretty much intact. It is owned by company called Melbourne Autos. Jim the owner lives on site in the one of the original buildings. It is a well laid out car breakers yard dealing in modern car parts. Jim has a bit of a thing for milatry pieces. When i was there a few weeks ago he had a F70 Gun and a bloodhound missile as gate guardians, There is often a helicopter in the yard The Gun can clearly be seen on google maps

[Gerry275]

Another camp of interest, is 186 (colchester) which is now the military corrective training centre.

If I remember correctly a prisoner escaped(1946) and returned home- only to be told to get back to colchester- he got back to ipswich docks and walked to colchester,presented himself at the gate and asked to be let in- the camp commander was not amused as the camp was being closed down(1947)

 

The book is camp186 by ken free

[AlienFTM]

just found hut 9 is open to the public 8th & 9th sept 2012 pity i dont live closer :-)

 

That's nice to hear (though I too shan't be anywhere near sadly). I saw a documentary probably around the 60th anniversary and as luck would have it, the following summer we holidayed near Bridgend. Gadgy in the Tourist Information centre was very helpful and we trogged off to have a look.

 

Got to the general area and found ... nothing. Zero Alpha (on the Domestic Command Net) had been very seriously ill some months previously and was still very weak, so ultimately I left her in a folding chair to enjoy the sun while I went for one last 360. The whole area was overgrown and given over to dog walking (and smelled accordingly). Eventually I tracked down the single Hut 9 that was all that remained and was frankly underwhelmed. It was sealed up tight behind industry-strength steel fencing but it was quite obvious that the low-life had already had free run of the place.

 

Bitterly disappointed.

 

Glad to hear something has been done to rectify it.

[Big ray]

In 1945 I went with my grandfather to a German prisoner of war camp in the Uttoxeter area of Staffordshire. We had gone to visit my Uncle Jimmy. He had been in the Italian campagne, he and a Scottish friend had been drinking in a bar in one of the towns when they got into an argument with a couple of the locals (Pro-German) his Scottish buddy ended up getting stabbed, the two Italians made a run for it and my Uncle Jimmy raised his rifle and shot the guy at the rear, they had been running in line, and the bullet passed through the first guy and hit the one in front, killed them both. Uncle Jimmy was first charged with murder, then reduced to manslaughter, he got 5 years hard labour. He had behaved himself and was sent has a trustee to the German camp (Hard to believe that he behaved himself, I got to know him very well after his release, and he was a born trouble maker) My grandfather got to speak with many of the German prisoners and he was quite impressed with their general attitude. I relate this story because many years later (Late 60s or 70s) I was engaged in the task of demolishing one of the old camps in that area. It may well have been the camp that I visited, it was certainly in the same area, but the funny thing is that another Uncle of mine had purchased the camp, and engaged my business to take it down ( not so much demolished as dismantled, quite a big job for me at the time)

[private mw]

intresting story ray .

[private mw]

did anyone go to the open day :-\

[Degsy]

Troublemaker he may have been Ray but in similar circumstances I'm sure I would have done the same and just hope that I was as good a shot as he obviously was.

[RattlesnakeBob]

Please don't judge your Uncle too harshly...

My dads eldest brother (now long gone) was in Burma during the War and my Dad remembered he came home a very changed man......for the rest of his life he never settled well into jobs nor homelife and was also in trouble frequently with the Police...One of the things he struggled with through the years was the way men such as him were expected to perhaps "get on with life and stop going on about the war..."

..I guess to be fair the entire country was fed up to the back teeth with war by then and wanted to just get on and put it all behind them...He was particularly riled by the fact that relatively few folk understood what the fighting and the conditions against the Japanese in Burma had been like compared perhaps to the experience of other lads that fought in Europe........

He passed away in the early 1970s and I clearly recall him being a broken man who looked far older than his years by the end..

I often wonder how many hundreds of thousands of men suffered as he did ....struggling for years to cope with 'ordinary everyday life' having been through things we can only now read about and try our best to imagine and understand........

[Degsy]

Please don't judge your Uncle too harshly...

My dads eldest brother (now long gone) was in Burma during the War and my Dad remembered he came home a very changed man......for the rest of his life he never settled well into jobs nor homelife and was also in trouble frequently with the Police...One of the things he struggled with through the years was the way men such as him were expected to perhaps "get on with life and stop going on about the war..."

..I guess to be fair the entire country was fed up to the back teeth with war by then and wanted to just get on and put it all behind them...He was particularly riled by the fact that relatively few folk understood what the fighting and the conditions against the Japanese in Burma had been like compared perhaps to the experience of other lads that fought in Europe........

He passed away in the early 1970s and I clearly recall him being a broken man who looked far older than his years by the end..

I often wonder how many hundreds of thousands of men suffered as he did ....struggling for years to cope with 'ordinary everyday life' having been through things we can only now read about and try our best to imagine and understand........

 

Well said,so true, no counseling, no attempt to even understand in those days. Very sad.

[Big ray]

Please don't judge your Uncle too harshly...

 

I am in no position to be judgemental, like many of my relatives he had a rough time during the war, however the rest of my post WW11 family members did not seem to be over troublesome after their experiences. I remember returning to our home one day (My grandfather and myself) to find my Uncle Jack sitting in the lounge, on his own, and crying. Uncle Jack was my grandfathers son, he asked him what was wrong, it was very uncharacteristic of my Uncle Jack to cry. After some coaxing by my grandfather, Uncle Jack explained that he had been involved in a multi-vehicle accident when descending the Atlas Mountains in North Africa during his wartime service there with the RAF. He was in no way responsible for the accident (a vehicle malfunction, brakes.) but several people were seriously injured, the same people were then involved in a collision with a second vehicle, and several were killed. He was so upset because he said a lot of good friends died that day that should not have died. I have know doubt that he must have had many sleepless nights.

So No, I do not judge anyone, I have no doubt that you would need to suffer their experiences in order to fully understand.

[RattlesnakeBob]

Please don't judge your Uncle too harshly...

 

I am in no position to be judgemental, like many of my relatives he had a rough time during the war, however the rest of my post WW11 family members did not seem to be over troublesome after their experiences. I remember returning to our home one day (My grandfather and myself) to find my Uncle Jack sitting in the lounge, on his own, and crying. Uncle Jack was my grandfathers son, he asked him what was wrong, it was very uncharacteristic of my Uncle Jack to cry. After some coaxing by my grandfather, Uncle Jack explained that he had been involved in a multi-vehicle accident when descending the Atlas Mountains in North Africa during his wartime service there with the RAF. He was in no way responsible for the accident (a vehicle malfunction, brakes.) but several people were seriously injured, the same people were then involved in a collision with a second vehicle, and several were killed. He was so upset because he said a lot of good friends died that day that should not have died. I have know doubt that he must have had many sleepless nights.

So No, I do not judge anyone, I have no doubt that you would need to suffer their experiences in order to fully understand.

 

Understand you totally mate....I guess none of us and often not even those trained medically and/or psychologically to do so , can ever fully understand how individual humans cope with such events....as you quite rightly say, many thousands of fella's appear to be well able to cope with whatever they saw or experienced and to then carry on in post war years often becoming very successful business men or family men or whatever..

and some don't cope so well at all...and there's no telling how or why the cards are dealt .

As part of my 'job' I often get to play/entertain in Old Folks Homes and as the years slip by us I am very often amazed when chatting to the folk I meet in such places......

......this snowy haired gentle old fella was a Bomb Aimer and flew throughout the war.....and this one that was singing along through my little show was on North Atlantic Convoys....this old lady was a nurse in a field hospital in Italy.....and this one worked in a Bomb Factory for 5 years........the stories keep coming and I am always absolutely humbled by what they did and yet to look at them now you'd never think they 'd had a minutes trouble in their lives .....but you know they certainly did.

As a postscript.....the old chap that lived next door to me for many years was a fine example..

...He'd worked for the The Crown Estates before the war and the Forestry Commision afterwards.....it wasn't until the last few years I found out he was ex RAf and had flown Bristol Beaufighter night fighters...I gave him a print of one in a frame for Xmas one year and took it round to him.....he unwrapped it and gazed at it for a while with a hint of a smile on his face

....I said " a Beaufighter Albert.....I was told you flew them ?"

He settled the picture on the sideboard and simply said

"yes..... but that was an awful long time ago Bob....shall we have a cup of tea?"

Amazing people.