azyeoman

Information on the Yorkshire Light Infantry (King's Own) in S. Africa The 2nd Battalion was in South Africa when the war broke out, having been brought from Mauritius, and was employed at strategical points in Cape Colony until Lord Methuen was ready to advance. They then formed part of the 9th Brigade along with the 1st Northumberland Fusiliers, half of the 1st Loyal North Lancashire Regiment, and the 2nd Northampton Regiment. At Belmont, 23rd November 1899, the Yorkshire Light Infantry were in the supporting line, and the only casualties they had were a few men wounded. Major Earle was mentioned in Lord Methuen's despatch of 26th November 1899. At Enslin on the 25th they took a very prominent part, and if they did not lose so heavily as the Naval Brigade, that is accounted for by their not crowding in the attack and making a better use of the ground. Their losses were approximately 8 men killed, 3 officers and 40 men wounded. Colour Sergeant Waterhouse was mentioned in Lord Methuen's despatch as to Enslin. At Modder River the services of the battalion were invaluable. After the attack by the Guards Brigade on the right had come to a standstill, or, more correctly, a lie still, the 9th Brigade bored in on the left, and two companies of the Yorkshire Light Infantry under Colonel Barter, with some Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and Fusiliers, assaulted and carried some buildings on the near side of the river which commanded the drift. The battalion's losses were approximately 1 officer and 8 men killed, and 3 officers and 50 men wounded. Colonel Barter was mentioned in Lord Methuen's despatch of 1st December 1899. At Magersfontein, 11th December, the 9th Brigade were employed demonstrating on the British left; but the Yorkshire Light Infantry were detached from the brigade for the day, their task being to protect Lord Methuen's right and prevent the enemy from the Jacobsdal-Kimberley road breaking in on the rear of the Highland Brigade. As matters turned out, they had plenty of work, the enemy pushing in with some force. The battalion kept their ground. Their losses were not heavy. When Lord Roberts was preparing to advance from Bloemfontein he created some new brigades. One of these, the 20th, was put under Major General A H Paget. It consisted of the 2nd Yorkshire Light Infantry, transferred from the 9th Brigade, 1st Munster Fusiliers, 4th South Staffordshire Regiment, and 4th Scottish Rifles. After crossing from Hoopstad to the Kroonstad district Lord Methuen's divisionthat is, the 9th and 20th Brigadeshad some fighting in the Lindley district, and in the beginning of June Paget's brigade was left to garrison Lindley. In the operations which ended in the surrender of Prinsloo, Paget's force took part. On 25th June a large convoy left Kroonstad for Lindley. The escort was 800 mounted men, a wing of the Yorkshire Light Infantry, the 3rd East Kent, four guns City Imperial Volunteers' Battery, and two of the 17th RFA, the whole under Colonel Brookfield, 14th Battalion Imperial Yeomanry. The convoy was heavily attacked on the 26th and 27th by the enemy, 1500 strong, with two guns, but his attacks were all driven off and the convoy was brought in. On the 26th June Private C Ward of the Yorkshire Light Infantry gained the VC for volunteering to carry a message to a signalling station through a storm of bullets. He insisted on returning to his force, and in doing so was severely wounded. During July there was almost constant fighting up to the date of Prinsloo's surrender, 30th July. After that the battalion was railed to the Transvaal, and marched past Lord Roberts in Pretoria on 13th August. Along with the 2nd Northumberland Fusiliers, 2nd Worcesters, and 1st Border Regiment, the battalion was put into a column under Clements, which for some months operated between Rustenburg, Krugersdorp, and Johannesburg. Eleven officers and 14 non-commissioned officers and men were mentioned in Lord Roberts' final despatch. Twenty-two men of the Yorkshire Light Infantry under a lance-corporal were among the escort of a convoy which was attacked on the Pretoria-Rustenburg road on 3rd December 1900. The escort "fought with great gallantry", and were able to save one-half of the convoy. Out of their 23 present the Yorkshire Light Infantry lost 5 killed and 6 wounded. Four companies of the battalion were with General Clements when he met with the disaster at Nooitgedacht on 13th December 1900. The half-battalion formed the rear-guard and did splendid work: they lost 6 killed and 5 wounded and about 46 taken prisoners. Unofficial accounts stated that the men of the battalion fought very well. For gallant conduct in these affairs 4 non-commissioned officers and men were mentioned in Lord Kitchener's despatch of 8th March 1901. One officer afterwards got mention. In 1901 the battalion was chiefly in the Eastern Transvaal. They formed part of General Alderson's column, one of those which under General French swept to the Zulu border in January, February, and March 1901. For a time the battalion was garrison at Elandsfontein. On 31st October 1901 they made a particularly fine march to go to the assistance of Colonel Benson's column. In the last phase the battalion was chiefly in blockhouses about Ermelo. The Mounted Infantry company saw a great deal of work. Dealing with Colonel Benson's action at Baakenlaagte on 30th October 1901, Lord Kitchener says, "In spite of the gallant efforts of the Mounted Infantry company of the Yorkshire Light Infantry and a squadron of the Scottish Horse, which promptly formed up on the flanks of the guns", the ridge fell into the enemy's hands, "with the exception of a portion which a party of the Mounted Infantry held till dark". The company's losses were 4 officers and 9 men killed, and 1 officer and 9 men wounded, adequate testimony to the severity of the fighting, and also to the splendid tenacity of the men of the battalion. In Lord Kitchener's final despatch 6 officers and 8 non-commissioned officers and men were mentioned.

The latest acquisition... (Thanks to being influenced by Brett and Brian ) QSA & KSA PAIR, 2ND YORKSHIRE LIGHT INFANTRY WOUNDED & PoW 1901 QSA 1899 – 1902 with CC, Trans and Wittebergen KSA with SA1901 & SA1902 Named: 5852 Pte. J. Heywood, KOYLI (2nd Bn) Heywood was both wounded and taken PoW in the regiment’s action at Zwartkopjes* on 13 Feb. 1901. Complete with medal roll details and S. African Field Force Roll details. * Not to be confused with the Battle of Zwartkopjes of 1845. A total of 383 officers and 9,170 NCOs and men were taken prisoner in the course of the war. 97 men died in captivity. The grounds on which each person was taken prisoner was investigated. One of the publications from The Royal Commission on the War in South Africa contains the results of these enquiries. For the most part, prisoners were exonerated but in some instances the captives were later subject to disciplinary action. The Royal Commission on the War in South Africa lists all surrenders, gives brief details of the incident, numbers involved and the outcome of the investigation. The Boers were even less prepared for prisoners of war than were the British. The first crop came in the first few days of the war, at Kraaipan. Officers were held at the State Model School in Pretoria. Their most famous 'guest' was Winston Churchill who was captured at Frere. NCOs and men were held separately at Waterval, north of Pretoria, in the Transvaal. In March 1900, officers were moved to a new camp at Waterval. It was described as a 'long, white shanty, with a fairly large compound, enclosed by formidable barbed-wire entanglements . . . There are electric lights all around the enclosure making escape a matter of difficulty. Inside, the place looks more like a cattle shed than anything else. A long, galvanised iron building, divided into sleeping rooms, and four small bath rooms, a servants' compartment and kitchen, and eating rooms . . . There is no flooring. The drains consist of open ditches, while the sanitary arrangements are enough to disgust any human being.' With the Flag to Pretoria states 'The plight of the captured Colonial and Uitlander officers was far worse. They were treated as common felons and thrown into gaol.' Lieutenant Colonel Hunt, captured at Colenso, reported to Lord Roberts that the medical arrangements were inadequate. Lord Roberts forwarded the complaint to the Boers and added that he was no more impressed with the rations for other ranks, sanitary arrangements and treatment of the sick. Winston Churchill was the most famous of the people to escape from prison. Incarcerated in the State Model School, he reportedly climbed the fence, boarded a train and hid in a coal mine near Middelburg. He then took another train to Portuguese territory. In March 1900, Captain Haldane, Lieutenant le Mesurier and Sergeant Brockie escaped from the school. They hid beneath the floor. During the removal of prisoners to Waterval, they stayed hidden and were able to stroll out of the emptied prison. The advancing British made the retention of prisoners increasingly problematic. When the British troops entered Pretoria on 5 June 1900, 129 officers and 36 other ranks overpowered their guards just prior to the arrival of the troops. On 6 June, 3,187 non-commissioned officers and men were released at Waterval. (Anglo Boer War Website) Further information on British PoWs from the Anglo-Boer-Oorlog/Anglo-Boer War (1899-1902) site has some of the same data, but more and different information. British and Colonial Prisoners of War in Boer Captivity A total of 383 officers and 9,170 NCOs and men were taken prisoner in the course of the war. 97 men died in captivity. From South Africa's Boer Fighters in the Anglo-Boer War, 1899-1902 Generally no prisoners could be taken, as the Boers had no means to keep them prisoner nor anywhere to hold and feed them – and Boer mounted Kommandos could not risk being slowed down with dismounted POWs. British prisoners were therefore relieved of their boots (going barefoot on the veld was a real immobilizer), rifles, ammunition and frequently pants (the one item of British uniforms that Boers could wear without being mistaken at a distance for the enemy and thereby risking getting a “friendly-fire” bullet through the head). Freeing British prisoners also had a negative effect on British forces’ performance in battle as it encouraged quick surrenders after British soldiers discovered that the Boers would immediately release them if captured – the choice between having to endure a blizzard of deadly Boer Mauser fire or quickly and safely surrendering was usually a “no-brainer.” General Maritz once complained that he captured the same British soldier 3 times in one day and had to let him go each time. However, Maritz noted that his Kommandos profited from each capture since the British soldier was fully outfitted every time they caught him. The first crop of prisoners were taken at Kraaipan in the first few days of the war. Officers were held at the State Model School in Pretoria. Their most famous captive was Sir Winston Churchill who was captured at Frere. Incarcerated in the State Model School, he reportedly climbed the fence, boarded a train and hid in a coal mine near Middelburg. He then took another train to Portuguese territory. In March 1900, Captain Haldane,Lieutenant le Mesurier and Sergeant Brockie escaped from the school. They hid beneath the floor. During the removal of prisoners to Waterval, they stayed hidden and were able to stroll out of the emptied prison. The hospital at the Racecourse was used for wounded and sick prisoners until the fall of Pretoria. The officers remained at the Staats Model School until 16 March 1900 when they were moved to their new quarters known as the Birdcage at Daspoort. The welfare of the prisoners was controlled by a board of management consisting of four persons. They were Louis da Souza, Commandant Opperman, directly responsible for the safe custody of the prisoners, Dr Gunning, who was Opperman's assistant and Hans Malan. Opperman was replaced by a Mr. Westerink in March 1900. The 129 officers and 36 soldiers detained at the Staats Model School were released on the 5th of June 1900. As mentioned in the above information, it is said that when the British troops entered Pretoria on 5 June 1900, 129 officers and 36 other ranks overpowered their guards just prior to the arrival of the troops. On the 6th of June Colonel T C Porter's Brigade was ordered to affect the release of the men confined at Waterval. A squadron of Greys under Captain Maude finally released 3187 men. It was found that 900 prisoners had been removed by the Boers from Waterval on the 4th of June. These men were then detained at Nooitgedacht. They were eventually released by the Earl of Dundonald on the 30th of August 1900. When General French entered Barberton in September 1900, he released the final group of prisoners - twenty-three officers and fifty-nine soldiers who had been removed by the Boers from Nooitgedacht. Most of them had been confined in a barbed wire enclosure while some were housed in the local jail.

HI Brian, I found this on line. I don't know how accurate it is, but if so, it's very interesting! http://www.instinsky.de/Stats_and_Facts.pdf John

These three Boer War PoW groups are wonderful! We know that St. Helena is a cold and windswept place, but what was it like being in a camp in Bermuda? I suspect it wasn't a vacation, but better than being in one on St. Helena or even in S. Africa. Are there any photos of the camps during the Boer War? You've tweaked my interest and now I'd like to get a Boer War PoW to a Brit. Thanks Brian for sharing your wonderful collection and great job on the research. We both agree that that's the reason why we collect. PS: How many Boer PoWs were there?

A nice but sadly broken group of medals to a WWI PoW. WW1 PAIR to CONNOLLY A.S.C. MM WINNER who DIED a PoW in Germany after the war ended and was buried in Germany. BWM/Victory pair to M1/7562 Pte. Thomas Connolly 5th Motor Ambulance Convoy A.S.C. with cap badge and pair of collar insignia. Was an M.M. Winner L/G. 11/10/1916. Was taken Prisoner of War and Died 23/02/1919. Buried Cologne Southern Cemetery. Entitled to a 1914 Star and plaque also. http://www.london-gazette.co.uk/issues/29780/supplements/9829 http://www.cwgc.org/find-war-dead/casualty/901194/CONNOLLY,%20T http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Connolly&GSiman=1&GScid=2161383&GRid=12746608& M1/7562 Pte. T. (Thomas) Connolly served in France from 4th November 1914 and was with the 5th Motor Ambulance Convoy, A.S.C. onwards as part of 2nd Army. The 5th Motor Ambulance Company was donated in entirety to the War Office by George and Arthur du Cros. The majority of the men were from the W&G du Cros taxi company and were enlisted into the ASC prior to leaving for France. The company was originally formed as 1 MAC at Grove Park, leaving Avonmouth on the SS Artist on 31 October 1914. It arrived at Boulogne on 3 November 1914 and was redesigned 5th MAC due to 4 other MAC's having been already raised in France. It seems to have spent all of its time on the Ypres salient until 1918 when it moved to the Somme area. It was commanded by George du Cros until January 1918. The unit was later redesigned the 323rd Company, Royal Army Service Corps and was disbanded on 22 October 1919. Connally was awarded the Military Medal for bravery in the field, the award being published in the London Gazette on 11 October 1916 when the 5th MAC was in the Ypres Salient. As recounted in a letter written by Michael Jones below, he obviously witnessed the affects of heavy enemy gas. Connolly most likely died of influenza in the 1918 Flu pandemic. A three-page letter handwritten in pencil to his sister Marjory Jones on 30 April 1916 by M1-7595 A. Cpl. M. Jones (Michael L. Jones) MM and who was in the same unit as Connolly, details meeting his brother Alan Jones 'after hunting around for hours' - 'he was looking very well, the sausages you sent him were bad, they were on the way too long & he is moving about a good bit his battalion have had quite a few casualties the last few days, they got heavily shelled in their billets, I spent three hours with him'. The letter further details Michael Jones' experiences: 'I returned last evening at nine - had just got off to sleep when I was awakened by an absolute hellish roar of guns which made the building tremble then there was a faint odor of gas which got stronger & stronger till everyone had to put on their helmets at 1 am & was called out to go to the first Field Ambulance to find out if possible what number of wounded and gassed we should have to evacuate, we have carried somewhere between a thousand and twelve hundred mostly badly gassed… The enemy have not gained anything they got a footing in our front line but were hounded out again. We are prepared for a great deal of activity on the enemy side I am going out again tonight, but hope to get back by ten as I am feeling a bit down after the hard work and excitement… Cologne Southern Cemetery (CWGC information) More than 1,000 Allied prisoners and dozens of German servicemen were buried in Cologne Southern Cemetery during the First World War. Commonwealth forces entered Cologne on 6 December 1918, less than a month after the Armistice, and the city was occupied under the terms of the Treaty of Versailles until January 1926. During this period the cemetery was used by the occupying garrison. In 1922 it was decided that the graves of Commonwealth servicemen who had died all over Germany should be brought together into four permanent cemeteries at Kassel, Berlin, Hamburg and Cologne. Over the course of the following year, graves were transferred to Cologne Southern Cemetery from over 180 different burial grounds in Hanover, Hessen, the Rhine and Westphalia. There are now almost 2,500 First World War servicemen buried or commemorated in the Commonwealth plots at Cologne. Commonwealth Prisoners of War in Germany during the First World War Between the outbreak of war in August 1914 and the Armistice of November 1918, the German forces captured almost 300,000 Commonwealth servicemen on the Western Front. Approximately one third of these prisoners were held in German occupied territory in France and Belgium, but most were transported to camps located throughout Germany. In common with the other belligerent states, Germany was poorly equipped to house, feed and clothe large numbers of enemy troops, but prisoners of war had been granted certain rights under international agreements established at Geneva in 1864 and at The Hague in 1899 and 1907. The Red Cross also monitored conditions in the camps and ensured that food, clothing, and personal correspondence sent from Britain was safely delivered to prisoners. In June 1917, and again in July 1918, the British and German governments agreed to exchange prisoners who were too badly wounded to fight again, and hundreds of prisoners were repatriated through the Netherlands. Finally, the fear that the thousands of German prisoners in Britain and France would be mistreated in retaliation meant that Allied POWs often enjoyed quite humane treatment. This was especially the case for officer prisoners, who were segregated into separate camps and not forced to work. Despite these various checks on the mistreatment of prisoners, conditions in German camps varied widely and as many as 12,000 Commonwealth servicemen died in captivity. Some of these men were badly wounded when taken prisoner and died shortly after arriving in Germany. Some prisoners also died as a result of violence perpetrated by their captors, but although violence was common, particularly during the first year of the war, the killing of prisoners was rare. Non-commissioned officers and privates were often forced to work and some died of exhaustion or accidents while labouring in coalmines, stone quarries or steel works. Yet by far the most common cause of prisoner death in wartime Germany was disease. Prisoners weakened by wounds, poor diet, or fatigue were particularly susceptible to the effects of disease and an outbreak of typhus in 1915 and the influenza epidemic of 1918 had a devastating effect on the Allied prisoner population.

Here's another and with a tailor's label too boot!

A rare bar because of the very hard to find mounted KVM and even more so with a tailor's label too.

Thank you very much. I've added some more and updated some of the earlier posts by editing them so you may want to go back and look them over too. : )

HMS Hereward (H93), named after Hereward the Wake, was an H-Class destroyer built for the Royal Navy. The ship was laid down by the High Walker Yard of Vickers Armstrong at Newcastle-on-Tyne on 28 February 1935, launched on 10 March 1936 and completed on 9 December 1936. Excluding government-furnished equipment like the armament, the ship cost £249,591. She tested the twin-gun mounted intended for use on the Tribal-class destroyers in January–March 1937 at Gibralter. It was removed at the end of the trials and her two forward guns were replaced immediately afterwards. The ship was then assigned to the 2nd Destroyer Flotilla of the Mediterranean Fleet and began patrolling Spanish waters in the Mediterranean enforcing the Non-Intervention Agreement during the Spanish Civil War. Hereward was refitted in Malta from 30 September to 30 October 1937 and again a year later, this time in Portsmouth Dockyard in June–July 1939 and she returned to the Mediterranean afterwards. Hereward was transferred to Freetown to hunt for German commerce raiders in the South Atlantic with Force K in October. The ship and her sisterships: Hardy, Hasty and Hostile, rendezvoused with the battlecruiser HMS Renown, the aircraft carrier Ark Royal and the light cruiser Neptune on 17 December. They refueled in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, before proceeding to the estuary of the River Plate in case the damaged German pocket battleship Admiral Graf Spee attempted to escape from Montevideo, Uruguay, where she had taken refuge after losing the Battle of the River Plate. Hereward captured the German blockade runner Uhenfels on 5 November. The ship was based at Trinidad from 20 November to 23 January 1940 and blockaded the German merchant ship Arauca in Port Everglades, Florida while based there. She escorted the battleship Valiant to Halifax, but suffered weather damage en route that required three weeks for repairs. Hereward then escorted the light cruiser Oriaon to the UK as the latter carried the ashes of John Buchan, Governor General of Canada, home. She required further repairs at Portsmouth upon arrival and missed the Battles of Narvik in April. Hereward escorted ships into Scheveningen, Netherlands on 11 May to evacuate British citizens after the Germans invaded the previous day. She evacuated Queen Wilhelmina and her family from the Netherlands on 13 May, and was transferred to the Mediterranean Fleet a few days later. The ship arrived at Alexandria on 24 May and began escorting convoys and larger ships of the fleet. Hereward participated in the Battle of Calabria in July 1940, where she was hit by splinters from a near-miss of the Italian battleship Giulio Cesare. The ship escorted a convoy during Operation Collar and then fired at retreating Italians in Cyrenaica after the Battle of Sidi Barrani. Together with her sistership Hyperion, she sank the Italian submarine Naiade on 13 December. Hereward escorted the battleships of the Mediterranean Fleet as they bombarded Valona on 19 December and then sortied into the North Atlantic when Convoy WS-5A reported that it had been attacked by the German cruiser Admiral Hipper on 25 December. She escorted three of the convoy's ship to Gibraltar on 29 December. The ship participated in Operation Excess in early January 1941 and sank the Italian torpedo boat Vega on 10 January with a torpedo in the Straot pf Sicily. Together with the destroyer Decoy and the gunboat Ladybird, Hereward landed commandos on the island of Kastelorizo as part of Operation Abstention, but they were overwhelmed by an Italian counter-attack. Only a few survivors were taken off two days later. The ship participated in the Battle of Cape Matapan in early March 1941 and the evacuation of Greece in April 1941. She sank a number of fishing boats transporting German troops to Crete on 21 May and helped evacuate the Allied garrison of Heraklion on 29 May. Later that day she was attacked by German Junkers Ju 87 "Stuka" dive bombers and hit by one bomb just in front of her forward funnel. She turned towards the nearby coast of Crete, but was sunk by further attacks. Four officers and 72 crewmen were killed, but the 89 survivors were rescued by Italian MAS torpedo boats and taken prisoner. There is information on the wreck site at http://www.wrecksite.eu/wreck.aspx?15997

A group of six to P/JX 137436 PO Ernest Frank Baxter, HMS Hereward, sunk off Crete on 27 May 1941. Baxter was born on 28 September 1915 and enlisted in May 1931. He lived in Weymouth, Dorset and according to his General Questionnaire for British American Ex-Prisoners of War was captured on 29 May 1941 in Casso Straits off of Crete. He was initially in Italian PoW Camps and was in a camp in Maples from June '41 to July '41 and then Bolzano from July 1941 to 29 Oct. 1941 when he went to Campo 78 in Sulmona and was there from November '41 unitl 1 April of 1943 when he was transferred to Campo 70 at Monturano until 8 Sept. 1943. He was then sent to Moosburg, Germany from Feb. 1944 and left there in March 1944 and went to Marlag and Marlag Nord in Bremen, Germany. He was there from March 1944 to 10 April 1945. He was finally in Lubec, Germany from 8 April 1945 until liberated. He was interrogated on the Island of Rhodes on 31 May 1941 and asked wrote, "Direct questions were asked, and the questions seemed familiar with the ships past opperations (sic)." Baxter also wrote of his escape on 3 May 1945, "Escaped from camp 70 in Italy 8th Sept. 1941. Marched out as a party. Companions were P.O. March, PO Joplin, CPO Hancombe, RSM Hennassy, one seaman and two privates. Party separated I stayed some time at Passara. Injured right ankle and was atended by and sheltered by an Italian farmer. Left him to attempt to pass over to British lines and was captured by Germans on 15/12/1943 N.W of Isclona. Marsh, Joplin and Hennassy reached British lines."

Close up of three WWI badges two of which are paper. It's amazing that some things survive over such a long time.

You can see that his drawing of his wife was a exceptionally well done drawing from the accompanying photograph. His notes to himself are interesting reflections; I'm sure all PoWs had plenty of time on their hands to think. Note the back of the photo of him and his wife; he lists where he was during his time in the forces; he travelled and saw a lot; fascinating reading.

Drawings from his diary.

More on Kip with a great liberation photo of himon the top of the truck (front & center).

More regarding his involvement as writer of one particular production.

It's rare to find the original German documents. Obviously Kip was one of the men who was involved in amatuer theatre that was so popular in the camps. Stalag XVIII-D, also known as Stalag 306, was a German Prisoner of War camp at Maribor (German: Marburg an der Drau) in what is now Slovenia. It opened in the spring or early summer of 1941, operating until the end of the war. By July 1941 Stalag XVIII-D contained nearly 4,500 British and Commonwealth prisoners captured in Greece and Crete. Conditions initially were very poor, with more than 1,000 men accommodated in tents while huts were being constructed. There was an outbreak of typhus in early 1942. However the situation improved as the war went on. Escapes assisted by Yugoslav Partisans became increasingly common, with most escapers being led south to the Partisan base and airfield at Semic in Bela Krajina. In August 1944, the largest mass rescue of POWs of the war in Europe took place when 105 Allied prisoners from a work camp administered by Stalag XVIII-D were freed by Partisans in the raid at Ozbalt. Between August and November 1942 there was a second camp at Maribor, Stalag XVIII- B/Z.

A most interesting addition to the collection to Harry "Kip" Colomb, RA taken PoW on Crete. It's nice to see the Greek War Medal* with this group and it's surprising that more men didn't apply for it when they could. Please note his PoW ID tag (6945) which matches his original German paperwork that he was able to retain after his liberation. The group is accompanied by origianal photos, letters, drawings and a diary some of which I'll post too. Note the cap badge is a good example of a "camp-made" one. It would be hard to find a more complete PoW group. *Note on Greek War Medal awarded to those who fought in Greece/Crete There is no specific British medal for Greece/Crete but the Greeks have offered medals to British Servicemen for fighting in their country in 1939-45. These Greek medals are still being processed by their Embassy and the applications are sent to Athens for processing. Applicants need an original record of service showing that they were in Greece/Crete during the War.

I've got the one my father got when he was in the UK in WWII They aren't uncommon but there are a lot of repros out there so you have to be careful. I've seen crazy prices on real ones, but they can be found for reasonable prices too.

A long service group assembled by Brochard.

Thank you. That would be wonderful!

Why was she sunk and where was she? Is she in deep water? Do you have any underwater photos of her? It would be an interesting thread to see your dives on sunken military ships if you've done this more than once.

Famous British POWs 1. Michael Bentine CBE Bentine was called up for service in the RAF. He was appearing in a Shakespearean play in doublet and hose in the open-air theatre in London’s Hyde Park when two RAF MPs marched on stage and arrested him for desertion. Unknown to him, an RAF conscription notice had been following him for a month as his company toured. Once in the RAF he went through flying training. He was the penultimate man going through a medical line receiving inoculations for typhoid with the other flight candidates in his class (they were going to Canada to receive new aircraft) when the vaccine ran out. They refilled the bottle to inoculate him and the other man as well. By mistake they loaded a pure culture of typhoid. The other man died immediately, and Bentine was in a coma for six weeks. When he regained consciousness his eyesight was ruined, leaving him myopic for the rest of his life. Since he was no longer physically qualified for flying, he was transferred to RAF Intelligence and seconded to MI9, a unit that was dedicated to supporting resistance movements and helping prisoners escape. His immediate superior was the Colditz escapee Airey Neave, At the end of the war, he took part in the liberation of Bergen-Belsen Concentration Camp. He said about this experience, “Millions of words have been written about these horror camps, many of them by inmates of those unbelievable places. I’ve tried, without success, to describe it from my own point of view, but the words won’t come. To me Belsen was the ultimate blasphemy”. (The Reluctant Jester, Chapter 17) 2. James Clavell Following the outbreak of World War II, at the age of 16 (or 19) he joined the Royal Artillery in 1940, and was sent to Malaya to fight the Japanese. Wounded by machine-gun fire, he was eventually captured and sent to a Japanese prisoner-of-war camp on Java. Later he was transferred to Changi Prison in Singapore. Clavell suffered greatly at the hands of his Japanese captors. According to the introduction to King Rat, written by Clavell, over 90% of the prisoners who entered Changi never walked out. Clavell was reportedly saved, along with an entire battalion, by an American prisoner of war who later became the model for "The King" in Clavell's King Rat. By 1946, Clavell had risen to the rank of Captain, but a motorcycle accident ended his military career. 3. Roy Dotrice OBE He served with the RAF from 1940 to 1945 during WWII, and was imprisoned in a German POW camp from 1942 to 1945. 4.Clive Dunn Served in the British Army with the 4th Queen’s Own Hussars during the Second World War. He was captured in Greece and spent four years in prisoner-of-war and labor camps in Austria. Called up in 1940, Dunn joined the 4th Hussars and was eventually posted to Greece. He spent months in the Greek countryside doing his best to avoid the enemy, but was eventually captured by a German patrol. Dunn remembered two weeks as a prisoner near Corinth with “thousands of starving and dysentery-ridden British, Indians and Palestinians”. He was then transported to Austria. “We were packed into cattle trucks like rotten sardines, smelly from diarrhea and dysentery, with no food, one petrol can for water and one for use as a latrine.” The journey took seven days. On arrival at the POW camp the prisoners gave the guards a list of their civilian employment. Dunn remembered that after so long without food, 70 per cent of the 2,000 men claimed to have been butchers or cooks. During his time as a POW, Dunn became unofficial medical orderly, camp leader and cleaner. On one occasion, after spending hours persuading the camp commander to let him buy supplies from a village shop, and days compiling a list of necessities with the men, Dunn returned with everything he had been allowed to purchase: three razor blades and a box of matches. After liberation, he remained in the Army until 1947, 5. Denholm Elliot CBE In World War II, he joined the RAF, training as a sergeant radio operator and gunner and serving with No. 76 Squadron under the command of Leonard Cheshire VC. On the night of 23/24 September 1942, his Handley Page Halifax bomber took part in an air raid on the U-boat pens at Flensburg, Germany. The aircraft was hit by flak and subsequently ditched in the North Sea near Sylt, Germany. Elliott and two other crewmembers survived and he spent the rest of the war in a POW camp in Silesia. While imprisoned he became involved in amateur dramatics. 6. Terry Frost RA Frost first began to paint whilst interned in a POW camp during the Second World War where he met and was taught by Adrian Heath while a POW. 7. Michael Goodliff He joined the British Army at the beginning of WWII, and received a commission as a 2nd Lt. in the Royal Warwickshire Regiment in February 1940. He was wounded in the leg and captured at the Battle of Dunkirk Goodliffe was incorrectly listed as killed in action, and even had his obituary published in a newspaper. He was to spend the rest of the war a prisoner in Germany. While in captivity he produced and acted in (and in some cases wrote) many plays and sketches to entertain fellow prisoners. These included two productions of William Shakespeare’s Hamlet, one in Tittmoning and the other in Eichstatt , in which he played the title role. He also produced the first staging of Noel Coward’s Post Mortem at Eichstätt. A full photographic record of these productions exists. After the war he resumed his professional acting career. As well as appearing in the theatre, he worked in film and television. He also appeared in The Wooden Horse in 1950 and in other POW films. He suffered from depression and committed suicide in 1976. 8. Adrian Heath Heath served in the RAF as a tail gunner in Lancaster bombers in WWII, but spent almost the entire war as a POW, during which period he became friends with and taught fellow POW Terry Frost to paint. 9. Sam Kydd Early in the war, he went to France with the British Expeditionary Force, but was quickly captured, spending the rest of the war in Stalag XX-A a camp near Thorn in German-occupied western Poland. Kydd later wrote of his experiences as a POW in his autobiographical book For You The War Is Over. During his internment in the German prisoner-of-war camp, where he remained for the next five years, he took command of the camp's theatrical activities - devising and staging plays. He felt so strongly about his work there that, when he was offered repatriation after three years, he turned it down to continue with his theatrical work. In recognition of his valuable services during these years, he was awarded a pair of drama masks made by the Red Cross from barbed wire. 10.Desmond Llewelyn The outbreak of WWII in September 1939 halted his acting career; Llewelyn was commissioned as a second lieutenant in the British Army, serving with the Royal Welch Fusiliers. In 1940, he was captured by the German Army in France, and was held as a POW in Colditz Castle for five years. 11. George Miller DSO MC His second published book Horned Pigeon tells of his service in the 1st Battalion the Rifle Brigade in North Africa. As a second lieutenant he was in command of a scout platoon of Bren carriers and motorcyclists. He had an uncomfortable time with the second in command of his battalion Major Vic Turner. His scout platoon was overrun by Rommel's advance at Gazala in the Libyan desert. For a time he and some of his platoon evaded the Germans but eventually he was captured and briefly brought in front of Rommel himself. He was handed over to the Italian army who took him to the prisoner of war camp Campo 66 in Capua in the Padula Monastery. After a number of escape attempts he was moved to Campo 5 at Gavu, a high-security POW camp, where, like Colditz the 'escapers' were confined. One of his fellow inmates for example was David Stirling who had established the SAS. After the Italian surrender the Allied prisoners were entrained for Germany. Millar and a companion jumped from the train in Germany. Millar and Binns made their way from Munich to Strasbourg where they were separated. Millar continued to Paris and then Lyon. While in the south of France he was found by the SOE section run by Richard Heslop DSO codenamed Xavier and Elizabeth. He volunteered to stay in France and fight with the Resistance. When Heslop refused Millar asked Heslop to recommend him to SOE for the future. Finally, after more than three months on the run, made it across the Pyrenees and over the Spanish border to Barcelona. Back in London he pulled strings and managed to get into F Section of SOE, and was prepared for a return to France by Vera Atkins and Maurice Buckmaster among others. He was parachuted into the Besancon area of France just before D-Day and returned to England three months later when the US Army pushed the Germans out of that part of France. On his return took a month's leave, rented a cottage in the country and wrote the manuscript of Maquis, the nickname of the French Resistance. In this immediate and vivid account he drew on his journalistic skills to describe life living in the woods with the Maquis, various sabotage missions against the railways and trying to organize the villages before liberation by the Americans. He meets Paul, an American radio operator, the competing local resistance chiefs, and eventually joins the locally famous Boulaya Maquis sold well and was followed by Horned Pigeon which was based on 'prolific notes I had dictated...to a shorthand typist, during the month's leave following my escape.' The second book 'was, if anything, more successful than the first'. 12. W.H. Murrey At the outbreak of WWII, Murrey joined the Argyll and Sutherland Highlanders and was posted to the Middle East and North Africa. He was captured south of Mersa Matruh during the Western Desert Campaign in a retreat to El Alamein in June 1942 by a tank commander from the 15th Panzer Division who was armed with a machine-pistol. A passage in Mountain magazine (#67, 1979) describes the moments after his capture: To my astonishment, he [the German tank commander] forced a wry smile and asked in English, 'Aren't you feeling the cold?' ... I replied 'cold as a mountain top'. He looked at me, and his eyes brightened. 'Do you mean – you climb mountains?' He was a mountaineer. We both relaxed. He stuffed his gun away. After a few quick words – the Alps, Scotland, rock and ice – he could not do enough for me. Murrey went on to spend three years in POW camps in Italy (Cheti) Germany ( Moosberg, Brunswick) and Czechoslovakia (Oflag VIII-F in Marisch Trubeau). While imprisoned, Murray wrote a book entitled Mountaineering in Scotland. The first draft of the work was written on the only paper available to him: rough toilet paper. The manuscript was found and destroyed by the Gestapo. To the incredulity of his fellow prisoners, Murray's response to the loss was to start again, despite the risk of its loss and that his physical condition was so poor from the near starvation diet that he believed he would never climb again. Nevertheless, Murray was deputy leader to Eric Shipton on the 1951 Everest Reconnaissance Expedition, but failed to acclimatize at altitude and so was not included in the 1953 team. He also explored part of the Api group in Nepal with John Tyson in 1953. 13. Airey Neave DSO OBE MC Neave joined the Territorial Army and became an officer of the Royal Artillery in the regular British Army at the beginning of WWII. He was sent to France in February 1940 as part of a searchlight regiment, and was wounded and captured by the Germans at Calais on 23 May 1940. He was imprisoned at Oflag IX-A/H near Spangenberg and in February 1941 moved to Stalag XX-A near Thorn in German-occupied western Poland. In April 1941 he escaped from Thorn with Norman Forbes. They were captured near Itow while trying to enter Soviet-controlled Poland and were briefly in the hands of the Gestapo. In May, they were both sent to Oflag IV-C, which is often referred to as Colditz Castle because of its location. Neave made his first attempt to escape from Colditz on 28 August 1941 disguised as a German N.C.O. He did not get out of the castle as his hastily contrived German uniform (made from a Polish army tunic and cap painted with scenery paint) was rendered bright green under the prison searchlights. He tried again on 5 January 1942, again in disguise, together with Dutch officer Anthony Luteyn. Better uniforms and escape route (they made a quick exit from a theatrical production using the trap door beneath the stage) got them out of the prison and by train and on foot they travelled to Gdansk in Poland from where Neave took a boat to neutral Sweden. He was later recruited as an intelligence agent for MI9. While at MI9, he was the immediate superior of Michael Bentine CBE. He also served with the International Military Tribunal at Nuremberg investigating Krupp. As a well-known war hero - as well as a qualified lawyer who spoke fluent German - he was honoured with the role of reading the indictments to the Nazi leaders on trial. He wrote several books about his war experiences including an account of the Nuremberg Trial. 14. Donald Pleasance OBE During WWII Pleasence was initially a conscientious objector, but later changed his stance and was commissioned into the RAF, serving with 166 Squadron, RAF Bomber Command. His Avro Lancaster was shot down on 31 August 1944, during a raid on Agenville. He was taken prisoner and placed in a German POWcamp, where he produced and acted in plays. He would later play Flight Lieutenant Colin Blythe in The Great Escape where much of the story takes place inside a German POW camp. 15. Ronald Searle CBE RDI In April 1939, realizing that war was inevitable, he abandoned his art studies to enlist in the Royal Engineers. In January 1942, he was stationed in Singapore. After a month of fighting in Malaya, Singapore fell to the Japanese, and he was taken prisoner along with his cousin Tom Fordham Searle. He spent the rest of the war a prisoner, first in Changi Prison and then in the Kwai jungle, working on the Siam-Burma Death Railway. Searle contracted both Beri-beri and Malaria during his incarceration, which included numerous beatings, and his weight dropped to less than 40 kilograms. He was liberated in late 1945 with the final defeat of the Japanese. Immediately after the war, he served as a courtroom artist at the Nuremberg Trails. 16. E.W. Swanton CBE Swanton served in the Bedfordshire Yeomanry in WWII. He was in the rank of acting major when wounded and captured by the Japanese in the fall of Singapore, and spent three years as a POW. His unit spent time in camps along the Burma-Siam railway, and he contracted polio and lost a considerable amount of bodyweight, but his well-thumbed copy of the 1939 Wisden Crickters’ Almanack boosted morale. He later described playing cricket with makeshift equipment and under conditions of extreme privation and the constant threat of brutality in an article, "Cricket under the Japs", for the 1946 edition of Wisden Cricketers’ Almanack. 17. Charles Upham VC and bar (The most highly decorated man in the British Army in WWII) Having been taken POW in his second VC action, he was sent to an Italian hospital to recuperate but attempted to escape numerous times before being branded "dangerous" by the Germans. One attempt to escape occurred when a group of POWs were being transported in open trucks through Italy, Upham jumped from the truck at a bend and managed to get 400 yards (370 m) away before being recaptured. He had broken an ankle in jumping from the moving truck. Another attempt occurred when he was being moved between prison camps on a civilian train while guarded by two Germans. Upham was only allowed to visit the toilet when the train was traveling at high speed, to prevent him from jumping through a window. Nevertheless, Upham prised open the toilet window and jumped onto the tracks, knocking himself unconscious. On a third occasion, he tried to escape a camp by climbing its fences in broad daylight. He became entangled in barbed wire when he fell down between the two fences. When a prison guard pointed a pistol at his head and threatened to shoot, Upham calmly ignored him and lit a cigarette. This scene was photographed by the Germans as "evidence" and later reprinted in his biography, Mark of the Lion, by Kenneth Sandford. After this incident, Upham was considered extremely dangerous and was placed in solitary confinement. He was only allowed to exercise alone, while accompanied by two armed guards and while covered by a machine gun in a tower. Despite these precautions, Upham bolted from his little courtyard, straight through the German barracks and out through the front gate of the camp. The guard in the machine gun tower later told other prisoners that he refrained from shooting Upham out of sheer respect, and as he could see German soldiers coming up the road who he expected to capture Upham. Upham was soon recaptured and sent to the infamous Oflag IV-C (Colditz) on 14 October 1944.

You're absolutely right; they're scarce to find mounted. Tom Yanacek mentions it specifically in his wonderful book on parade mounted bars. Like you, I was fortunate to find one and here it is. I hope others post theirs. Congratulations!

I'm going to keep it as he was recommended for a VC and it's the closest I'll ever get to getting one of those. ; ) I also like the fact that Queen Victoria's eyes most certainly saw this very ribbon bar from time to time.

Thanks Brian, I am looking forward to seeing what you post. As for these early PoW groups, the more I read about what happened in May 1940, the more amazed I am at what these men whose stories we're trying to keep alive went through.