azyeoman

Interesting press photo that I just acquired with the caption "Freed British Soldier Prisoners in Syria". I'd love to find a group to one of the PoWs. The reverse reads. Baalbeck, Syria. -- One of the clauses of the Peace Convention of Acre referred to the immediate return of British soldeirs who had been taken prisoner by the Vichy Forces. A groupo of the returned prionsers give vent to thier feeling upon their arrival here by train from prisoner-of-war camps in Northern Syria." Credit line (ACME) 9-10-41 The Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre (also known as the Convention of Acre) concluded the Syria-Lebanon Campaign of WWII. The armistice was signed on 14 Juyly 1941 and was between the allied forces in the Middle East under command of British Gen. Henry Maitland Wilson and Vichy French forces in Syria and Lebanon under command of Gen. Henri Dentz, Commander in Chief of the Army of the Levant (Armee du Levant) and the High Commissioner of the Levant. Having lost control of the Northern Desert and the Euphrates Province and being threatened with the imminent loss of Beirut, General Dentz decided to ask for an armistice. On the evening of 11 July, British Lt. Gen. Claude Auchinleck, CIC Middle East Command, received a wireless message from Dentz proposing the suspension of hostilities six hours later, at midnight. General Dentz declared himself ready to engage in talks on the basis of a memorandum presented to him that morning by the United States Consul at Beirut on behalf of the British Government. But Dentz made the reservation that he was empowered by the French Government to treat only with the British representatives to the exclusion of those of the Free French. The proposals presented by General Dentz were considered at once by the Middle East War Council. The council took into account the opinion of the American Consul at Beirut that Dentz was entirely insincere and might be playing for time in the hope of a last minute rescue by the Germans. Accordingly, his conditions were rejected by the British and he was called on to send his plenipotentiaries to the British outpost on the Beirut— Haifa Road at or before 0900 hours on 12 July. Failure to do this would lead to the resumption of hostilities at that hour. On 12 July, the Vichy second in command, Lt. Gen. Joseph-Antoine-Sylvain-Raoul de Verdillac attended the talks. He went all the way from Syria to Acre in the British Mandate of Palestine and was escorted by a convoy of Australian high commanding officers. General de Verdillac represented the Armee du Levant for the Armistice talks instead of his superior commander, General Dentz. The 21 July 1941 issue of Time Magazine indicates that Dentz sent de Verdillac to the talks because de Verdillac was more pro-British and less anti- De Gaulle than Dentz. At 2200 hours on 12 July, the Armistice of Saint Jean d'Acre was initialled. The Allied forces were represented by General Wilson, by Air Commodore L. O. Brown Royal Air Force, by Captain J. A. V. Morse, Royal Navy, and by Free French General Georges Catroux. The Vichy French were represented by de Verdillac. The Armistice talks, the first between Great Britain and France since Napoleon's time, were held in the Sidney Smith Barracks officers mess, on the outskirts of the city of Acre. On this site was later founded Bustan HaGalil, an Israeli agricultural settlement. Despite the generosity of the British terms, representatives of Vichy made a brief show of refusing them, then dumped the whole mess into General Dentz's lap. On Bastille Day14 July General Dentz, Vichy's High Commissioner to the Levant States, signed Syria and Lebanon away to the conquering British and to the Free French Forces. When General De Verdillac uncapped his pen to add his signature, all the lights in the room fused out, and so a dispatch rider's motorcycle was brought into the room to light the place with its head lamp.

For more information on the disastorous Kassel mission in which 2Lt Eric W. Smith above took part (in plane "Donald") and more on the B-24 Liberator, please visit the following fascinating sites: http://www.kasselmission.com/ http://www.jcs-group.com/military/war1941born/kassel.html http://www.tankbooks.com/ninelives/chapter7.htm http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Consolidated_B-24_Liberator

2nd Lt. Eric W. Smith Eric W. Smith Jr. was inducted into the USAAF as an aviation cadet. After pre-flight he "washed out" of primary, passed gunnery, then graduated as a bombardier. Commissioned 2nd Lt. by Gen. Ramey on 26 February 1944, and married Micki Kaiser from Rochester NY by post chaplain at Kirtland AFB, Albequerque, New Mexico immediately after graduation. On 27 September 1944, he was flying as bombardier with 702 Sqd. of the 445th BG on the ill-fated Kassel mission. The group was badly mauled and Smith was captured and spent the remainder of the war in Stalag Luft I, Barth, Germany. He was demobilized on 19 September 1945. He received the Air Medal with three Oak Leaf Clusters, a Purple Heart and several Bronze Stars. He was discharged 15 November 1945. Eric Wilborne Smith Jr. was born on 15 August 1916 and died at 82 of a heart attack on 18 June 1999 at his home in Glendale a suburb of St. Louis, Missouri. Smith graduated with a BSc in architecture from U of Illionois in June 1939 and taught design at the Washington University School of Archetecture. He 1949 he opened his own offece and was a principal for 32 years with Smith & Entzeroth Architectural frim which designed some major area projects includeing the Pierre Laclede Center, the Interco Corporate Tower and the 500 Broadway Building in St. Louis. The firm also renovaated the west wing of the St. Louis Art Museum and desigend many local churches and schools. In 1954 he won a national award for the design of the chapl at Baumont Scout Reservation in St. Louis Co., near Eureka. Smith was involved with Boy Scouts most of his life. He Retired in 1989 and enjoyed golf, traveling and being with his wife to whom he was married for at least 48 years.

Here's an interesting one. I apologize in advance as I can't make the photos larger, but you can see them on line via a Canadian dealer. Lt. Fellows is 1 of only a select few Allied men awarded the German Red Cross Honor Award when the German battleship "Deutschland" sought help after taking a big hit during the spanish civil war. This is a well documented case and has been discussed in the OMRS. War Damaged Group: 1914-15 Star (LIEUT. T.B. FELLOWES R.N.); British War Medal (LIEUT. T.B. FELLOWES R.N.); Victory Medal (LIEUT. T.B. FELLOWES R.N.); Jubliee Medal 1935; Coronation Medal 1937; and Russian Order of St.Stanislaus, 3rd Class. Naming is officially impressed on the three medals. Swing bar suspension, original ribbons, damaged, accompanied by two level ribbon bar of same. Second group of unmounted medals: 1914-15 Star (LT. T.B. FELLOWES RN. REPLACEMENT); British War Medal (LT. T.B. FELLOWES RN REPLACEMENT); Victory Medal (LT T B FELLOWES RN); Jubilee Medal 1935; Coronation Medal 1937; Defence Medal; and War Medal 1939-1945. Three replacement medals are officially impressed, in extremely fine condition. Also included is the American Tuscania Survivors Association Medal (brass, engraved "IN RECOGNITION OF VALOR SHOWN BY COMMANDER AND CREW OF MOSQUITO IN RESCUE OF U.S.A. TROOPS, FEB. 5, 1918", 31 mm x 38 mm); and German Red Cross Honour Award, 3rd Model, 1st Class (with ribbon bar, in case of issue); German Red Cross Honour Award document signed by the President of the German Red Cross, July 26, 1937; a letter from the German Consulate in Gibraltar; documents from Buckingham Palace authorizing him to wear the Jubilee Medal 1935 and the Coronation Medal 1937; letter from the London Civil Defence Region War Debris Survey and Disposal Director dated 1941; copies of his Service Records; his original Cadet Training Certificate from Dartmouth; a photograph of Captain Fellowes; and a copy from "The Landed Gentry" documenting his lineage. Footnote: Thomas Balfour Fellowes was born on July 13, 1891 and was educated at the Royal Naval College at Osborne, Isle of Wight, and then Dartmouth. His father was Rear Admiral Sir Thomas Hounsom Butler Fellowes, K.C.B. (1911), C.B. (1868), who himself was decorated for the Crimean War (1854-55) and the Abyssinian War (1868). T. B. Fellowes entered the Royal Navy in 1903 at the age of twelve. He became a Midshipman in May 1908, a Sub-Lieutenant in October 1911 and Lieutenant in October 1913. It was in this capacity during World War I that he found himself aboard H.M.S. Unity at the Battle of Jutland on May 31 - June 1, 1916. It was for this conflict that he was awarded the Russian Order of St. Stanislaus. He was also recognized as commander of the British Destroyer Mosquito, by the survivors of the S.S. Tuscania, a U.S. troops transport ship which was torpedoed off the coast of Ireland on February 5, 1918, in rescue of its survivors. After the war, he married Anne Evelyn Frances on December 13, 1921. Fellowes was promoted to Lieutenant-Commander in October 1921, followed by Commander in December 1926 and later, to Captain, in June 1934. While he was Chief of Staff at Gibraltar in 1937, he was in charge of the rescue and treatment of injured German soldiers. He was subsequently awarded the German Red Cross Honour Badge for his efforts and was given permission by His Majesty the King, to wear it without restriction. Fellowes retired in October 1938 but was recalled to service in 1939 upon the outbreak of World War II and served until 1943. During the German bombing Blitz, between September 1940 and May 1941, Fellowes' original medal grouping was damaged and found its way into the War Debris Survey and Disposal Dump at Hyde Park in London. They were found and tentatively identified as his. He received a letter from the Director of the War Debris Survey, dated October 25, 1941, addressed to him while he was known as Captain Fellowes: "Dear Sir, A number of medals, some of them in a damaged condition, have been found at the War Debris Survey and Disposal Dump at Hyde Park. Some of them bear the name of Lt. T.B. Fellowes. I understand that you held the rank of Lieutenant during the Great War, and shall therefore be pleased if you would let me know whether any of these medals are likely to have been yours. If you will let me have particulars and evidence of ownership, they will then be returned to you." He was very pleased to have them returned and they accompany the replacement medals. The Order of St. Stanislaus was not replaced. In 1972, he celebrated the 200th anniversary of his grandfather's birth, while in 1973, he celebrated the 70th anniversary of his having joined the Royal Navy with friends at the Royal Aero Club. Fellowes passed away in 1974 at the age of 82.

Here's not an unusual WWII PoW group, but the ephimera makes it most interesting. 4749252 Pte. Albert E. Cleave, Green Howards was taken PoW in N. Africa in one of the actions leading up to the Battle of the Mareth Line, which took place on 19.3.1943. Note the 1st Army clasp on his Africa Star. His parents, were notified of his capture on 12.3.1943 when they were told he was being held in Italy. His PoW number was 31585 and he was eventually held in Stalag VIII B Lamsdorf in Selisia, Poland as noted on a letter from his parents to him postmarked 16.12.1943. There is a note indicating that he may have been held in Stalag IVC as written on the front of his parents' letter. The photograph of him standing is dated 13.1.1940 and was taken in Plymouth; it is probably one that was taken upon his entry into the army. According to letter dated 24.11.1944 from the British Red Cross & the Order of St. John of Jerusalem, he had had an accident and was in hospital with a head injury. Eventually he passed a commission that decided he was to be repatriated. There is no indication that this happened. The portrait of Pte. Cleave in the Christmas Card was taken at the same time as the previously mentioned photograph. This is the second PoW group that has an Italy Star in it when the man was captured in N. Africa. It appears that PoWs held in Italy were entitled to the Italy Star. Lamsdorf, now called Łambinowice, is a small town in Poland, once the location of one of Germany's largest prisoner of war camps for allied servicemen. The camp originally opened during the Franco-Prussian War of 1870-71, and was also a prisoner of war camp in the First World War. In 1939 it housed Polish prisoners, then from 1940 until it was evacuated in January 1945, it housed more then 100,000 prisoners from Britain and other Commonwealth countries, as well as from the Soviet Union, Poland and various European countries occupied by the Germans. In 1943 many prisoners from Lamsdorf were transferred to other camps, and the number was changed from VIIIB to 344. It is highly probable that Pte. Cleave was transferred to Stalag IVC, which was the PoW camp located in Wistritz, Sudentenland, now Dubi in the Czech Republic. It was opened in February 1941 and was in a former porcelain factory. In 1943, fewer than 250 men were there, with the rest of the around 23,000 men working in local industry and contruction in Arbeitskommandos. It was bobed several times between July 1944 and April 1945. On 21 July 1944 during the second raid, six British PoWs were killed and 21 were injured. The Russian Army liberated the camp in May, 1945.

Another one from Sedlatzek of Berlin.

Hi Owan, It's so good to hear from you!!! I hope you and yours are well. It seems that these Aden related medals and groups are in demand. Truly wonderful that you were able to find them in Yemen! I never found anything to locals when I lived in Saudi, but did find a BEM to a New Zealander!!! I've yet to see a bronze BWM to the Aden Labour Corps (but have an Egyptian one, a Chinese one and a Macedonian one). Please feel free to add as much knowledge to this thread as you can; same with you Paul. : ) All the best for the holidays, John

Thanks Harry! Great addition! Cheers, John

A nice frack by Sedlatzek of Berlin.

Hi Dan, Thanks so much; every little piece to the puzzle of keeping the recipient "alive" is always most welcome and in my opinion vital. All the very best, John

Aren't there some British soldiers stationed overseas while assigned to UN peacekeeping duties?

Probably the most common pair to find, but quite rare to find with a maker's label. Ordens Dekoration Gravieranstalt J. Bohous. Hannover Steinter Str. 5

The latest is such a common group, but how often do you find them with a tailor label. Quite scarce as such...

Captain Claude Arthur Bignell's plaque and trio have finally been reunited!

Very nice! Thanks for the newspaper article with the nominal roll; it should help other collectors who are fortunate enough to have a medal to one of those recipients like you.

Haven't added anything to this collection in a very long time, but have just acquired an interesting very long service group with all the paperwork to a man who went up quite high in the postal service later on in life. It's the accompanying paper work that make it nice and interesting.

Thank you. I know some of them have names, but I can't read Japanese. Regarding the Nagoya rifle, every number matches! :-)

A nice WWI PoW related postcard appealing for donations for Kent PoWs.

The latest addition is an antique Japanese army sake cup, decorated with a rising sun, a branch of cherry blossoms, and the words "Term Fulfillment commemoration". The words on the back are "27th Infantry Regiment" and the soldier's name Hurukawa. The cup is boxed in an original wooden box and there's a full name Takahashi Kanbei on a slip who might be the person who ordered it.

The last of the collection... all matching numbers on the rifle (down to the firing pin!) and brought home during the war by a US pilot who flew the hump. If anyone can translate the Kanji on the helmet, I'd be very apprciative.

A WWII Japanese collection wouldn't be complete without a signed flag. This one has the following written on it. "Good luck for Bravery" "Believe firmly and serve your country." "Seven lives, serve your country seven times." Mr. Sakata Signatures from the entire Sakata family.

Some relics from Eniwetok in the Marshals. All brought home by the same man and never cleaned. Maj. Gen. Yoshimi Nishida defended the atoll with 2,741 men and after the battle ended (17 Feb. - 23 Feb. 1944) only 48 labourers and 16 Japanese were captured. These were from someone who needless to say, wasn't captured. The US had 262 killed, 77 missing and 757 wounded. Eniwetok provided an airfield and harbor to support attacks on the Marianas.

And some more. I particularly like the cranes on the very top of the rims of two of these.

Here are some more sake cups etc. Hope you find them as interesting as I do. I only collect ones that are boxed.

Thank you very much. I hope to, but as it's my collection, I'm limited to what's out there and what I can afford... Oh to be Bill Gates. ; )