P.O.W. Camp number 52

Pleased that you are finding it interesting. It was absolutely fascinating doing all the research,

Vitellino

 

Hello Brendan,

Pleased you like it.

If you to send me something about your grandfther I will post it on the site - a photo or an anecdote.

Regards,

Vitellino

 

Hi. Is this thread still active? I'm researching my fathers war record. He was William Wright a Chief ERA on HMS Cachalot which was scuttled in the Med in July 1941 and he was then POW till March 1943 when he was repatriated in ( I think ) in a swop of navy personnel. I'm trying to find what POW camp he was in. I think it may have been PG52 . I also was wondering how you can find if he was part of that repatriation.

 

Hello Boyd,

The only way to be certain which camp he was in is to send for his service records, as the camp register prepared by the International Red Cross was issued in August 1943 so clearly he isn't in it (below is an extract)

Unfortunately with Covid restrictrions I don't think my contact up at PG 52 will be able to visit the Signals Museum where all the prisoner of war record cards are held.

There may be a file in the National Archives dealing with this repatriation - I will have a look.

Regards,

Vitellino

 

WW2 Exchange and Repatriation Voyages

This site says
Udated July 9, 2011
Find Passenger Lists and Crew Lists on Ancestry.com
You can find information about passengers and crew on the Gripsholm's two long repatriation voyages on Ancestry.com by entering Gripsholm and the year 1942 or 1943 in the search fields for passenger lists and immigration documents.
The historical documents at ancestry.com can often show family members, occupations,
birth and marriage dates, addresses, and more for your ancestors. With billions of records, ancestry.com has the largest online collection of genealogical documents anywhere in the world.

I have yet to make this work, and there is also another vessel named 'Drottningholm' that also made repatriation voyages

Perhaps someone else can make it work

TD

 

Thanks for those. I will try ancestry.com
Vitellino that would be great, thanks. I do have my fathers complete and original service records. It just gives him POW from 5/8/1941 (although Cachalot was scuttled on 30/7) to 31/3//1943 and is silent on where. His service number was C/MX 51426

 

Boyd,
From my research their where a small number of repatriations about that time. My own father, who had been in PD66, PG52 and PG202 (Lucca), was repariated as follows;
Repatriation Train leaves Lucca Thursday, 1 April 1943
Repatriation Train Reaches Lisbon - boards hospital ship Newfoundland Sunday, 18 April 1943
Prev. rep. P.O.W Now repatriated. Safe in U.K. Monday, 26 April 1943.
I will look for the details of a prior repatriation and post info.
Another source is to look at the casualty lists for the period. These are found on one of the paid sites and are searchable by name & number.

 

Here's the file you want, Boyd. I don't know whether or not it contains any names.

Repatriation of Allied prisoners of war from Italy: 21 March 1943 | The National Archives

Catalogue description: Repatriation of Allied prisoners of war from Italy: 21 March 1943

Reference: ADM 358/1508

Description: Repatriation of Allied prisoners of war from Italy: 21 March 1943

Date: 1943 Jan 01 - 1943 Dec 31

Held by: The National Archives, Kew

Former reference in its original department: CW(C) 180/43

Legal status: Public Record(s)

Closure status: Open Document, Open Description

Access conditions: Open on Transfer

Record opening date: 19 October 2012

Another thought - have you tried the Submarine Museum at Gosport?

Vitellino

 

Have a look at this thread as there is some info sources, and I have posted about 2 books that may be of interest.
"Allied POW repatriations from Europe"

 

Thanks for all the above. I intend going to the national archives in June to do a bit of digging