Arthur William S. Spokes Jawan, I take it you are looking for info to accompany his George VI Efficiency Medal: http://www.ebay.ie/itm/Goerge-VI-Efficiency-Medal-w-Territorial-Bar-Pte-A-W-S-Spokes-Oxf-Bucks-/390785044815 Jacksun's POW list places him at Stalag 344, Lambinowice, Poland : http://powvets.com/pow-search/pow-record/?pdb=83052 Sorry I don't have his battalion or date of capture, nor did he show up on ParaData or SOFO. Regards .
Good day to All, I have only just come across this wonderful site and hope that it is not too late to participate in this thread. My late Father was also in Glider No 4. Corporal Goodsir(Alexander Leslie Goodsir)also know as Harry. Over the years he appeared reluctant to talk about his WW2 service days. My eldest son did manage to discuss some aspects of his exploits in Northern France, but a lot still remains un-answered. In the early 1990's I did take him back to Oxford for a reunion, which he enjoyed so much. There weren't a lot of other comrades there but enough for him to fall back into those memories. We met another old Gentleman at the reunion, my father went up to him and said.......Where did you get to?? I thought you were a gonner!!........... as if it were just yesterday. I also took him to visit an old comrade in the Bristol area, but sadly I cannot remember his name! He went to France in 1994, again for a reunion, and this time the French awarded him and some other comrades with an "Overlord" medal and also a medallion. My father was captured, I believe, on the 7th June 1944 and eventually taken to Stalag 357 at Fallingbostell. I do not know whether he was one of those prisoners marched to the Elbe area or liberated at the camp in April of 45. If anyone can fill in any of the many gaps or can find out if there are any survivors of Glider 4 I should be grateful. Best regards Bob Goodsir
From Ancestry: A L Goodsir in the UK, British Prisoners of War, 1939-1945 Name: A L Goodsir Rank: Corporal Army Number: 5381509 Regiment: Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry POW Number: 70447 Camp Type: Stalag Camp Number: 357 Camp Location: Oerbke, Lower Saxony Record Office: Infantry Record Office, Warwick Record Office Number: 21 Its a start TD
Hi Bob, As you are probably aware Denis Edwards in his book The Devil's Own Luck gives a good account of what happened with your Father's platoon in Escoville on June 7th. It also contains a report by Corporal Bob Ambrose of 22 Platoon, D Coy. Did your Father ever complete a Liberation Report? I couldn't find him in searches on the NA, though others may have better luck. It may have depended on his state of health as to whether or not he was part of the mass of men marched out of Stalag 357 prior to it's liberation on April 16th 1945. Regards ...
Hi, Thanks for the input, most helpful. Yes Denis Edward's book is at the moment doing the rounds within our family. I really got wrapped up in Denis's narrative, and at some moments thought I was actually there with them. I am not sure that my father completed a liberation report but will now search further. I would think that perhaps there are now no survivors of the campaign, I know my father was very young at the time and would have been 100years old next year. But you never know!! Thanks again, Bob Goodsir
Hi Bob, Here is your father’s POW questionnaire from the National Archives WO 344/121/2. This is all information I have. Do you know whether he was captured at Escoville on the 7th June or before when evading capture on D-Day? Brithm
Good evening Brithm, Regret I do not have the detail of my Father's capture, but from the General Questionnaire you kindly supplied, it could appear he was captured on the 10th June, being the date he was interrogated at St Pierre. All this information is most useful in my further searches, Thank you, Regards, Bob Goodsir
Hi Ludo, Yes it is possible that after Glider 4 landed off target near the Dives River, my father and possibly other members of the group became detached from the main group and were captured then taken south to St Pierre Sur Dives for interrogation. I think, without being able to have contact with other members of the group, which is very unlikely, I will never know how far he travelled from the landing site to where he was captured. Thanks for your input, Regards, Bob
Hi, I realise its late in the day, but if you give me your email address, I can send you my synopsis of the "Glider 4" story.......... Regards, Bob Goodsir (Son of Alex L Goodsir Cpl)
Routes The troops from Glider 94 were split up following the confusion which ensued after the encounter with Germans at the Dives River Bridge on Road D27. Unfortunately Pte. Leslie Allwood in his account (WO 208/3348) does not tell us who was in his party or the route they followed south, only that they arrived in Escoville on June 7th to rejoin thier battalion. He doesn't mention anyone in his group being captured before their arrival at Escoville. "Our glider had been cast off by our tug at the wrong place; we had come down on a small bridge some distance from our objective at 104745. We were engaged by the Germans at once, but fought our way through. The party with whom I was fighting lost touch with Capt. PRIDAY, and decided to make for our second objective – the outskirts of ESCOVILLE (120711). We got here early on 7 Jun 44 and make contact with our Bn." As for the Captain Priday group we get a rough idea of the meandering route they took from the Dives Bridge to Ranville where they arrived on the evening of June 6th from the No.1 Wing GPR WD (Appendix "G") "The party walked to a farmhouse 205775 and later met some paratroops ([Cdn?] and British) at BRICQUEVILLE. Crossed river to the East, moved South, and crossed again near BASSENVILLE, through the BOIS de BAVENT and up to RANVILLE [?] had seen the Gliders landing on D Day." The coordinate for the farmhouse lands me north west of the Dives Bridge, just east of the Divette River below Cabourg, which seems quite a ways off of their intended route. At any rate they marched south down the valley crossing the Dives River twice before heading west through the Bavent Forest and onto Ranville. Needless to say, if true, that was quite the trek. Regards ...
As you probably all know Neil Barber has a chapter devoted to Glider 94 in his book The Pegasus and Orne Bridges. According to an account given by Captain Priday a group under Sgt. Barwick was stranded on the other side of the Dives Bridge. In the melee that followed the Priday party were forced to leave the area. In a later footnote from another chapter Barber says the Priday and Barwick parties were reunited in Robehomme. Captain Brian Priday - The Pegaus and Orne Bridges by Neil Barber "We got down at the side of the road as planned to check up, and I now discovered about ten or twelve of the party had failed to cross. I sent someone to the bank to tell them to cross under cover of our fire and the necessary guns were placed to cover them. This wasted a good deal of time and I sent Lieutenant Hooper and two men [the glider pilots, SSgts Lawrence and Shorter] to have a look at a little wood I wanted to get to. I then went down to the river bank to try to make touch with the other party. No answer came to my shouts. They must have withdrawn from the bridge, but I had confidence in Sergeant Barwick, who was with them." Pt. Raymond (Tich) Raynor - Forgotten voices of D-Day by Roderrick Bailey "Course, our job wasn’t to hold that bridge at all. Captain Priday said, ‘We’ve got to get back to the others as fast as we possibly can.’ There were about thirteen of us out of the platoon. The others were on the other side of the bridge and we didn’t wait for them to come back over, they couldn’t get back over, and three of them got captured. Later, they were in this house being interrogated by the Germans and one of them got a bit stroppy with the Germans and the others heard a gunshot. They’d killed him. The people from the village buried him and he’s the only soldier in that cemetery today." Footnote 16 - The Pegasus and Orne Bridges by Neil Barber "16 - At around 0230 hours the two groups of Oxf and Bucks who had been on Glider 94, arrived in Ranville and reported to Major Howard. After being split up when the firing started at the River Dives bridge, the groups, led by Captain Priday and Sergeant Barwick had met up again in Robehomme, before moving down into Ranville." Major John Howard - Forgotten voices of D-Day by Roderrick Bailey "We got to Ranville round about two o’clock. To my great delight, the first person I saw was my second in command, Brian Priday, and the missing platoon. They’d started off with about twenty-five men, they had four or five casualties on the way, but actually reached divisional headquarters with around a hundred because they were picking up Paras who’d dropped too far to the east." Unfortunately there is no mention of the Allwood party that made straight for Escoville in either of the above two books. Were they also left at the Bridge or did they splinter off from one of the two other parties in the darkness while wading through the flooded fields? Regards ...
Hi Bob I'm the cousin to the person who wrote this original post. We obviously share the same grandad. I would be very interested in reading your synopsis. My email is middxccc@gmail.com I went to Normandy this time last year and managed to find the exact bridge and area their glider came down. It's was a fair distance from Pegasus. A small non-descript bridge sorrounded by farm land, only a few small wooden crosses tied to the bridge show any sign what happened there. Appreciate your time. Marcus
Oxfordshire and Buckinghamshire Light Infantry in the Second World War 1939-1945 - The Wartime Memories Project -
