2325384 Serjeant Frank CARTLIDGE, Royal Corps of Signals & Special Air Service: POW

Army Number: 2325384
Rank: Serjeant
Name: Frank CARTLIDGE
Unit: Royal Corps of Signals ; Special Air Service

Date of Birth: 21 Jun 1918
Date of Enlistment: 24 Aug 1936
Date of Capture:
Place of Capture: Leros

 

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PART I.
GENERAL QUESTIONNAIRE FOR BRITISH/AMERICAN EX-PRISONERS OF WAR.

1. No. 2325384
RANK - SGT
SURNAME - CARTLIDGE
CHRISTIAN NAMES - FRANK
DECORATIONS -

2. UNIT (ARMY) - R. SIGNALS (1st Special Air Service)

3. DIVISION (ARMY) -

4. DATE OF BIRTH - 21/6/1913

5. DATE OF ENLISTMENT - 24/8/1936 (REG.)

6. CIVILIAN TRADE OR PROFESSION - MINER

7. PRIVATE ADDRESS - 56, WELL ST., CHEADLE, STAFFS

8. PLACE AND DATE OF ORIGINAL CAPTURE - LEROS

9. WERE YOU WOUNDED WHEN CAPTURED? - NO

10. MAIN CAMPS OR HOSPITALS IN WHICH IMPRISONED
Camp No. / Location / From / Till
STALAG IV B MUHLBERG JAN '44 - APR '45


11. WERE YOU IN A WORKING CAMP?
Location / From/ Till / Nature of Work
-

12. DID YOU SUFFER FROM ANY SERIOUS ILLNESSES WHILE A P/W?
Nature of Illness / Cause / Duration
DYSENTERY 14 days train journey ATHENS - GERMANY. Scarcity food - very little water - lice - no blankets.

12 b. DID YOU RECEIVE ADEQUATE MEDICAL TREATMENT?
NIL Brit. M.O. had insuff. supplies - Jerry NIL.


GENERAL QUESTIONNAIRE PART II TOP SECRET

1. No. 2325384
RANK - SGT
SURNAME - CARTLIDGE
CHRISTIAN NAMES - FRANK


2. LECTURES before Capture:
( a ) Were you lectured in your unit on how to behave the event of capture? (State where, when and by whom).
NO
( b ) Were you lectured on escape and evasion? (State where, when and by whom.
NO

3. INTERROGATION after capture:
Were you specially interrogated by the enemy? (State where, when and methods employed by enemy).
28 days Sol. confinement LUCKENWALDE. Bare rations. 4 times interr. Late at night or very early morn. Threatened shooting by German CAPT WILLIAMS, and confinement duration.


4. ESCAPES attempted:
Did yo make any attempted or partly successful escapes? (Give details of each attempt accurately, stating where, when, method employed, names of your companions, wherein when recaptured and by whom. Were you physically fit? What happened to your companions?)
NO

5. SABOTAGE
Did you do any sabotage or destruction of enemy factory plant, war material, communications, etc, when employed on working-parties or during escape? (Give details, places and dates.)
NO

6. COLLABORATION with enemy:
Do you know of any British or American personnel who collaborated with the enemy or in any way helped the enemy agains other Allied Prisoners of War? (Give details, names of persons concerned, camps, dates and nature of collaboration or help given to enemy).
NO

7. WAR CRIMES
If you have any information or evidence of bad treatment by the enemy to yourself or to others, or knowledge of any enemy violation of Geneva Convention you should ask for a copy of "Form Q" on which to make your statement.
(NOTE: Form Q is a separate form inviting information on "War Crimes" and describes the kind of offences coning under this title.)



GENERAL QUESTIONNAIRE PART II TOP SECRET
(continued)

8. Have you any other matter of any kind you wish to bring to notice?
I have personally seen a sentry knock down a Russian POW and after severely kicking him, drive a bayonet through his had, pinning him to the ground. The Russians were very badly knocked about in our camp. At STALAG IV B.


SECURITY UNDERTAKING
I fully realise that all information relating the matters covered by the questions in Part II. are of a highly secret and official nature.

I have had explained to me and fully understand that under Defence Regulations or U.S.A.R. 380-5 I am forbidden to publish or communicate any information concerning these matters.

Date 13th May 1945
Signature F Cartlidge, Sgt

 

See also:

• Private Papers of F Cartlidge
• Memoir (37pp ts), written by his widow, of his military service from 1936 when he joined the Royal Corps of Signals at Catterick, his training there and posting to HQ Northern Ireland Signal Company at Belfast in 1937, then to Egypt a year later, stationed initially at Port Said before moving to Mersa Matruh during the first few months of the Western Desert campaign in late 1940, staying there until May 1942 when he was posted briefly to Cyprus before joining the Signals Section of the recently created 1st SAS Regiment in North Africa at the end of the year, describing training and early operations in the Mediterranean, his capture by the Germans on Leros (Dodecanese) in November 1943 and imprisonment in Stalag IVB (Muhlberg) until the end of the war; also an account (34pp ts) of his romance with and marriage to a WAAF Corporal, Patricia Edgerton, while they were both in Cheadle shortly after the war (1945).

 

Its strange as 1 SAS had never been to Leros. Could it be possible that he was attached to the 1 SAS in the beginning of 1943 and than when 1SBS split from them in March/April 1943 that he was posted/ attached to the SBS as operator?