2657596 Reginald Richard MORRIS, Coldstream Guards & ME Commandos: POW.

Omri - IIRC the "Middle East Commandos" in 1940-41 were all administrated and mentioned in paperwork as battalions of regular units in the Delta, so that their existence be kept secret as long as possible

HOWEVER - later, when those first ME Commandos were disbanded and the men put into General Reserve for re-allocation to fill blank files and casualties, your father may have gone the other way - from the Commandos TO the Guards. Does his record have a year or date for this "anomaly"?

 

Hi,

Not wanting to jump on OMRI's toes but his relative was taken POW with Layforce in Crete 1st June 1941 .

Steve Y

 

Hi Omri,

If you go onto Special forces sub forum you will see a thread titled Layforce that was started 25th October 2012 by DavidW. There are some original docs attached that may be of interest to you.

Steve Y.

 

Well, that takes THIS -

HOWEVER - later, when those first ME Commandos were disbanded and the men put into General Reserve for re-allocation to fill blank files and casualties, your father may have gone the other way - from the Commandos TO the Guards. Does his record have a year or date for this "anomaly"?


...out of the list of possibilities at least.

 

Hi



Records in the London Archives Show my Uncle Reg Morris was in a unit called the M.E.Commando's D.B.N Lay Force we all ways new him to be in the Coldstream Guards. Army No 2657596 he was in a Prison in Dresden from June 1943 till November 1944 is there any way I can find out about the Prison In Dresden.

 

Ramacal has kindly looked up his liberation questionnaire over on your thread here:

http://www.ww2talk.com/forum/prisoners-war/49263-coldstream-guards-pow-request.html

That tells you exactly which camp he was at and when - very useful!

 

Hi

I may make mistakes as I am not sure the difference between a Stalag IVA and a prison I know Rob did an amazing job finding the information and I thank him for that but I do not understand all the difference places that are written there so I asked about the prison and I am sorry if I repeat myself. I see the mistake I have made.
Omri

 

Sorry I get confused

 

Hi

Reg joined up on the 11.11.1936 he was in Egypt. Then when he was in Sparkar Crete in 1.6.1941 that is when he was captured and his release was in the April of 1945.

Omri

 

POW record for your man.

First Name: R.
Last Name: Morris
Rank: Lance Corporal
Regt / Unit: Coldstream Guards
Soldier Number: 2657596
Pow: Yes
POW Number: 11957
Camp: Stalag XX-A
Camp Location: Torun, Poland

Stalag XX-A was the last camp he was in.

Wayne

 

Have you seen this site?

R G Freke 11Commando

Wayne

 

Omri,

Owen is giving you good advice - don't keep starting new threads as you get other members taking their time to be helpful to you by adding what is in fact duplicate info - such as POW info above from Jacksun - that you were provided with on one of your earlier threads.............

Remember there is an awful lot you can get off the internet yourself in addition to info members are putting on this site.

Aso remember to use the search box on this site.

Regards

Steve.

 

Omri you could also write to the International Committee of the Red Cross. They will give you their official list of which camps he was in and when. Possibly exactly the same as those on the liberation questionnaire, but it's another box to tick anyway.

The details are on this link:

Records of prisoners of war | British Red Cross

To apply for a record of a prisoner of war, or for more information, please write to:
Archives division and research service
International Committee of the Red Cross
19 Avenue de la Paix
Geneva CH-1202
Switzerland

I wrote to them for my husbands Grandad's records (he was also captured in Crete and was in Stalag IV-B and then Stalag IV-A), and we got the record back 11 months later, but it was worth the wait.

 

Hi,

I have contacted Omri by email and, as discussed with Owen (Admin), he is happy that I help him to try and make some progress with his enquiries into his great uncle Reg Morris.

In view of the current situation in the Middle East Omri is currently unavailable so his mother has sent me the 2 attached photographs of Reg to share with forum members.

They appear to have been taken when he was garrisoned at Mustapha Barracks, Alexandria with 3rd Coldstream Guards Nov 1937/Oct 1938 and on their return from Palestine April 1939/June 1940.

Reg looks especially youthful in the first picture.


Steve Y

 

D Battalion Layforce were based at Sidi Bishr, Alexandria before departing for Crete. They disembarked at Suda Bay, Crete late on the night of 26 May.

The entry in the war diary for 31 May, states:-

“Thus after a very fine rearguard action across the entire island, “D” Battalion almost to a man, had to be left, with orders to capitulate the following morning.”

On 1 June, after arriving back at Sidi Bishr in Egypt, only 7 Officers and 80 Other Ranks had returned. A few more returned after having escaped on small boats seized from the beaches of Crete. Further entries show that they amalgamated with A Battalion and then disbanded at the end of June.

Pages of the war diary for this period. Small difficult writing to read.