We downloaded a few free files from the National Archives today i think we got a couple of good ones ,Imperial Prisoners of War 1944 British Army full list and Free! Great!,Part file British army Prisoners of the Japanese A-D date of capture-release or death,Free!Great! Then my Grandfather downloaded WO229 titled Warcrimes Publicity and Press!..Why he downloaded this I do not know??? until I opened it that is.It starts off with mundane stuff ,clerical reports not enough pre printed forms etc etc,then it starts to give you examples of these forms which recorded captured German soldiers ,officers and War Criminals,moving on atrocities commited by the Concentration Camp guards,the original Simon Wiesenthal letter offering his services to the Allies after his liberation together with a list of war criminals,reports on the killings of USAAF crews,lack of medical aid resulting in death of crewman with a simple broken leg,Murder of Officer from 2 SAS,Mention of Q Form evidence,Atrocity reports by allied soldiers,statement of defence from Red Cross in relation to SS officer,list of 12th SS personnel named as responsible for war crimes,Military record of Dutch SS Concentration camp guard...and I`m only a third of the way through.Anyone wanting to look for themselves? The National Archives | DocumentsOnline | Image Details Kyle
Just to add even more SAS stuff further on Mising men SAS,discovery of medal on body enabling identfication,more cases of murder relating to American and British airman,reading on! Kyle
Hi, I had an enjoyable couple of hours today scan reading this file. Alot of duplication of papers so despite being almost 1300 pages long it is probably only half that length discounting the duplicates. The last couple of hundred pageslist the papers contained in the individual files created for a great number of War Crime allegations. I noted mention of Wormhoudt and Le Paradis incidents from 1940 and various atrocities against Paratroopers in Normandy in June 1944 and atrocities againat 2 SAS in eastern France in September 1944. I think that there was a TV documentary on the incident on TV last year as SAS traced those responsible in 1945. I also noted that the case of Anthony Coulthard and the other 29 who died on The Long March is also mentioned in the file with a copy of S/Sgt Aitkens statement. I dropped on mention at P743 of the "killing of 15 British soldiers of 1/5th Battalion Welch Regiment by German marines at Rethem, Germany" apparently witnessed by a Pte Parry and reported in The Times 17th April 1945. The incident is mentioned in the book "No Triumphant Procession" - The Forgotten Battles of April 1945 by John Russell. He reports that the allegation was not substantiated as soldiers allegedly killed were actually taken POW and on their release 2 or 3 days later reported that the incident did not happen. The author suggests "poor light, battle fatigue and his imagination getting the better of him" as an explanation for the account provided by Pte Parry. Steve Y PS I'm sure that if this thread had a less cryptic title it would have had more "hits". There are threads on this site about Wormhoudt and Le Paradis 1940 and Anthony Coulthard 1945. I also think the 1944 Normandy and SAS atrocities are also mentioned elsewhere.
