POW Service and Paybook's

DoB = Date of Enlistment?

 

I hadn't noticed that - maybe he joined as a (baby) boy soldier - I usually check general records on Ancestry (births/deaths etc) but haven't got round to this one yet - from a quick look I think he has a middle name of Edward and was born 1/11/13 and died 1988 - also looks like his father was killed on the Somme

 

375771 James Leonard WOOD, A coy 8th DLI captured 27/5/18 at Craonne

 

6912263 Francis George SOLLY, 1st Rifle Brigade wounded at Calais 25/5/40 and captured on 29/5/40 - he suffered splinter wounds to the back. This is the 3rd group I have to a 1st Rifle Brigade Calais POW

 

307773 Walter HUTCHINSON of 2/8th West Yorks who was taken POW 27/9/18

 

1113461 Frederick John William TURNER of 135th Field Regiment RA (again Lt Col Toosey's Field Regiment) captured at Singapore. This pair are both marked with a Japanese stamp and were the ones carried by him while a POW, considering this they are in remarkably solid condition.

This is the 4th one I have to a 135th man, not sure why this Regiment seems to come up more than others, one day I'll find a 155th (Lanarkshire Yeomanry) Field Regiment POW paybook.

 

6100268 Reginald Newell WAGSTAFF of 72nd Anti-Tank Regiment RA, part of 6th Armoured Div but attached to Blade Force for the landings in Tunisia, he was wounded and captured 4/12/42

 

Reginald was held at hospital in Piacenza according to the WO392/21 file (August 1943). Forum member vitellino may know more about this camp.

 

1697984 Stephen Reardon of 7th Coast Regiment RA, captured at the fall of Singapore, again its in decent condition considering the conditions it has been carried in, below is an interesting entry which I've seen a few times, basically saying the prisoner gave his Parole only under orders of his CO (in this case Lt Col G S Madden of 9th Coast Regiment) as in theory doing so was an offence and this was to avoid the chance of punishment once freed (I believe), I've also read that the officers only ordered this after appalling treatment of the POW's in Changi with the threat of worse if they didn't sign. Not 100% sure on his camps but looks like he worked in the Kwai Bridge area

 

912327 Robert Arthur CULLEY of 107th (South Notts Hussars) RHA who was wounded and POW 27/5/42 during the Battle of Gazala, he was possibly lucky to be captured then as about a week later the Regiment fought a rear-guard action in the Battle of Knightsbridge where it was effectively destroyed so he missed that. I've no idea why he was issued 2 replacement books on Liberation

 

Robert Culley was held at H202, the hospital camp at Lucca according to the WO392/21 file (August 1943).

 

6857751 Richard William Elmes of 11th KRRC, 23rd Armoured Brigade captured when a German patrol overran their position 6/4/44 - interesting to see a letter from his CO explaining the circumstances, I've seen this for killed but never captured

 

5051649 John Thompson of the 6th North Staffordshire Regiment who was taken POW 8/8/44

 

838727 Frederick Victor Sawkins of 115th Field Regiment RA who was taken POW with the BEF

 

M/33832 Edwin Lionel MANLEY, Indian Army Ordnance Corps taken POW at the fall of Singapore

 

5950203 Leslie John PERRY of 2nd Beds & Herts - from the casualty returns he was wounded in Italy 3/11/44, it must have been minor as he moved with the Battalion to Greece shortly after - while there he was taken POW 29/12/44 - forum member gmyles has been very helpful with giving some details behind this as below

"A Company's area in NEA SMIRNI in Athens was attacked by 50-60 ELAS at 0405 on 29 Dec 44. They were supported by mortars and some were disguised as friendly Greek National Guardsmen (GNG). Pte Brazier was killed by a stray bullet going through a window of Btn HQ. L/Cpls L Butler and E J Melbert, Ptes S H Pickard and F Smith were wounded. 15 more were taken prisoner by ELAS and vey badly treaded before being returned in a prisoner swap on 29 Jan 45 in Volos."

Quite an interesting and unusual example compared to the more normal prisoner of the German, Italian or Japanese

 

Charles David Rash DFC & Bar 42526 - he flew bomber ops in 1940/1 and 1944 earning his DFC in 1941 and his bar in 1944 - after he completed his tour in 1941 he went with 37 Squadron to the Med theatre where on his 6th Op he was sent to bomb Raschid Aerodrome home of the Iraqi Air Force as part of the attempts to disrupt the Siege of the RAF base at Habbaniya - while attempting to evade and Iraqi Gladiator he ran into AA fire and the combined effect caused him to crash land - the crew survived and were picked up by local Arabs, they gave them their escape money in an attempt to but safe passage but the Arabs attacked them and stole all their possessions - Rash suffered a fractured skull and one of the crew suffered a punctured lung. The Iraqi Army picked them up and treated them very well but the man with the punctured lung succumbed to his injuries - the rest of the crew were liberated when the Iraqi forces capitulated.

As with Perry above its another unusual example of a captor, of the masses of British POW's in WW2 I can't imagine many were held by the Iraqi Army

Thanks again to hucks216 with help identifying his squadron that narrowed down the incident and also for an interesting snippet from a book that covers the shooting down

 

3781286 Albert CLAYTON, 2/6th Queens who was captured 28/9/44 around the Castelvecchio Ridge